[Air-l] teens and myspace

[Marika Lüders]

> I would expect that to have grown up immersed in a technology,
> rather than constantly working to integrate it, has a great effect on
> how one then views that technology's relationship to one's daily life
> and how one compares social interaction with/through it to other forms
> of interaction.

This is clearly why there is such an immense focus on teens and 
technology: to study how technologically mediated interaction is part 
and parcel of their social lives. Different qualitative studies seem to 
show a few of the same tendencies, as do my own study of 20 Norwegian 
teenagers between 15 and 18 (all avid users of various personal media 
such as IM, IRC [yes, still], blogs/LiveJournal, mobile phones): 1) 
online communication is hardly seen as a substitute for face-to-face 
interaction but rather as a supplement. 2) face-to-face interaction is 
still valued as more authentic (my informants' choice of concept). 3) 
Consequently youth do have a sense of stigma around online socializing 
in cases where online communication supplants face-to-face interaction. 
At least this is how I interpret my informants when they talk about all 
the benefits of using personal media (e.g. easier to admit things and 
be open, and the flexibility of online socializing), yet still 
emphasize that face-to-face interaction is their preferred mode of 
socializing. None of my informants see their own use of personal media 
as embarrassing or problematic, but believe that their online and 
mediated activities supplement their offline social lives (and are 
furhtermore beneficial for their offline social lives).

I think it is essential to remember that the history of personal media 
did not start with computer-mediated communication. Avid users of the 
telephone were hardly stigmatized, were they? Women chatting on the 
telephone were at least perceived as anything but anti-social (and how 
interesting to compare this image of "chatty women" with the 
contemplating and virtuous act of writing letters). Thankfully, online 
communication is generally no longer labeled as being anti-social, and 
the nuances and differences between forms of mediated interaction are 
acknowledged.


Marika