Teens Tech Savvy, But Still Need Guidance
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By Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 02/24/2010
Most teens know their way around a PC, laptop, or cell phone—but this digitally native generation still needs the occasional lesson on how to use technology safely so they can create and then share what they’ve developed with others.
Such is the lesson of this year’s Teen Tech Week, a national event sponsored by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), whose message is Learn, Create, Share. Public and school libraries will hold workshops, online discussions, and other activities from March 7 to 13 to bring more attention to teens and their digital knowledge.
“Libraries have a role in how teens use technology, and how this technology can have a positive effect on their lives,” says Linda Braun, president of YALSA and an educational technology consultant. “Teens use everything from Wikipedia to Google Docs to learn, and as part of their learning they get to create and then get to share what they’ve created.”
However, once they’ve learned how to engage with these different digital media, it’s important, says Braun, that students understand the ramification of how to share that data safely, especially as they hit their teen years when children ramp up media use.
Students between the ages of 11 and 14 increase their media exposure to 11 hours and 53 minutes a day, versus 7 hours and 51 minutes for 8- to 10-year olds, according to YALSA. And 64 percent of all teens between 12 and 17 create online content, with 47 percent of those online posting images in shared spaces.
Understanding what that can mean later in their lives is key, especially as colleges occasionally do Google searches on their applicants, and employers can check out a party on Facebook.
Luckily, Braun believes librarians have had an easier time in recent years reaching students—often because technology itself is more common, and so discussions about how to use digital media comes up more naturally. Also, teens now hear more stories from older friends in high school—and those in college—of someone not getting a job because of something they posted online. And while Braun knows that librarians are critical to the conversation on safe sharing, she knows that sometimes the best lesson is one from a peer.
“When is it safe to share, who do I want to share with, and if what I am sharing is appropriate for who I want to share with are part of these conversations,” she says. “However, we can tell the stories, but it won’t have the same affect as when they hear these stories from other college kids. That’s when it becomes real.”
