Ay, carumba! Via Ms. Cornelius, comes this survey:
One American parent in every five believes kids in the home are spending too much time on the Internet, though most parents say the online activities haven’t affected grades either way.
Um….what exactly is the problem here? They might be blogging, they might be IMing, they might be on Flickr (like my kid), they might be gaming. Who the heck cares if their grades aren’t dropping and they’re otherwise normal teens? Danah Boyd rightly pointed out recently that kids meet online because it’s one of the few places they CAN meet.
As Ms. Cornelius points out, parents are paying for the access and the computer, so why are so many complaining? My theory goes like this: The parents that respond that their kids are online too much (despite no adverse or positive effect on grades) are buying into the hype that the media loves to indulge in about the ‘dangers of the ‘Net’.
There are times where I feel like our zealotry to raise successful, achieving kids creates an oppressive, overprotective environment. This is one of those times. Give the kids a break, teach them to practice “safe Net”, give them the tools to do so (e.g., anti-virus, firewalls, etc) and let them have at it. Or even better, get involved in some (but not ALL) aspect of online life with them.
The other piece of this study that I thought was sad was this:
Of the 22 percent of Americans who do not currently use the Internet, more than one-fourth are former users who dropped out.
“Almost nobody drops out out of dissatisfaction,” said Jeffrey Cole, director of USC’s Center for the Digital Future. “The reason most people drop off is they change jobs or their computer breaks.”
But more than half the former users – the most ever – have no intention of returning online. Overall, 60 percent of nonusers have no plans to go online within the next year.
I would like more detail about the 60 percent of nonusers that have no plans to go online. Is it really because they don’t have access to a computer, or is it economic? This is why I think there should be some mechanism for everyone to have easy Internet access – and not just through the library, where internet access is largely viewed by occasional visitors the way microfiche machines are.
Update: Compare this article with the one I linked at the top for a shining example of how the same study can be presented in an entirely negative, or positive light. Amazing.
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