Just finished a long discussion with the teen. One of his main mates is a socialist. His zeal for the received wisdom of his father (who had a minor role in the last, corrupt, leftist government) means that he tries to challenge my son’s fairly stauch reformed faith. When he starts to lose an argument, he begins to throw insults around.
So we talked about logic. Errors. Challenging assumptions. False means of logic, such as arguing against the person, appealing to emotion. The use of the scientific method.
Anyway, this lad has grown up around computers. He likes them, for gaming. Which is a social activity among his peers. But he sees no need for texting. Facebook, in his mind, is just a gaming platform.
He prefers real life. The preliminary results from this study were reported in Der Speigel. I appears he is not alone.
Case studies on selected platforms, focus groups and individual interviews with young users, and a representative survey about Web 2.0 use, in contrast to other media types, will give a comprehensive picture of the current status of the Internet among young people.
The findings from the various empirical steps as well as the review of the current status of international research are being discussed and connected to perspectives from sociology of communication, youth studies and legal studies. In this way, the need for action and the options in the areas of public communication, identity formation, media competences and media regulation can be formulated. Design and procedure of the empirical elements are closely connected to other specialised studies on media and young people both in Germany and abroad.
In an accompanying weblog (www.hans-bredow-institut.de/webzweinull) provisional findings and related research are documented and discussed.
There is a link to the results, but my German is non-existent. But… it may be, if this is right, that internet addiction is just a fad