Generation Digital, examines the ways in which new media has changed the nature of childhood. In this book, Kathryn Montgomery describes how children use digital media in ways that might not be obvious, and assesses new media’s role in their development. She exposes some trends, including the increased sophistication in market research, (some) youths increased wealth and discretionary income, greater independence of youth from parental supervision, and more widespread access to computers and Internet, that make youth particularly valuable target in the commercialization of the Internet.
Montgomery notes that many young people have harnessed the digital tools available to them for communication, personal expression, and exploration. Digital media has seemingly become indispensable in youths’ psycho-social development and identity formation. Yet, this has also become a concern for child advocates as new, interactive technologies transform the relationships between children and corporations. Marketers use digital technologies to compile detailed personal profiles across platforms, and operate covertly to tap adolescents' basic developmental needs, anxieties, and sense of identity.
This type of specialized marketing is of concern as children develop their own independence and identity because the choices one makes in accesses digital eventually serve corporate interests in ways originally unintended. How can identity mean rebellion and digital production, commercialism and individuality, all at once? This may lead children to ask what is cool and how can I purchase it? Yet, the book does not emphasize enough that the Internet has created a new disparity across classlines in children's access to skills, social networks, and intellectual resources. The language of cool and identity seems to still be luxury (or curse, depending on one’s perspective). Media and marketing attention has been placed on middle-class children and teens, while poor and rural children—those with the least access to sophisticated new technologies—have been largely overlooked. Significant numbers of children and teens lack access to and skills for using interactive technologies, and so this digitalization of childhood is not a reality for a substantial amount of youth.
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Generation Digital, examines the ways in which new media has changed the nature of childhood. In this book, Kathryn Montgomery describes how children use digital media in ways that might not be obvious, and assesses new media’s role in their development. She exposes some trends, including the increased sophistication in market research, (some) youths increased wealth and discretionary income, greater independence of youth from parental supervision, and more widespread access to computers and Internet, that make youth particularly valuable target in the commercialization of the Internet.
Montgomery notes that many young people have harnessed the digital tools available to them for communication, personal expression, and exploration. Digital media has seemingly become indispensable in youths’ psycho-social development and identity formation. Yet, this has also become a concern for child advocates as new, interactive technologies transform the relationships between children and corporations. Marketers use digital technologies to compile detailed personal profiles across platforms, and operate covertly to tap adolescents' basic developmental needs, anxieties, and sense of identity.
This type of specialized marketing is of concern as children develop their own independence and identity because the choices one makes in accesses digital eventually serve corporate interests in ways originally unintended. How can identity mean rebellion and digital production, commercialism and individuality, all at once? This may lead children to ask what is cool and how can I purchase it? Yet, the book does not emphasize enough that the Internet has created a new disparity across classlines in children's access to skills, social networks, and intellectual resources. The language of cool and identity seems to still be luxury (or curse, depending on one’s perspective). Media and marketing attention has been placed on middle-class children and teens, while poor and rural children—those with the least access to sophisticated new technologies—have been largely overlooked. Significant numbers of children and teens lack access to and skills for using interactive technologies, and so this digitalization of childhood is not a reality for a substantial amount of youth.
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