As I was reading the Smith study, I recalled Vince Vaughn’s opening monologue on Saturday Night Live just a few weeks ago. At one point during his spiel, he took away an audience member’s cell phone and told them it was so they could experience the moment of the show. It’s ironic that though we use cell phones to capture moments (e.g. on Facebook, Twitter, and Instragram), we have a propensity to miss the real-time experiences of those moments because we are too consumed in recording them. I’m guilty of this. Two weeks ago I was so concerned with taking pictures at the top of Diamond Head in Oahu, I almost forgot to put the iPhone away and absorb the view. It is a challenge, as evidenced by the 29% of respondents in the Pew Research study that said they turn their cell phones off for a period of time just to get a break from using it. At FedEx, we use the “Be Here Now” motto to remind ourselves to be present in the moment. All too many times people look down at their Blackberries instead of paying attention to what’s being said in a meeting or during a seminar.
In the boyd BBC interview, boyd mentioned that the interaction between youth that used to happen at the mall and the movies is now happening online. At the heart of her argument, she made the case that computer-mediated communication is not in and of itself good or bad. It’s just different. This is what we’ve talked about all semester long. Rather than focusing on whether CMC is good or bad, our efforts should be aimed at understanding how the technology is being used. In her conclusion, Baym that “there will be new communication technologies which today’s children will find extraordinary and theirs will find mundane.”
boyd also addressed privacy concerns. She explained that young people are concerned with social vulnerability, or self-presentation as I would call it. They don’t want to look bad in front of their peers or be made fun of. A 12 year olds primary goal is to look cool. Adults, meanwhile, consider their physical and psychological vulnerability. We are careful not to post things that could get us fired or information that could open us up to identity theft or other cyber attacks.