Digital Generations

by David Buckingham (Editor), Rebekah Willett (Editor)

Computer games, the Internet, and other new communications media are often seen to pose threats and dangers to young people, but they also provide new opportunities for creativity and self-determination. As we start to look beyond the immediate hopes and fears that new technologies often provoke, there is a growing need for in-depth empirical research. Digital Generations presents a range of exciting and challenging new work on children, young people, and new digital media. The book is organized around four key Play and Gaming, The Internet, Identities and Communities Online, and Learning and Education. The book brings together researchers from a range of academic disciplines – including media and cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology and education – and will be of interest to a wide readership of researchers, students, practitioners in digital media, and educators.

Genres: Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published June 21, 2006

Reviews

[Sally Sugarman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buckingham starts off asking if there is a digital generation, challenging Tapscott’s easy assertions about such a generation. This gets into the question as to what defines a generation. Buckingham says that technology changes all of us including the adults He also points out that a generation includes many different classes. Technology needs to be seen in the context of other political, economic and social developments. The concept of generation is too easy an evasion of what is really interesting which is how different people use the technology. In another essay Jenkins then addresses the controversy about violence and video games. Here again, Jenkins talks about over generalizations. Would you make a decision about books on the basis of four books of the same genre? You can not act as if all video games were Grand Theft Auto. Even there, some players make choices that lead to avoiding lawbreaking as long as possible. Players make choices. Jensen also says that the effects argument depends on a simplistic behaviorist model that does not take into account the experience and thinking process of the player. It is a good solid argument that pretty much demolishes Grossman’s claim. Mackey talks about how we construct narrative in reading and in video games. Space is important in video games. She uses Langer’s discussion about different times in narrative and what is the impact of not knowing where the narrative may go depending on the player’s decision. It is a complex argument and one worth revisiting. Ito talks about how the media are combined in Japan; the impact of Manga on the entire society is discussed, not just on the youth. There is an emphasis on the visual. We might call it convergence or intertextuality. The final chapter in this particular section is about how do we measure learning in video games. Using Activity Theory, Oliver comes up with three different levels of learning, some of it very simple and easy to measure as compared to more complex learning that has not yet sufficient evidence. This is an interesting idea and thinking about how this learning may transfer from one game to the next, much less from games to the larger world. The next section is devoted to the Internet. Each section of this book is introduced the editors. There was a somewhat new approach about the concerns relative to monitoring children’s use of the Internet. There was a disparity between the perspectives of adults and children. Two problems exist for parents. They want to respect children’s person space and children know more about the Internet than many parents do. Media is only one elements in the late modern family as parents and children try to negotiate a more democratic model. Placing the major burned of regulation on the parents may not be the best solution to a complex problem. However, it reflects society’s unwillingness to accept some responsibility. The talk is about violence and sexuality, but not about the incessant consumerism. It is what they are not willing to protect children from as well as what they want to. Also does monitoring software infantalize children by not teaching them the skills of critical thinking. What is there, what isn’t, who gains, all of these questions are ones that should be asked rather than setting up monitoring devices. The interactive nature of digital media means that “they are characterized by a user pull rather than a media push.” (115). One article reports on interviews with politically active Swedish students. Quoting Steinberg’s definition of adolescence as the second decade of life (10 to 19) is great for my book since it allows me to include SF for late elementary and middle school students. I have ordered the book on Interlibrary loan. The discussion of the kinds of communities that have evolved on the Internet is also fascinating. One article talks about Wicca and ME (What is ME? It seems to be an illness, but I don’t know what). There is also a discussion of bisexual, homosexual and transgender communities that is enlightening as young people use the Internet to explore their sexual identities. The question of the ethics of doing research with such communities is suggested, but I think it needs even deeper exploration. The researchers do get the permission of the people to quote them. However, I would feel uncomfortable going into such communities for research. The last section of the book is on the use of the media for education. An article talked about the world wide digital divide in places like South Africa where many communities do not have electricity. It also detailed some educational programs; those that failed and one that succeeded. The one that succeeded did so because it was from the bottom up and not the top down. The others had a great deal more money, but that did not assure success because the organizers did not get people buying into the programs. One needed not only educators, but the communities as a whole. Another essay discussed programs for young people who were refugees. This was an inter-nation enterprise and the common ground was Rap and Hip Hop music. The beat of rap as well as the repetition made it easy to translate. It was not so much talking about their refugee experience that was important in these music videos but about their current feelings. We do need to think about all of the displaced young people that war and poverty have imposed upon the world. How do they deal with communicating to others about their lives? The other dynamic use of technology in the classroom was having people use it for particular purposes and having students mentor each other. In this way, they learned how important verbal communication is, how it is necessary to think of your audience in order to teach and learn. Interestingly, the psychologist that people were using in this discussion of the educational uses of technology was Vygotsky. His concept of scaffolding was one reason, but the other was how he conceptualizes learning. Again the issue of multiple identities is important and something that technology provides new insight about. There were a number of articles on communities of practice where people joined with others in creating knowledge. This was evident in the material about sexuality, but also in learning the technologies. This is a valuable collection of different perspectives on how this technology is being used as a tool by young people.