Getting Lost in the Virtual World
Is it a good or bad thing? It seems indulging too much in anything turns out badly, but if you grow up on that "indulgence" how can you see it for what it is and detach or limit it?
I had already been thinking of these concepts already but the article Teenage Wasteland just put it so well. Here's how the author describes Generation V:
They're young, plugged in, and tuned out. Alone and isolated with
thousands of virtual "friends." They have the totality of human
knowledge at their fingertips, yet they use the internet to post YouTube
videos of flaming flatulence. They're globally connected yet
perpetually distracted, self-absorbed rather than self-reflective.
Apathetic and cynical, they're not interesting nor are they interested.- Then I discovered this in-depth account. Amazing, I especially loved the ideas of a "real-world accent" and the "digital immigrant."
With a mouse, a keyboard and a phone, they move easily between
dimensions. A text takes them to a party; a word on the bus takes
them to an online flirt; a new song on their site gives them
classroom cred; some funny footage on YouTube makes them a
legend.These 15s are all what commentators label digital natives, born
sometime around 1992 - late generation Y "Millennials" who absorb
the language of technology effortlessly with their fingertips.
Their teachers say they are even more inculcated in the culture
than classes just a few years ahead of them. By comparison, even
the most computer-literate adult or parent will never lose the
real-world accent, will never feel in emoticons, will forever be a
digital immigrant. 
The virtual generation - In Depth - theage.com.auTeens and technology: finding expression and identity entwined in the real and virtual worlds.Photo: Angela Wylie GENERATION BLOG POST: I'm 15. My body is unrecognisable under embarrassing lumps and bumps and pubes. I get upset for reasons I can't explain, but then my brain is a work-in-progress, rewired by processes even neuroscientists haven't got their heads around.- Born Digital - Understanding the first generation of digital nativesWebsite for Born Digital, an initiative of the Digital Natives project, concerning children raised in the digital world.
Digital Natives | Youth and Media
The Digital Natives project focuses on the key legal, social, and political implications of a generation "born digital" - those who grow up immersed in digital technologies, for whom a life fully integrated with digital devices is the norm.
