Myspace makes kids smarter?
People tell me day after day that MySpace is a waste of time for the youth of today. They spend less time doing homework and studying and more time browsing friend’s profiles and sharing information online. To an extent I agree, MySpace increasingly changes the priorities of youth today. I recently engaged in a long debate with my friend on this topic.
The way I see it children today, on average, know a lot more HTML and CSS than when I was in middle school(8 years ago) or high school(4 years ago). In my middle school days, if the computer lab teacher had asked “Who here knows about HTML?” — I am sure I would have been the only one with my hand up. Today I am almost certain 50% of these middle school classroom students have interacted and edited HTML and CSS code on their MySpace pages.
I think these basic ideas enable the children of today to be a greater pool of knowledge and mass when it comes to interfacing with the computer in the many years to come. Technology is, and always has been, defined by the way society uses it — I wonder how many elementary kids will know about HTML/CSS in the next 8-10 years.
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I dunno — when I was a kid they thought in the future everyone would be able to program because that’s what it took to do really interesting things on a computer. I can remember my Mom taking me to these classes where we learned to make colored squares appear on the screen and make a “rocket” take off.
I’m not sure most people have the tolerance to put up with the vagaries of HTML/CSS, especially if they can use some very simple tools to do WYSIWYG editing on the web.
It does seem, though, that a whole generation is growing up EXPECTING to be able to express themselves to the world however they want — and feeling like having access to a global medium is like having access to tap water.
I like the way you approached your point. It does make sense that children at young ages are interacting with more web based technologies such as HTML, CSS, Javascript. Myspace does get credit for making the younger generation more aware and being able to use them for their profiles.
What I don’t necessarily agree on is that it makes them smarter. It does give them a skill, but how many children or teenagers see it that way? Maybe they pick up a few tricks here and there but are they really developing a foundation to build on? Myspace gives them creativity to explore these code languages. The majority or so get it done from that “one-smart” friend who does the rest of the pages for everyone.
What I can take away from this article is that the younger generation is growing up in a more technological environment. Kids now have cell phones at the age of 11 when the pager wasn’t even available till I was almost 15. So in essence, things are picking up more quickly, but still a debate whether it is making us smarter individuals or more reliant on computers and geeks.