[Air-l] teens and myspace

[Radhika Gajjala]

good point - so the distinctions they go by are not the same ones that we 
as researchers tend to go in with.

They treat EACH "space" (particularities of the interface/program) as a 
specific context with social practices.

r
At 10:04 AM 2/28/2006 -0600, you wrote:
>Hi Nancy and all,
>
>In my own work with youth online (although not with MySpace) I've
>found that more than any large distinction between online and offline
>and their relative valuing, that the youth I've studied (alll heavy
>online users) often have strong opinions/ways of valuing particular
>online practices, services, and spaces. For instance, some are
>strongly critical of different forms of netspeak, or critical of
>speedrunning in gaming, or critical and fearful of chatrooms, etc.
>Anyway, among this group of case studies the moral, aesthetic, and
>social judgements about certain online practices and spaces have been
>more pronounced than the online/offline distinction.
>
>Kevin
>
>
>
>
> >I have a question for those of you working with youth culture,
> >particularly but not just around MySpace.
> >
> >I have been interested recently by what I perceive as a gap between
> >the ways in which most of us *use* the internet socially (ie, often
> >without big issues about it) and the way we *think* about using the
> >internet socially (ie, a poor substitute for more meaningful
> >face-to-face interaction). Recently a number of adults have said to
> >me that this gap between action and perception, which they
> >acknowledge in themselves, is completely gone with teens, what with
> >myspace and all.
> >
> >My question is whether youth really perceive their online
> >communication to be completely non-problematic compared to
> >face-to-face communication, or if even amongst teens there is a sense
> >that it might be a little pathetic or embarrassing to use the
> >internet socially (even amongst those who do). Is the stigma around
> >online socializing really completely gone for youth? Of course,
> >adults always perceive kids as way better and more comfortable with
> >the net than they are, which makes me wonder if this sense that kids
> >have no sense of stigma is adult perception vs youth reality.
> >
> >Thanks for your thoughts,
> >Nancy
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>
>--
>Kevin Leander, Ph.D.
>Vanderbilt University
>http://www.vanderbilt.edu/litspace
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