The point of Pesce’s piece, however, was a bit different in my opinion, and this is where I’m not quite sure of my thoughts. First, he correctly identifies that to be a digital citizen is far different than the 20th century of a citizen. His proposed solution, however, is to gradually increase access to the net, all the while teaching (or imposing?) 20th century values on students. In fact, in his mind I think there still is a vision of a hierarchical relationship between the teacher and the student which I’m not sold that is the case. I seem to be hopping from industry to industry every several months, and the playing field is being flattened at the moment.

Question to ponder: if you could be given access to all of the world’s information at age 5, would that be a good thing or bad thing?

They have grown up with myspace/facebook as an intimate part of their social identities. Having their pictures posted, wall posts, and custom wallpapers as markers of their personality certainly influenced their conceptions of their social world. Those like my brother who is now 15 has been using myspace for 3 years, since 12, a key period in social development. This integral communication tool no doubt helped connect people in many ways.

A pitfall that the younger generation faces as a result of these technological developments is as follows:

These internet based social organizations are detached from reality to a certain degree. They are a shared virtual space of conceptions about the social fabric of our society. It is very easy for myths and illusions about the social world to propagate themselves on a medium in which there is no way to verify the truths that people are presenting about themselves and the social world. The these internet social tools allow an assumption to become a truth in the minds of those involved.

For example-Someone writes on their profile page what their interests are, lets say:

“Laughing, walking on beach, hooking up with boys, Twilight.”

OR (for a guy)

“Basketball, Lil Wayne, Halo3, chillin”

Those reading this have no way of knowing what motivated such comments and whether or not they are true—because people display what they want other people to see. Ignored are the quirkier sides of people’s personality that they are afraid to show. And those reading these profiles have no way of knowing if this is true. Consider if you have a circle of 5 girls and every one of them shares an interest, or, more subtle, a picture or wallpaper that is the same. Then, new friends will perceive this similarity across the group and ASSUME “oh, this must be the way it is”. Yet, if we assume that on myspace and facebook, people are not entirely forthcoming about who they really are, then illusory norms circulate through social circles like wildfire, therein becoming a norm, whether the group is aware of it or not.

Moreover….

The manipulation of one’s image for the purpose of gaining friends is learned at an earlier age as a result of these applications. And this social awareness, while in some ways an aspect of intelligence—-Is part of what is crushing us, humanity, at this time. People are terrified to express their true feelings in public, to display who they really are and what they REALLY think. And perhaps in Victorian England that is understandable. But now…is time to break out of that old box and move on. And I see that this technology may be add a layer of socialization that further entrenches everyone in a limited set of stereotypes, which they will then be condemned to acting out for the rest of their middle school, high school careers, therein stunting other forms of development.

I went out on a limb there but I hope the point was made clear

Fairman