My son arrives home from high school, throws his backpack on the floor, proceeds to walk straight up to his room (sometimes saying hello) and plops down at his desk, NOT to do homework. On his desk sits a computer, the purr begins, windows light up to YouTube, Instant Messaging, Games, Sports scores, and whatever else he is interested in, definitely multi-tasking. The afternoon activities are now in full swing.
Yes, I may be considered the bad parent allowing my son to have a computer in his room. He does have parental controls on the computer which he complains about frequently. Now enter a newly released study, which may be to the dismay of most parents and finds kids are learning from their time on the computer. Chill out, parents: Time online teaches kids important skills, study finds – San Jose Mercury News.
During the teen computer activity research study they conducted interviews, studied diaries, convened focus groups and collected nearly 10,500 profiles on sites such as Facebook and Neopets. This $3.3 million study, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, found that youths use online networks to extend friendships, acquire technical skills, learn from each other, explore interests and develop expertise. This all takes “ongoing maintenance and negotiation.” The participants that conducted the interviews are from University of California-Berkeley and University of Southern California.
Why is this such a big deal? Personally I think most parents that are afraid of the internet don’t understand the internet and this fear extends to their children in counter productive ways. It was found that kids on-line, are learning to be “competent citizens of the digital age”. The internet is not going away, so as parents we need to learn how to work with it and talk to our kids “intelligently” about what they are doing.
How do our teens feel about parental computer controls?
The study found that youths perceive erecting barriers — like limiting computer time — “as raw and ill-informed exercises of power.” And teens, being teens, develop “workarounds,” ways to subvert those barriers thrown up by parents and schools.
Instead, researchers suggested, parents need to appreciate kids’ social interactions with their peers and recognize their children’s expertise. Then “new media practices can be sites of shared focus rather than anxiety and tension.”
The parental divide of the past comic books, TV, Video Games and now Social Networking on the comuter. Hopefully this to will pass with no permanent scars. Will you change your thinking? There is evidence that kids are engaging in behaviors online are no riskier than what they would be doing offline.
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