What struck me about danah boyd's post about the helicopter-parenting of social media users was that the banning of Facebook forces young people "to choose between social status and parental obedience." Though I wouldn't put it exactly that way, my own parenting experience tells me she's right. My 18-year-old and 13-year-old both use Facebook, although (and quite naturally) differently, because … [Read more...] about Parenting & overparenting in the digital age
media shift
‘Cognitive surplus’ calls for more media-literacy
The information (and production) overload of the digital era creates more of everything: both high- and low-quality content coming from everybody, amateur to professional. To quote the quoter (policy pundit Adam Thierer reviewing tech pundit Clay Shirky's book Cognitive Surplus), "Shirky argues (p. 47), 'The low-quality material that comes with increased freedom accompanies the experimentation … [Read more...] about ‘Cognitive surplus’ calls for more media-literacy
Checking in on the media shift
We're experiencing a profound media shift that's shifting other things too. The signs are all around – struggling newspapers and other publishing companies, the way children gather information and learn, the burgeoning calls for school reform, the shift from consumers to users behind all of the above. We’re usually too busy to think much about long, drawn-out sea changes. But founder of … [Read more...] about Checking in on the media shift
Formspring: What’s going on around it
Last week I wrote about what's going on at Formspring. This week: what's going on around it. The problem we, all of us, are dealing with isn't mainly a Web site whose business plan did not include teens using the site for their own purposes, some harmful. I think everyone can agree that the basic problem is the nasty behavior on it. What those of us who grew up in the mass-media era struggle over … [Read more...] about Formspring: What’s going on around it
Milestone for Net safety: Hemu moves on
Hemanshu Nigam, better known as Hemu, helped MySpace weather some serious Net-safety storms since shortly after News Corp. acquired the social network site. I'm telling you this because today he launched his own company, SSP Blue, about four years to the day he became MySpace's chief security officer. I remember that time well. It was at the height of the US's predator panic, when... MySpace … [Read more...] about Milestone for Net safety: Hemu moves on