Are Parents More Internet Savvy Than Teens?
from the not-really dept
The headline about a new study concerning how parents and teenagers do things on the web suggests that, contrary to popular belief, parents are more tech savvy than their teenaged children. The details, however, don’t actually say that. What the study does show, is that teens tend to get bored and give up on poorly designed websites, while parents tend to take it slow and force themselves to go through the whole thing. That doesn’t sound like internet-savvy — that just sounds like teenagers have a shorter attention spam and that they’ve learned it’s not worth wasting time on badly designed websites (which might actually suggest they’re more internet savvy). That doesn’t make for as good a headline though.
Comments on “Are Parents More Internet Savvy Than Teens?”
Internet and Epidemiology
Just wait till epidemiologists get their claws on internet usage studies, which shows that certain ethnic groups or socioeconomic cohorts suffer from lower internet skills, therefore decreased economic opportunities. Then there will be massive government intervention, internet regulatory commissions, e-mail taxes, and licenses for internet use.
Even the most rabid free-market ideologue will, I think, agree that restrictions on tobacco advertising toward children is a good thing. The next step could be restrictions on advertising of fattening foods, given that the food industry has turned so many of us into pigs that drain vast health care resources and negatively impact the economy.
No Subject Given
…attention spam…
just talking about this
This weekend i was discussing 8th graders and the internet with a junoir high teacher/network admin here. he said that though they know how to get online, they really don’t know how to “use” the net. his class is about using search engines to do research and he has to force his students to do actual net research instead of google a term and use the first result as the answer to the question. he said its amazing how naive his students are.
No Subject Given
Yes of course!
They are the last generation with minds unpolluted by post-american-spirit-propaganda and while they made less wealth for themselves than their parents, the infrastructure for the current generation makes it impossible for them to acquire the skills needed to rank as high as their parents did when we compare skills accross generations or the world.
current news has http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/01/31/students.amendment.ap/index.html .. but speak to any interviewer or school counselor. You may laugh at me using the word propaganda, but when you hear these people use it, you might get a little freightened.
After all, when the current trends point us towards a future as shown here http://www.adcritic.com/interactive/view.php?id=5927 you, as a kid, might just infer that there’s no point in being savy.
Re: No Subject Given
Hahahaha. And laugh I will.
Rather, maybe there’s no point in learning how to spell “frightened” or “savvy” or why punctuation may have been invented.
ahh Nielson
I’m only young, though past teenage-hood.
It amazes me to think Nielson was making really ugly pages that can’t validate to the standards they adhere to, probably since I was eating plastiscene at playgroup.
http://www.nngroup.com/
http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http%3A//www.nngroup.com/
Congratulations
on an excellent observation.
Just another cycle
This is just another cycle as this generation grows up with the technology being ubiquitous. It’s just another tool for them, they don’t care how it works. Much like any sort of tech that comes out. Like electricity, cars, etc. How many people can tell me how a combustion engine works? Or what exactly happens when you flip that light switch on? If they’re not in the ‘industry’ many people don’t know or care. Why should they care? They flip the switch, the light comes on, what more do they need to know? These kids simply treat the internet like we treat other tech we take for granted.