[LM_NET] Fw: [YALSA-L:5216] Libraries and Teens Meet @ Technology: the New Pew Study

[Barber Ray <rbarber@PENNCHARTER.COM>]

I thought many of you would find this of interest.


Dr. Raymond W. Barber
Director of Libraries
The William Penn Charter School
3000 West School House Lane
Philadelphia, PA. 19144
rbarber@penncharter.com
215-844-3460 x168 (office)
215-850-6678 (cell)
215-844-5537 (fax)
215-843-4024 (home)
---------- Forwarded Message -----------
From: Anthony Bernier <abernier@slis.sjsu.edu>
To: Young Adult Library Services Association List <yalsa-l@ala.org>
Sent: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 20:52:20 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [YALSA-L:5216] Libraries and Teens Meet @ Technology: the New Pew Study

Libraries and Teens Meet @ Technology: Comments on the Pew Study

        The PEW Internet & American Life Project released its new 48-page “Teens
and Technology” study this week.  While flawed in some significant
respects, libraries can learn about some important changes occurring in
young adult communications and literacy practices.  See their press
release at http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/109/press_release.asp

        Among the study’s flaws is the stunning omission of Asian youth and a too
casual dismissal of non-English-speaking families with a mere “language
barrier” excuse.  PEW apparently considers these erased populations as
somehow outside the boundaries of “American youth.”  To ignore the entire
experience of recent immigrants (from many sending countries), though, is
to forfeit the claim to a national finding.  For those of us on either
coast and in the West (our most populated regions) these inexplicable
methodological gaps significantly diminish the study’s value.
        Also, aside from too narrowly defining the term “technology” (no mention
of anything video, to name just one other) the study also implicitly
perpetuates an increasingly artificial world of youth communications as
either tech or non-tech.  The evidence advanced, however, strongly
suggests that young people now incorporate tech rather seamlessly into
the fabric of their lives.  So the distinctions between tech and non-tech
appear less and less relevant to young people themselves.
        On the “up” side, though, libraries can learn a good deal from “Teens and
Technology.”  Chief among these library-specific lessons, although not
mentioned in the study’s “Summary of Findings,” is that since PEW’s first
study in 2000, the percentage of young adults logging-on in libraries has
grown faster than from any other location (4).  In 2000, PEW reported
that of all YA log-ons, about 36% of teens said they did so from
libraries.  In the new report, the figure shoots up to 54%.  This figure
of 54%, however, would no doubt have been larger had PEW included youth
from Asian and immigrant households.  Other log-on locations improved as
well (home, school, friend’s house, community center) but none improved
as much as libraries.  One of the reasons, no doubt, is that libraries
provide high-speed broadband connections that teens much prefer to
dial-up.  And this fact has very positive impacts on service in
low-income communities.
        Another important finding is that Instant Messaging (so-called “IMing”)
has become “the digital communication backbone of teens’ daily lives”
(iii).  IM communication dramatically leads cell phone use and email. 
Understanding this fact can change young adult librarians’ relationship
to their TAGs literally overnight.
        Although librarians will quickly recognize many of the study’s finding,
such as the prevalence of teens to multi-task, a few other findings stand
out.  First, teenagers increasingly exhibit sophisticated and strategic
skills in incorporating new communication tools.  PEW notes the “quick
mental calculus” with which teens order a hierarchy of time, place,
convenience, cost, and manner criteria in selecting, for instance, text
messaging over IMing, or face-to-face communication over email.
        Second, PEW notes that parents have made their peace with the current
view of a dangerous internet by placing on-line computers in family areas
of the home (70% reportedly did that in 2000, and a nearly identical 72%
did that for this 2004 study).  Libraries can learn from this.  No filter
will outperform social sanctions.  And placing computers in high traffic
areas, rather than in out-of-the-way warrens, insures a far more secure
atmosphere for everyone.
        Finally, and something rather eclipsed in the study’s narrative
enthusiasm for high tech tools, PEW’s findings reflect the abiding and
overriding preference of teens for regular, old-time communication
methods.  For instance, while the teens surveyed place IMing at the top
of the new tools list, the regular landline phone is preferred over twice
as much as IM (24% to 52% respectively).  Moreover, the study seems
rather hesitant to recognize, even with all these nearly ubiquitous new
tools and skills afoot, on average, teens still prefer “spending more
time physically with their friends doing social things…than interacting
with friends through technology” (30).  Thus, no matter what new techno
trinkets and gizmos come down the pike, libraries are still on the hook
for supplying young citizens developmentally appropriate spaces of their
own.  They’re not just going to disappear into the ether.
        Overall, while the new PEW loses major methodological points, librarians
working with teenagers are well advised to acquaint themselves with it. 
And, as with most studies of this nature, we should take what we can use.

Anthony Bernier, Ph.D.
School of Library and Information Science
San Jose State University

This email has been scanned for viruses by MessageLabs.
------- End of Forwarded Message -------



This email has been scanned for viruses by MessageLabs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET  2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL  4) SET LM_NET DIGEST  * Allow for confirmation.
LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/sub/
LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------