Today we will be discussing the pros and cons of how social media effects the youth and also the aim. The activity will be based on how creative the groups can be in bringing ideas to known social media websites!

In chapter 7 of Its Complicated by Dana Boyd, the main topic being addressed is how closely connected today’s youth is with technology, more so the media. Two terms that are used within this chapter are “digital natives” and “digital immigrants.” A digital native is someone who was born in an era where advanced technology and media as always been around for them. The natives are also more capable of understanding new technologies. Where as on the other hand, a digital immigrant is someone who is an adult , maybe from a matured age group, that was born before the new technologies and would most likely have a harder time understanding them.

Personally, I would definitely agree that kids these days are digital natives to media just based off how young you will see a child working an iPad. I myself could be considered part of the digital natives because of the amount of technology that was around and the new technologies that were being produced. I also would agree that digital immigrants do seem to have a harder time understanding new technology, however, depending on how old someone is can determine how much faster they would be able to understand but would probably not be fully updated or involved most new technology activities.

Boyd also brought attention to the reason why the youth of today is more technology savvy is due to the youth basically creating the next new and best thing within and for the media/social media. This seems like a valid statement in my opinion because since the youth are the ones understanding the most recent and new technology, they would be the ones to repost, retweet, or upload content that they agree is what the interest is at that time.

In this chapter the author uses two interesting terms, one called “digital natives” and one called “digital immigrants.” She describes “digital natives” as teenagers who grew up in the era where the internet has always existed. “Digital immigrants” on the other hand are adults who are supposedly less capable of developing those internet savvy skills and people who grew up in the era of overhead projectors and film strips. I find the term digital native interesting and I do agree that most teens are digital natives even the little kids. I have little cousins who don’t even interact at family functions, they just sit there on their iPad. Most of the time you don’t even have to teach them how to use it, it’s like they just automatically know. Sometimes they even teach the adults how to use certain technology.

In a way I feel like I can relate to “digital immigrants” only because I did grow up in the era where technology wasn’t as fancy as it is now. When I was younger I actually played outside with my friends, had to actually call my friend’s house phone if I wanted to talk to them, and all of my teachers used overhead projectors. I grew up in an era where social media and technology was just starting to get popular. I appreciate the fact that I was able to experience life before technology took over.

Based on the reading, “Its Complicated”, teens whom are raised in a technological environment are considered “digital natives”.  But adults are considered “digital immigrants” because they weren’t raised in a technological environment and were not raised to adapt with technology at a young age. As we see now kids at the age of 3 are holding tablets and downloading apps. Where as for example my mom has a hard time accessing and using apps on my phone. I remember having blackboards and eraser boards. Then around middle school the projector was brought about. Then around high school, we used smart boards. So for me its easy to adapt to the changes and upgrades in technology. Although I don’t use social media networks because, I find it to have a more negative than positive impact.  But that’s my opinion not a fact.  Many teens suffer from social media and have been enslaved to being someone they aren’t, just to fit in the society we are in. In the text, it states “The rhetoric of “digital natives,” far from being useful, is often a distraction to understanding the challenges that youth face in a networked world. ”  Which is true, the youth does face a lot in this social digital world called “social media”.

Also, in the documentary, the beginning starts with teens saying all they want is to be “liked” and social networks make money off of them.  And the “like”, “tweet”, “follow”, “friends”, the more a teen has these the better they feel. So it has become a currency, like stated in the documentary.  The more you have these the richer you feel and the more popular and famous you get. But most of all social media gives teens a voice and makes them feel like the exist. Which is a good thing, when it comes to current conflicts such as teachers having guns. The youth has been active on social media and made their voices heard. And surprisingly, the youth have more power to change than adults. The youth is savvy, ambitious, creative, and strong and social media is their key.

What was scary and awing was when around 48 minutes in the video, “Generation Like” , they relate the youth and sponsors like the movie “The Hunger Games”.  As in the hidden game masters in the Hunger Games is social media. And the sponsors are big market companies. And that it rips people apart, and being put in an arena to be forced to survive on their own. And that having having ratings promotes you to having sponsors.  In order to get high ratings and to stay alive you need to get people to like you. This is dangerous, this is what causes most of the youth to be enslaved without acknowledging that they are even being consumers and marketers.

Today’s Youth as the article states grew up around technology, now a days you see 3-5 year old children use smartphones and tablets before they know how to read. I am not much older than those children and I too grew up around developing technology however I still remember the transition from the projectors to the Smart board and the flip phones to the smart phones. The article calls these teens that have grown up with this technology is called “digital natives”, he mentions that these teens range in their knowledge of media from those who are creating more technological advances to those who do not know the difference between a web browser and the internet.  Which really means that it does not matter whether you grew up in it or while it was being developed, it is just a matter of adapting to it and learning it, cause technology  doesn’t just come natural its something you have to learn.

TODAYS YOUTH AND THE MEDIA

The youth today are very savvy with current technology and the Internet.  I believe they can do a lot of things that older personas can’t do. I’m not saying that older people won’t be able to do certain things younger people can do like teenagers and young adults as they can learn.  There were some things that I had no idea about like how to work certain features on Instagram and apps that help you manage your Instagram account. It is true that adults don’t really have that skill set like younger folk with regard to knowing what’s hot out. In the reading Literacy, are Today’s Youth Digital Natives the author said, “From this perspective, teens are “digital natives,” and adults, supposedly less knowledgeable about technology and less capable of developing these skills, are “digital immigrants.”  (Boyd, Pg. 176) I agree with this. I believe that teens are “digital natives” and we are “digital immigrants.” Today’s youth totally understand all things Internet and computers. Teens thrive on social media and so do adults but that world is more of an oasis for teens and young adults than anything. Therefore, they know the latest fads with technology and the latest apps and the digital immigrants find out about things much later and half the time don’t know what to do with the latest gadgets. For example, I brought an apple watch and had my son show me all the cool things. Yes, I can google and find out but I knew to go straight to my son who showed me quickly what I could do as he is a “digital native.”

Now on the flip side I also agree that even though teens know the latest techies they are not that bright when it comes to things like watching for viruses while navigating the Internet. They don’t care nothing about things like that which is important. The author in the article said, “I also met teens who couldn’t recognize spam” or they “don’t know the difference between a web browser and the Internet.” (Boyd Pg. 177) These issues are mostly true.   However, an older person,  “Immigrants” can get nervous still of your children navigating online with predators and if they know how to handle themselves. The article talks about how teens need to learn about media and computers which is accurate. If you pay attention to most youth when they use computers their knowledge a lot of times is pretty basic. In the article it was stated, “Few teens have a basic understanding of how the computer systems they use every day work.” (Boyd Pg. 182) This is because they only have light functions which is writing for school, researching for school work and surfing the net and even with that is elementary. So, it’s cool to be a “digital native” but I think it’s even cooler to be “digital immigrant” because the latter have more knowledge which goes a long way than knowing how to work the latest apps.

On March 22nd I assigned the class an activity. The activity was to split up into four groups and explain different images using different traits and characteristics of New Media, What I had hoped to accomplish was to prove that New Media could only be learned and taught when interacting with it and also to be able to identify the traits of New Media

I felt that the activity was successful because most of the groups were able to use all eight traits to explain their image. It didn’t take any lesson planning to teach it either which proved that by interacting with the media they were able to teach it.

I learned a few things from the activity including that people take Disney music and turns it into a club mix.  It also reinforced my understanding of the characteristics of New Media.

I would take this further by comparing lessons taught about New Media using a text book and lessons taught by people who interact with the media and compare the results of those learning from it.

After reading the articles, I see how things change for media culture. The more technology we have, the easier it is obtain information. Think about it. We all get information nowadays from videos, articles, pictures and so on. We are all presented with the same information so it’s easy to get it as soon as it’s global. With the media, there’s a great example I like to use which is the Hip-Hop culture. With the media, it has shown that hip hop culture is now considered popular culture. It’s the most popular music, it has it’s impact on language, clothing, art, etc. The majority is partaking in the hip hop culture and it’s all because of the media. It’s what we see everyday and it’s what we hear. Even athletes take apart in it as well. Lebron James usually posts Instagram videos of him promoting artists with new music to help them out with marketing and exposure. It’s how things go now. The easy access is taking for granted and I think it’s because we are so used to receiving everything at a fast pace. Other countries don’t have the perks that we have to look up what we want on the internet. A lot of other countries either don’t have the technology or just have restrictions due to their government. In the United States the government will let us know what they want us to know but you can literally find almost anything you need to know on the internet.

Media will keep on changing in worldwide settings. The way of life will dependably lock on as TV, radio and the web changes worldwide and these progressions will go on path into the future and ideally, awesome things will occur inside all societies that can be passed on from age to age. I could identify with the current week’s themes since I felt that it identified with things I need to do later on and my profession way. I found the perusing about Media Literacy to be particularly fascinating. We live in an atmosphere where Media Literacy is a need in the consistently changing work power thus the way we view and show media education must change too. I discovered fascinating to show Media Literacy we need to associate with it and utilize it in various ways.Eight characteristics of the new Media Landscope, I saw that it was essentially supporting what was talked about in the primary article. A couple of illustrations are given by Henry Jenkins, the writer of this article, clarifying how and what the web is being utilized for now. One attribute specified was allocation. This characteristic depends on the fact that it is so natural to duplicate, repost or quote different people groups pictures and recordings from their page. Another quality that was discussed was organized. In this piece of the article, Jenkins just talks about how every web-based social networking stage is associated in one way or another.”does globalization mean we will end up one culture” was extremely fascinating. The author discusses the likelihood of globalization transforming into a homogeneous culture. He utilizes Starbucks for instance. He states how every year there’s new indistinguishable stores some close indistinguishable espressos, morning cappuccino is the same regardless of whether you are tasting it in Tokyo, New York or Bangkok. Something as basic as that unites us internationally. He likewise goes more inside and out and discusses innovation being a reason that we end up one culture.Although I do concur with the thought that the movement of media and innovation has had a critical impact in joining different societies, I don’t predict the world getting to be one homogeneous culture as a result of it.