Comments on Original Content: Social Contracts, Media Literacy, and Life Skills

"The ability to interact online has allowed many p...

2008-04-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

"The ability to interact online has allowed many people to communicate more confidently."

This immediately made me think of my own experience with my personal blog. Simply the act of writing it has helped me better develop my voice. And the feedback from friends and family made me confident that what I have to say is of interest. Because of my blog, I am happier in my "real life". Thanks for making me aware of it.

Fixing my comment from before.

Read an
2008-04-15T10:45:00.000-07:00
Fixing my comment from before.

Read an interesting article today that fits along this theme.

While the American examples given are a bit simplistic, I think the principle Emily pulls out is still valid.

2008-04-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

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Jim, thanks for the comments. Right and Wrong is a...

2008-04-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

Jim, thanks for the comments. Right and Wrong is a good lens to have installed early. Things are definitely getting more complicated.

Gina, I probably overstated their desire to be 'famous'. However, I think that the idea of posting the video to YouTube increased the severity of the beating. You are quite right that kids will always want to assert their dominance regardless of who else sees it. But I wonder if they would have gone as far as they did without the added thrill of capturing it on video to distribute to their friends.

And, as you say, the biggest hurdle isn't necessarily teaching kids to understand media but their inability to understand the future consequences of their actions on their lives. It's sad to me that everyone involved is going to have long-term consequences from this one act.

I think there is more to this than the girls wanti...

2008-04-15T04:25:00.000-07:00

I think there is more to this than the girls wanting to be media famous. Teenagers don't see past the moment they are in. They were mad at that girl (for something she posted on facebook), and they posted that video to show everyone who was in charge. That sort of bullying goes on all the time, these girls just had access to a media format that they used to show their complete dominance.

It they had been media literate, the poor girl would still have been beat up, just no one would have known what really happened.

Teenagers don't understand the concept of next week, let alone the concept of forever. Can you imagine what's going to happen when this generation starts running for office? My son is interested in that - good god it's going to be so embarrassing when some of his myspace and facebook archives are published in the paper! (he has been told for years, he doesn't believe me). The only thing that stops him is thinking his grandmother may see it..

Thoughtful post indeed.

It boils down to le...

2008-04-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Thoughtful post indeed.

It boils down to learning right from wrong at an early age and applying that knowledge in all aspects of life. If you have no life skills, you certainly have no media literacy at any age.

Privacy. Wow. People need to be educated to the fact that there is less and less of it? Much info is available free and even more if you want to pay a few dollars.

I gave my son a unique email account to use when signing up for accounts and explained how to be safe online. Let's hope everyone gets that explanation before the end of their middle school years.