Teens and Mobile Phones

Mobile Identity: Youth, Identity, and Mobile Communication Media

By: Gitte Stald

What an interesting article to read while sitting in my class with my students reading all around me. I was quickly sucked into the article after reading the title. I loved how the author said that “the focus of this article is on the meaning of the mobile in young people’s lives” (Stald p.143). For this blog I will refer to phone instead of mobile, the author being from Europe calls it a mobile.

Mobile phones are becoming part of every student’s life these days. I teach 5^th grade and I would estimate that at least 75% of my students have phones and use them on a daily basis. I think that initially parents got the phones to stay connected to their child for various reasons including having both parents working or for emergencies. These reasons are one of the reasons why the Stald discusses in depth about the phone being mobile. You can have it with you all of the time. Its not like a computer where you only can access friends or information in certain places.

According to a recent Pew foundation study they found that “The mobile phone has become the favored communication hub for the majority of American teens.” Stald also found out that 70% of young people would rate phones as important.

Stald then goes on to discuss his second theme related to presence. Young people today could be standing right in front of you but be somewhere else. For instance they might be in the room but be texting a friend or listening to an mp3. His third theme discusses the use of a phone as a personal log. Students are taking pictures of important events with their phone and sharing them with many different people. Today’s phones can easily have Facebook or other social media sites on them. The Pew study also found out that American teens were:

• 83% use their phones to take pictures.
• 64% share pictures with others.
• 60% play music on their phones.
• 46% play games on their phones.
• 32% exchange videos on their phones.
• 31% exchange instant messages on their phones.
• 27% go online for general purposes on their phones.
• 23% access social network sites on their phones.
• 21% use email on their phones.
• 11% purchase things via their phones.

Stald’s last theme was social learning, he stated that it “may be understood as learning through social interaction and learning about social norms” (Stald p.159). He goes on to discuss how teens will use phones everywhere without disregard. Teens are learning when it is appropriate to text a friend or where and when to place a call if they are in a no cell area.

Stalds article as well as the Pew research show many examples of how important phones are in teens lives. One statistic that I am concerned about is that texting is now the number one way that young people are communicating. I wonder if this is for the good or the bad…

Article for the Pew Research student on Teens and Mobile Phone Usage.

http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Teens-and-Mobile-Phones/Summary-of-findings.aspx#footnote1

Blog 2 Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites

danah boyd (2007). "Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life." MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning - Youth, Identity, and Digital Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 119-142.

danah boyd does a wonderful job discussing how teens feel about using social networking sites such as Friendster, Myspace, or Facebook. In her article she poses some very important questions that are important to think about when looking at teenagers and social networking sites. “Why do teenagers flock to these sites? What are they expressing on them? How do these sites fit into their lives? What are they learning from their participation” Are these online activities like face-to-face friendships- or are they different or complementary” boyds primary focus was to illustrate how teens are accessing these social networking sites now. I often wonder if technology is separating us more as a people or bringing us closer together. I think that this question still really doesn’t have an answer. I see myself and have changed positions numerous times. According to boyd one of the most important reasons given to her was “Cuz that’s where my friends are.” In an earlier piece written by boyd & Ellision they give a great definition of what a social networking site is. “Social network sites are web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system.” Teens are on social networking sites to be social. They want to continue to have interactions with people all of the time. I think they like to see that they have hundreds of friends on Facebook. With these sites teens are able to truly pick who they want to be one of their “friends”. I do have reservations about social networking sites. I ask myself after watching the news about bullying occurring on these sites, or information shared on these sites that goes viral on the web. There seem to be more cases of teens committing suicide after something is said or a shown about them that might be true or not. I am still on the fence about social networking and look forward to hearing your point of view about them.

Reference:

danah boyd and Nicole Ellison (2007, October). "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13 (1), article 11.