Adolescents and New Media

My nephew has become my "study subject" in that so much of what we study and discuss when talking about adolescent education I tend to tie back to him and his experiences in school. Like many adolescents, he has had successes and failures. I know that most people brag about the intelligence of their family, but he is also one of the smartest 13 year-olds I know-sometimes to his discredit.   Regardless of the fact that he is family, I utilized him and his experiences both in and out of school as the subject of the interview in this module.  His statement and what I learned was at parts surprising as well as what one may assume.  

When I asked him how much time he thought he spent daily utilizing modern media, he ball parked it at 1-2 hours. When I questioned that, I mentioned you have to consider all the time you spend on the internet, gaming, your phone, texting, checking messages, and social sites-everything, he thought long and hard about that and decided it was probably closer to 3 or 4 hours every day, maybe more.  Between classes, after school, evenings, waiting after extracurricular activities, he always had a connection to others, and was always using it when he reflected a bit more on it.

He directly stated that he communicates with his friends regularly via text.  When I was growing up, we used to write notes among friends, and pass them in the hall or in classes.  Today, this has evolved to teenagers having phones of their own and texting to each other both in and outside of class.  Very little communication is done by calling a friend anymore.  Hanging out is now a text, asking each other what is up or want to hang out; it is not calling to see if you want to come over.

Digital media seems to be a part of his life in so many ways-from availability of homework assignments online, to re-cap of lesson plans, to sports schedules and safety communications, media has started to govern his life.   In school, teachers are using the internet to make their lessons and assignment readily available to the students, as well as due dates and areas to communicate with the teachers.  Both students and parents have the ability to go online and track the progress of their children in specific classes, no longer having to wait for the mid marking period reports, or until notification is made to a parent for ongoing issues.  In addition to reporting, activities involving the internet, blogs, writing activities, and publishing to sites is readily available to students.   Some of the students dislike this, as they feel their every move is being watched, but at the same token, they use it as a tool to gauge their own progress, and address their work accordingly.    

While he certainly does use it for entertainment, but he also uses media for reference.  It isn’t all about games and fun, it is about informing and being informed. From the school related tasks to the social part of it, it has become the best way to inform of cancellation, get feedback from friends (sometimes family too).  While he is not much of an official blogger, commenting with his friends and actively posting assignments while creating dialogues in learning forums are requirements. 

Critical Media and Deconstruction

When it comes to advertising, organizations appear to depend on the fact that while watching TV or listening to the radio, we do want to critically evaluate what we see or hear.  We are programmed to be “led” to make a decision as a consumer and not to ask questions.  As a media changes the medium from which it works, we are influenced and massaged into making decisions as consumers.   While the medium of media has continued to evolve, the way we respond to evolves as well. There is no way to predict how consumers will react or engage with any given advertisement.  I was interested in exploring a bit more of McLuhan’s theories on media and people.  His theory states any great new medium of communication alters the entire outlook of the people using it.  My understanding of education and the way that we present material to be learned is that we should be altering the way we present it-not only to embrace evolving technology and develop skills to manage that new technology, but also to be able to critically analyze the response and mode of delivery.  What he challenges is the idea that marketing and sales is not pushing a product, it is selling a medium.  The medium from which they are communicated become part of us.  This is evident in how dependent we are on the technology that surrounds us every day.  It isn't necessarily the messages in the medium that drive us to it, it is the medium itself-the media.  Moving information is at the forefront of media-not selling products, but communicating and processing information.  Implied in parts of that is the advertising itself. Our job as educators and teachers is to utilize the medium’s, as they evolve, to push information back out to the public, the future consumers as well as the future citizens.  It is through evolving media that these consumers and citizens will become informed of relevant issues, challenges, tools and concepts.  Along with this comes the challenge of validating the information, regardless of how it is presented to us. If we have multiple means of getting the information, it is probably safe to assume that all the information out there is not accurate, or in some cases versions of the truth.  Today information is available almost instantaneously, and as such we have opinions of that information almost as fast, based on whatever information has been presented to us at the time.   Media should take some responsibility in teaching how to understand the information presented, but individuals also need to take responsibility for learning critical media literacy. As we are a global village, more so now than when McLuhan’s theories were evolving, we can no longer be limited by cultural and operational influences.  These boundaries, though lessened with the evolving media, their influence is still apparent on a local scale. Walking into a school one realizes the value of mobile media, walking into a business one values various electronic media, walking into a coffee shop one values the media of the spoken word, but it with music or a newscast. As we examined current advertisement this week, it is apparent that there are various implied meaning buried in advertising, from the appeal to emotion, to the characters, to the colors, to the branding of the merchandise.  It is everyone’s responsibility to understand both the limitations and values in a global world that each of these mediums present.