Growing Up Digital
Dr Erika Pearson
OSS Seminar 24 May 2013
Three Myths
Four Issues
One Question
Myth #1: Youth Are “Born Digital”
“The first generation of “Digital
Natives” – children who were
born into and raised in the
digital world – are coming of
age, and soon our world will be
reshaped in their image. Our
economy, our politics, our
culture and even the shape of
our family life will be forever
transformed. “
-- Palfrey and Gasser
Myth #2: Youth Post Everything
(and privacy is dead)
Female (age 15): “Yeah. I
mean, I'm not going to let
somebody know something
that I don't want them to
know. Or I'm not going to tell
something to somebody that I
don't trust.”
Female (age 13): “I feel like I
kind of just have a filter in my
brain. I just know that's not a
good idea [to post revealing
content].”
Pew Internet & American Life Report: Teens, Social Media & Privacy (21 May 2013)
Curation and Performance Management
“They are all people who I know, or who go to my school in my grade and therefore are
people that I should know. Most of my close friends, my sister, and classmates. I don’t
accept friend requests from people who I don’t know. I don’t friend people who just
want it for Facebook apps and games, like Farmville.”
“I change them [privacy settings]
when I add new friends if I don’t
want that friend to be able to see
statuses and things. If I don’t want
certain friends to see something, I
make it invisible to them.
“My friends on Facebook are about
90% all people I know, friends,
family, and classmates. My rules are
only people that I know can be my
friends.”
“Because I think I deleted it [my Facebook
account] when I was 15, because I think it
[Facebook] was just too much for me with all
the gossip and all the cliques and how it was
so important to be-- have so many friends-- I
was just like it's too stressful to have a
Facebook, if that's what it has to take to stay
in contact with just a little people. It was just
too strong, so I just deleted it. And I've been
great ever since.”
“Like, I deactivated it [Facebook] because
drama, drama, drama.”
“Participating in the newest communications technologies
becomes compulsory if you want to remain part of that
culture.” David Porush
Myth #3: “Being Digital” is Universal
Digital Divides
Mnet, 2010
99 Problems by Diran Lyons (Explicit!)
Issue #1: Copyright
Criminalizing creativity?
-- impacts on the future
information economy
Copyright stifling ‘learning by
doing’?
Is corporate approaches to
copyright a dying model?
Pastiche, briccolage and remix?
Issue #2: Privacy
Do we still expect privacy? Do we have a right to privacy?
Tumblr just sold for US$1.1B – what did they buy?
Privacy and personal information as commodities
Global marketplaces and
data mining
Digitization of information
what is it worth, and to whom?
Issue #3: Identity
(Resisting) Geolocation and ‘Legal
Identities’
Minimyth: the “real”
Anonymity, Nomymity,
Pseudonymity and Obscurity
Safety in Numbers?
Reclaiming Granulated and
Partitioned Identities and Social
Performances
Issue #4: Friendship
Networks as Commodities
As social good
As reinforcing our
worldview
(information overload and
confirmation bias)
Social ties, new ideas, and
the wisdom and stupidity of
the crowds (GIGO)
One question