September 21, 2004
IMing revolution suggests broader social implications
Eric Gwinn for The Chicago Tribune takes an insightful look at how teenage kids function today and how a whole group of children is being left behind because there's still no bridge across the digital divide.
"Parents are seeing their high school teens rewiring their brains now. When the kids aren't talking on the phone, they're texting on it, and when they get home, they're IMing on the computer. Wary of this form of communication, many schools restrict cell phone use to prevent in-class chatting -- and cheating. But if the use of instant messaging is an indication,there are signs that these communication habits will stick with teens even beyond their college years.
Today's young instant messagers are doing more than communicating with to their friends. According to Pew, 49 percent of those ages 18 to 27 report that every time or almost every time they IM, they also surf the Web or play games. Thirty-one percent say they do non-computer stuff such as watch TV while they IM
So if this isn't a group of successful multitaskers, they think they are, and their skills will evolve along with the cell phones that already can surf the Web, play games, text-message, show television and download and play music.
But that evolution also means a whole group of children is being left behind because there's still no bridge across the digital divide. Chances are most of the respondents in the Pew studies were neither minorities nor from lower economic backgrounds. Low-income families are less likely to have a computer at home, and minorities are less likely to start using a computer at an early age, according to recent findings of the Kaiser Family Foundation."
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