Growing up with internet

US, Japanise "digital natives"

[Tastatura]

NPR radio just ran a pretty interesting piece titled "Growing Up Online" on their "On The Media" show.
Maybe not novel, but pretty informative comparison how "kids" who grew up with internet see the world.

Also, nice comparison of how youngsters in Japan see and use (mobile) internet in comparison to U.S. (those little Japanese girls had a revolution and everyone showed up :) )

[onthemedia.org...]

"A whole generation of children has grown up connected to the Internet. Berkman Center for Internet & Society director John Palfry calls these kids “digital natives.” Palfrey argues in his book"..."that they see the world in a profoundly different way than the rest of us."

[callivert]

Sorry to be a wet blanket on this, but I am always skeptical of these claims that the younger generation sees things in new and profoundly different ways. (the implication is usually that their way of seeing is better, more insightful).

People seem to always be saying that about the younger generation. They certainly said it about the boomers in the 60's, and pretty much about every generation since.

I think it's great that young people grow up in a world where they have access to so much more information and a wide variety of great forms of entertainment.

However, the sun keeps rising, the world keeps turning, and kids today have all the same battles that we faced. Love, sex, social acceptance, making money, choosing a career, rebelling against then reconciling with your parents, alcohol & drugs, and learning to grow up and carve your own path in the world.

[kaled]

There's only so much time for learning and room for knowledge. If kids know more about some things, they probably know less about others.

In the UK, schools use computers virtually all day, but the simple truth is that children's academic knowledge is less than what was typical 20 years ago and their understanding of computers is mostly pitiful. Ok, they may be confident when it comes to using computers, but fixing things that go wrong or solving problems - forget it.

Kaled.