Main focus: Contemporary youth are stereotyped as the "internet generation" - individuals who are "native" to the internet and know how to use it. Through an ethnographic study of exactly how young people in the U.K. actually use the internet - Livingstone takes apart this stereotype by asking:
- what do young people really know/do in terms of internet literacies?
- what do they need to know/be able to do in order to be fully literate?
- and whose responsibility it is to ensure that young people become competent in the internet literacies necessary for full participation in government (citizenship), the economic sector (in their jobs), and for their own personal fullfillment?
What young people know. Her answer to the first question is that young people's use of the internet is generally uncritical and is often more focused on making interfaces work/using the internet rather than on more critical and creative use of the internet. She attributes limitations in knowledge & creative use to: faults in interface design, family assumptions & values (and resulting patterns for use & restriction) and the need for users to participate as active subjects (111).
What young peole need to learn (p. 114)
basic level : use hardware/ interfaces (dependent on interfaces, software and technical providers)
intermediate level: critical reading of online materials (dependet on education + other learning environments "accountable for gate-keeping practices, well-resourced curricula and information resources")
ambitious level: become producers/participants in the creation of internet content (requires societal support)\
Whose responsibility + what to do (conclusions 115-117)
Livinstone see these as policy/regulator decisions that will balance responsibilities between government, providers, and users.
Questions:
What information did the ethnographic provide for this project?
What kind of information was collected?
How was it collected?
How did Livingstone interpret this data?
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