Interaction Of Young People Research Articles

Book Review: The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, by Howard Gardner and Katie Davis

The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World. Howard Gardner and Katie Davis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014. 244 pp. $15 pbk.Using applications (apps) can be as easy as 1, 2, and 3. People find an app, download it, and press its icon to use it. Due to the availability of technology, people, especially young people, are easily and quickly adopting digital media into their daily lives. However, does this mean young people's interactions with digital media technologies can be easily explained? The App Generation illustrates that the answer is not as easy as 1, 2, and 3 because young people have a complicated relationship with these technologies.Howard Gardner is the Hobbs Professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero. Katie Davis is an assistant professor at the University of Washington Information School and an advisory board member of MTV's digital abuse campaign, A Thin Line. Using multiple methods, such as interviews, focus groups, and observations of creative productions, the authors' main purpose was to find out whether today's young people are using apps to explore and create possibilities (app enabling) or are restricted by apps (app dependent).The book consists of seven chapters. In Chapters 1 through 3, the authors explain their motives, historical backgrounds of media technologies, and definitions of a generation. One major motivation for this book comes from Molly, Davis's younger sister. From discussing how Molly and her peers regularly use social media to create superficial relationships, such as Facebook marriages, the authors identified that young people's identity, intimacy, and imagination (the Three Is) are recurring themes in digital media's impact on human psychology. To explain how technologies affect people, the authors reference Marshall McLuhan and the inventions of the Gutenberg press, television, and computers to demonstrate how technologies became personal and full of activities as people gained more control to circulate content. Because digital media technologies offer new ways for young people to participate online, the authors explain that these technologies are the keys that shape today's generation called the App Generation.Chapters 4 through 6 tackle the Three Is and demonstrate how the App Generation is developing differently. The authors note that members of the App Generation are strategically constructing their identities because they are highly aware of privacy settings to display only what they want to show in their online presentations. These self-packaged selves show that the App Generation seems to focus on developing their external selves instead of their internal selves. For intimacy, the authors indicate that the App Generation's interpersonal relationships are negatively affected. For example, Facebook has discouraged young people from forming intimate relationships because people can immediately cancel plans and write quick updates instead of having personal interactions. Moreover, they are also unable to make deeper connections because they utilize technologies, such as Skype, to talk to others through a camera instead of looking at their eyes. …

In the marketplace for styles and identities: globalization and youth culture in southern Kyrgyzstan

This article discusses experiences of cultural globalization among young Muslims in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, and male students in particular. Drawing on studies of globalization and youth culture, the article suggests that the everyday lives of boys and young men can be understood as negotiations in a ‘marketplace for styles and identities’. The students engage with an unprecedented range of cultural repertoires, from ‘true Islam’ and Christian messages to global capitalism and Russian rap music. Based on extensive ethnographic research, the article discusses young people's interactions with transnational actors and media images, and their appropriation of a number of ‘spaces’ made available by globalization. In commercial outlets such as Internet cafés, in religious circles and sports clubs, male students experiment with styles and identities, often without experiencing contradictions. However, their choices are not random. Their reception and utilization of ‘global’ cultural goods and ideas are constrained by their socio-economic, linguistic, ethnic, religious and gender backgrounds and by various rules at the local, regional and national levels.

Building Cities for Young People: Why We Should Design Cities with Preteens and Young Teens in Mind

As those with planning authority over large areas consider for whom they are planning, it is recommended that the prototypical citizen be an 11–15 year-old person. Some planners have argued for several decades that young people be taken into consideration when planning urban areas. Recent trends in overweight and obesity in young people have focused attention on children's ability to safely navigate the path to school. Environmental psychologists have long pointed out the connection between children's independent travel and self-confidence. However, recent advances in neuropsychiatry indicate the brain is undergoing a second period of growth through adolescence. Furthermore, the areas of the brain related to spatial perception and analysis are growing during this period and subsequent actions hardwire the brain. Therefore, this period of young people's interaction with the environment is a crucial time and cities should be built with that in mind.

An examination of latino immigrant youths' out-of-school technology practices

The majority of the existing research on youth and technology has focused on physical access, computer-related skills, or student attitudes. Less is known about the social and cultural aspects of young people's interactions with technology. However, understanding how youth use technology and the different factors that affect these uses can help us capitalize on students' strengths. Using survey and ethnographic data, this study is intended to contribute to a better understanding of youths' interactions with technology. Participants in the study were Latino immigrant students (fifth- and sixth-graders) from an elementary school located in a large metropolis in the United States. Results provide both an overall picture of the youths' technological practices as well as a deeper look at the ways in which engaging with technology was valuable and meaningful for them.

Young People's Engagement with Digital Literacies in Marginal Contexts in a Globalised World

Claims about the complex ways in which young people's lives are entangled with digital technologies abound, yet insufficient theoretically informed empirical research has been conducted to examine how they use them and with what impact. This special issue of Language and Education presents theoretical and empirical understandings of young people's interactions with digital technologies in schools, homes and communities, and examines implications for educational development in four contrasting sites. The final paper considers the implications of the research for an investigation of young people's use of information and communication technologies in Uganda.

The Interaction between Young People with Atypical Gender Identity Organization and their Peers

This exploratory study involved the qualitative analysis of the responses of eight children with atypical gender identity organization to open-ended questions about their experiences of secondary school. The aim was to develop an understanding of these young people's interaction with their peers. It became apparent that all but one of the participants had been bullied. In this context, participants reported difficulties in developing friendships, although each participant received support from at least one of their peers. Given the hostile school environment participants did not necessarily talk to these individuals about their experiences in relation to their gender identity. The clinical implications for working with young people on a developing gender identity, and the impact on their mental health, are considered.

Response to Review of Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 14, No.1 (2004) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World Anoop Nayak University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England Citation: Nayak, Anoop. (2004). “Response to Review of Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World.” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). Around a decade ago, I worked on a collaborative research project investigating the perpetrators of racist violence (Nayak 1999; Back and Nayak 1999). A primary element of the study involved observing and interviewing a group of young, white men who adopted a Skinhead subcultural style and were implicated in explicit forms of racial intolerance and criminal violence. Needless to say, this work was mentally taxing and politically charged. Yet amidst the numbing banality of race terror that was reported were found more hopeful accounts delivered by white youth. This included young people who were opposed to racism but feared speaking out, white youth who also felt oppressed by the masculine “pale warrior” stance exerted by the Skins, and a few individuals who had formed friendships or relationships with ethnic minority youth and risked violence and name-calling. These silenced voices led to me consider, what does it mean to be white? What positive subject positions are available to young people who wish to forego the privilege of whiteness? And what are the lived consequences of such race-conscious decisions? Arising from this challenge, Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World brings whiteness into focus and pries open the lid on the diversity of white ethnicities. The book seeks to document change and transition in young lives by focusing upon post-industrial change and the impact of globalization upon local areas in the Tyneside district of Northeast England. Thus, the volume is woven through three strands– Passing Times, Changing 262 Times and Coming Times– which each demonstrate how places and communities are responding to change. A feature of the work is its multi-textured ethnographic method. I didn’t just want to discuss transition in dry theoretical abstraction, but set out to provide intimate, “real life” portraits of how young people think, feel and act– however pleasurable or painful these experiences may appear. Taking the views, observations and interactions of young people seriously was thereby an attempt to understand their daily life-worlds from personal perspectives and first-hand experiences. It is through these lived accounts that a multi-layered narrative is composed, drawing upon local histories and new cultural theory. A main theme in the volume is the manner in which race and class are mutually constitutive formations that come to articulate one another. Since completing the study, national press attention has further highlighted the plight of the Charver Kids and a series of web-links now capture the fear and loathing that surround their bodies.1 While the reviewer is most attentive in describing the outline of the book, I would maintain that the study debunks the black/white racial binary by distinguishing between whiteness and white people, between being white and acting white. By demonstrating how the Real Geordies choose to hang on tooth and claw to the last vestiges afforded by white masculine labor, how unemployed Charvers are seen as criminalized, impoverished, “notquite -white” subjects, and how the Wiggers are represented as culturally hybrid, global youth who are occasionally accused of “acting black,” or at least transgressing whiteness, the message for critical multiculturalism is self-evident. It’s not who you are that matters, it’s what you do. Endnote 1. For example, see http://www.chavscum.com and other Charver links at http://www.newcastlestuff.com. References Nayak, Anoop (1999). “’Pale Warriors’: Skinhead Culture and the Embodiment of White Masculinities.” In Brah, Avtar. Mary J. 263 Hickman, and M. Mac an Ghaill, eds. Thinking Identities: Ethnicity, Racism and Culture. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 71-99. Back, L. and Anoop Nayak (1999). “Signs of the Times? Violence, Graffiti and Racism in the English Suburbs.” In Allen, Tim and John Eade, eds. Divided Europeans: Understanding Ethnicities in Conflict. The Hague/ Boston: Kluwer Law International, 243-283. Anoop Nayak lecturers in the School of Geography, Politics...

Response to Review of Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World

Children, Youth and Environments. Vol 14, No.1 (2004) ISSN 1546-2250 Response to Review of Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World Anoop Nayak University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England Citation: Nayak, Anoop. (2004). “Response to Review of Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World.” Children, Youth and Environments 14(1). Around a decade ago, I worked on a collaborative research project investigating the perpetrators of racist violence (Nayak 1999; Back and Nayak 1999). A primary element of the study involved observing and interviewing a group of young, white men who adopted a Skinhead subcultural style and were implicated in explicit forms of racial intolerance and criminal violence. Needless to say, this work was mentally taxing and politically charged. Yet amidst the numbing banality of race terror that was reported were found more hopeful accounts delivered by white youth. This included young people who were opposed to racism but feared speaking out, white youth who also felt oppressed by the masculine “pale warrior” stance exerted by the Skins, and a few individuals who had formed friendships or relationships with ethnic minority youth and risked violence and name-calling. These silenced voices led to me consider, what does it mean to be white? What positive subject positions are available to young people who wish to forego the privilege of whiteness? And what are the lived consequences of such race-conscious decisions? Arising from this challenge, Race, Place and Globalization: Youth Cultures in a Changing World brings whiteness into focus and pries open the lid on the diversity of white ethnicities. The book seeks to document change and transition in young lives by focusing upon post-industrial change and the impact of globalization upon local areas in the Tyneside district of 255 Northeast England. Thus, the volume is woven through three strands– Passing Times, Changing Times and Coming Times– which each demonstrate how places and communities are responding to change. A feature of the work is its multi-textured ethnographic method. I didn’t just want to discuss transition in dry theoretical abstraction, but set out to provide intimate, “real life” portraits of how young people think, feel and act– however pleasurable or painful these experiences may appear. Taking the views, observations and interactions of young people seriously was thereby an attempt to understand their daily life-worlds from personal perspectives and first-hand experiences. It is through these lived accounts that a multilayered narrative is composed, drawing upon local histories and new cultural theory. A main theme in the volume is the manner in which race and class are mutually constitutive formations that come to articulate one another. Since completing the study, national press attention has further highlighted the plight of the Charver Kids and a series of web-links now capture the fear and loathing that surround their bodies.1 While the reviewer is most attentive in describing the outline of the book, I would maintain that the study debunks the black/white racial binary by distinguishing between whiteness and white people, between being white and acting white. By demonstrating how the Real Geordies choose to hang on tooth and claw to the last vestiges afforded by white masculine labor, how unemployed Charvers are seen as criminalized, impoverished, “not-quitewhite ” subjects, and how the Wiggers are represented as culturally hybrid, global youth who are occasionally accused of “acting black,” or at least transgressing whiteness, the message for critical multiculturalism is self-evident. It’s not who you are that matters, it’s what you do. Endnote 1. For example, see http://www.chavscum.com and other Charver links at http://www.newcastlestuff.com. 256 References Nayak, Anoop (1999). “’Pale Warriors’: Skinhead Culture and the Embodiment of White Masculinities.” In Brah, Avtar. Mary J. Hickman, and M. Mac an Ghaill, eds. Thinking Identities: Ethnicity, Racism and Culture. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 71-99. Back, L. and Anoop Nayak (1999). “Signs of the Times? Violence, Graffiti and Racism in the English Suburbs.” In Allen, Tim and John Eade, eds. Divided Europeans: Understanding Ethnicities in Conflict. The Hague/ Boston: Kluwer Law International, 243-283. Anoop Nayak lecturers in the School of Geography, Politics and...

Whose space is it anyway? A study of young people's interaction with security guards in New South Wales

Limited research has been conducted in relation to the impact of private policing on young people. Research has primarily focused on young people and their use of public space, their use of the street or the policing of working class families and their children. This paper outlines an investigation of young peoples use of public spaces and their experiences of security guards within the greater Sydney metropolitan area of New South Wales. The paper also outlines the experiences of shopping centre managers in relation to the management of young people within their centres. The research found that young people are over policed within public spaces and especially in shopping complexes. Young people are primarily over policed within these spaces because of the perceived fears other groups within the community hold in relation to young people, especially those in groups.

Mortality by firearms in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: a spatial analysis

Mortality caused by firearms has been increasing at an alarming rate in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This study analyzes the gradual evolution of firearm mortality rates in this Brazilian state from 1979 to 1992, according to sex, age, and area of residence (capital city, metropolitan area, or the state's interior), and uses spatial statistical techniques to describe the propagation of this firearm mortality epidemic in time and space. During the period analyzed, mortality due to firearms showed the greatest increase among 15- to 19-year-old male adolescents, with yearly rates ranging from 13 to 16%, according to area of residence. For children 10 to 14 years of age, mortality caused by firearms increased by 10% annually in the same period. The highest annual increase occurred in the state's interior. At the beginning of the period studied, dissemination of firearm mortality was observed to follow a definite direction parallel to the federal road that runs along the east coast of the state. Between 1990 and 1992, however, the increase in deaths by firearms spread out in practically every direction. Empirical confirmation of a general expansion of firearm wound mortality contradicts the usual claim that violence is concentrated in areas of extreme poverty within Brazil's largest cities. Programs for prevention and control of this epidemic should focus on its various aspects and take into consideration both collective issues (such as proliferation of firearms among persons involved with international firearm smuggling, increases in criminal activity, expansion of drug trafficking, and exclusion from social opportunities) and personal issues (relationships and interaction of young people with their families, schools, and social environment).

Active audience?: interaction of young people with television and online video content

This article examines the different ways of interaction that young people have with television and online video content. Inspired by Van Dijck’s argument (2009), that there is a misleading assumption to define the audience in terms of passive recipients related to old media (e.g. television) and active participants who are internet users, the aim of this study is, firstly, to analyze if there are differences related to the type of medium; and, secondly, to examine if it is possible to develop an audience interaction typology in relation to television and to video content. The study presents the most significant statistical results of a survey of 475 students conducted at Mondragon University. After carrying out a factorial analysis, two multiple generalized linear regressions and a cluster analysis, our results show that it is statistically impossible to describe the audience’s attitude as a dichotomy between passive television viewers and active internet users. Likewise, it is not possible to develop an audience interaction typology in relation to television and to video content. The results rather show a multifarious profile of activity patterns related to specific contents and interactive practices on the Web. This study illustrates the complexity of content, context and audience practices in the new media environment.