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 _______________________________________________ The air-l@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- Kevin Leander, Ph.D. Vanderbilt University http://www.vanderbilt.edu/litspace