Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project

This 58-page white paper summarises findings of interviews of youth and young adults on youth media use. It was written by researchers from the University of Southern California, University of California, Irvine, and the University of California, Berkeley, United States (US), through funding from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

From the research summary: "[Researchers] found that social network and video-sharing sites, online games, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures of youth culture. The research shows that today’s youth may be coming of age and struggling for autonomy and identity amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression."

The study examined friendship-driven practices based on the finding that youth use online media to extend friendships and interests. Young people use online networks to extend their friendships beginning with the familiar contexts of school, religious organisations, sports, and other local activities. Instant messaging or mobile phones gives them the option of private and nearly constant contact. They also access more public ways of maintaining friendship networks through social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Researchers found that youth engage in peer-based, self-directed learning online. "In both friendship-driven and interest-driven online activity, youth create and navigate new forms of expression and rules for social behavior....By exploring new interests, tinkering, and 'messing around' with new forms of media, they acquire various forms of technical and media literacy.... Some youth 'geek out' and dive into a topic or talent..." Geeking out is highly social and engaged because, in order to immerse themselves in a subject, youth turn to specialised knowledge groups and adults with specialised knowledge.

Among the implications of the research are the following:

• Adults should facilitate young people’s engagement with digital media.
  
• Given the diversity of digital media, it is problematic to develop a standardised set of benchmarks against which to measure young people’s technical and new media literacy.
  
• In interest-driven participation, adults have an important role to play for youth using new media, particularly those accessing specialised knowledge.
  
• To stay relevant in the 21st century, education institutions, according to this research, need to keep pace with the rapid changes introduced by digital media.
  

The authors issue the following queries concerning the relationship of online resources and education: "What... would it mean to really exploit the potential of the learning opportunities available through online resources and networks? What would it mean to reach beyond traditional education and civic institutions and enlist the help of others in young people’s learning? Rather than assuming that education is primarily about preparing for jobs and careers, they question what it would mean to think of it as a process guiding youths’ participation in public life more generally."

The researchers conclude that "Participation in the digital age means more than being able to access 'serious ' online information and culture; it also means the ability to participate in social and recreational activities online. In addition to economic barriers, youth encounter institutional, social, and cultural constraints to online participation. Networked publics provide a context for youth to develop social norms in negotiation with their peers. Youth are developing new forms of media literacy that are keyed to new media and youth-centered social and cultural worlds. Peer-based learning has unique properties that suggest alternatives to formal instruction."