More Ghosts/Different Machines
Posted by Well Read Hostess at 1/15/2008 7:14 PM and is filed under What I Know About Your Teenager That You Don't 
I wrote the earlier Ghost in the Machine entry earlier today and it's been bothering me ever since. I am feeling a little schizophrenic about technology and the ethereal web universe these days. I don't disagree with...myself, but there's more to what I'm thinking about adolescents and technology. Again, it's really hard for me to convey my thoughts about this subject without sounding like a Luddite loser who just doesn't get it. However, once more into it:
Your average adolescent spends more time online that his/her parents know. Kids see things, whether on MySpace, Facebook, personal web pages, via email, whatever, that would surprise most adults. A lot of this content doesn't phase kids...they're completely immune to any wonder or shock at images and ideas most of us found surprising, at least, when we were their age. It's why Catcher in the Rye doesn't have the same impact on 10th graders as it used to. Fifteen year old, disconnected from his parents, depressed, drinks too much, doesn't understand his own sexuality, wandering around alone in a city, uses bad words. Whoop-de-do. Some adolescents, and adults for that matter, have navigated this fast-forwarded childhood pretty well. For some kids, though, the message is that they are supposed to think and feel at a level of sophistication that they simply are not developmentally ready for. They think they are supposed to think in a way that they do not think! And thinking about this creates a gap between intellect and emotion. Because adolescents are not generally known for their dazzling metacognitive ability, this gap leaves them hanging...in mid-air between "supposed to" and "able to." I really believe that this is screwing kids up.
OK. So I feel a little better now.
Your average adolescent spends more time online that his/her parents know. Kids see things, whether on MySpace, Facebook, personal web pages, via email, whatever, that would surprise most adults. A lot of this content doesn't phase kids...they're completely immune to any wonder or shock at images and ideas most of us found surprising, at least, when we were their age. It's why Catcher in the Rye doesn't have the same impact on 10th graders as it used to. Fifteen year old, disconnected from his parents, depressed, drinks too much, doesn't understand his own sexuality, wandering around alone in a city, uses bad words. Whoop-de-do. Some adolescents, and adults for that matter, have navigated this fast-forwarded childhood pretty well. For some kids, though, the message is that they are supposed to think and feel at a level of sophistication that they simply are not developmentally ready for. They think they are supposed to think in a way that they do not think! And thinking about this creates a gap between intellect and emotion. Because adolescents are not generally known for their dazzling metacognitive ability, this gap leaves them hanging...in mid-air between "supposed to" and "able to." I really believe that this is screwing kids up.
OK. So I feel a little better now.
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