Growing Up Digital Adolescent Interview

“We should be able to use our smartphones in the classroom to do research rather than having to wait for the laptop cart to arrive or having to go to the library.” This suggestion was made by JJ, a fifteen year old tenth grade student from the Westhill School District just west of Syracuse, NY. Westhill High School has projectors, Smartboards and two or three Macbooks in each classroom. They use Blackboard for class assignments and offer multiple technology courses. JJ said she was taught how to do research online when she was in middle school. “We were given a list of reliable websites. They told us to compare [information] to other websites.” She said the majority of her teachers are quite tech savvy and that when she needs assistance she will seek it from a teacher rather than a classmate.

At home she has a laptop, but uses her iPhone to go online most of the time. JJ said she spends 50% of the time on her phone using the internet and uses it to text most of the rest of the time. Texting is her preferred method of communicating with friends and family, but said she chooses FaceTime over texting with most adults because they don’t understand her texting shorthand. “Then I have to spend time explaining what my text meant.”

Outside of school JJ spends a lot of her internet time on social networks. She has hundreds of friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter. On Instagram she has over 1000 followers. She said knows 50 – 75% of them and keeps her profiles private. Those she doesn’t know send her requests after they saw something she posted that was then reposted by a friend or follower. JJ also uses the internet to listen to music, and watch videos. She said she’s acquired a lot of do-it-yourself skills online. These include things that range from how to decorate her room to how to improve her basketball skills.

JJ was among a group of students at her school that experienced cyber bullying.  She and the other students reported the incidents to their building administrator and the police were called. When the bullies were identified they were suspended from school.

Other than the time spent waiting for the laptop cart to be delivered to the classroom, JJ had no complaints regarding the availability and use of the technology in school. I found her suggestion that students use their smartphones for classwork the most interesting part of our interview. She admits that students at times use their phones in the classroom when they aren’t supposed to use them and for things that aren’t connected to school.  She said that some students would abuse the privilege, but she feels that most students are responsible enough to use their phones in school for research purposes. 

Media Education Journal Post

Henry Jenkins notes that media literacy advocates “have longed called for schools to foster a critical understanding of media as one of the most powerful social, economic, political, and cultural institutions of our era.” (2010, p. 31) In addition he says, “the new media literacies should be taken as an expansion of, rather than a substitution for, the mass media literacies” and they “should be seen as social skills, as ways of interacting within a larger community, and not simply as individualized skills to be used for personal expression.” (2010, p. 31-32)  In embracing Jenkins’ statements it becomes evident that new media literacies empower our students with “social capital – those interpersonal connections that make it easier to effect change.” (Leistyna and Alper 2006, p. 55)

Media education is needed for a number of reasons. If we continue to train students to work autonomously, we are not properly preparing them to “enter the workplace [where] they are increasingly being asked to work in teams, drawing on different sets of expertise, and collaborating to solve problems.”  (Jenkins 2010, p. 33) New media literacy prepares them for collaborative participation. We also must teach students to “access books and articles through a library; to take notes on and integrate secondary sources; to assess the reliability for data…to distinguish between fact and fiction, fact and opinion; and to construct arguments and marshal evidence” (2010, p. 30) because their success requires critical thinking skills to navigate the plethora of information available to them.

In order to effectively do this all involved in the education process must learn from “librarians, who in the modern era, are reconceptualizing their role less as curators of bounded collections and more as information facilitators who can help users find what they need, online or offline, and can cultivate good strategies for searching material.” (Jenkins 2010, p.30) Tom Wolfe summed it up in the introduction of the Matthew McLuhan Speaks video when he quoted McLuhan saying, “Today’s children will be baffled and bored sitting in classrooms run by print bound teachers. The educational system must be totally changed.”

Print Ad Deconstruction

I chose was a print ad for Sleep Number mattresses.  The ad evokes thoughts of luxury, relaxation, comfort, peacefulness, and security. It depicts a married couple sleeping peacefully and comfortably in a luxurious bed. They are covered from the waist down and his hand in placed on her side hinting at security as she slumbers. Everything in the room is white, light grey, or silver, except her soft blue tank top, which is similar in shade to the color of the text which reads, “sleep number”.  Its color contrasts the rest of the text on the page, which is grey. All of the text is in a smooth san serif font that portrays the same nuances as the rest of the advertisement.  In between the words “sleep” and “number” is a button similar to the one on the product’s remote control.  It has up and down arrows that point upwardly, toward the couple, and downwardly, toward the motto, “Comfort. Individualized.”

In terms of gender related assumptions and messages, the man definitely seems to be the more dominant in terms of positioning.  Even though the couple sleeps side by side, from the angle of the camera, he is positioned above her. The placement of his hand on her side conveys the message of his being protective. She seems quite secure in the more submissive role. His dream bubble has a higher sleep number than hers. The higher number can be interpreted in many ways, most of which put him in a more powerful position.

I am unable to determine the ethnicity of the couple, except that they are not African American. But, by comparing this ad to the one on the Sleep Number website that depicts a couple in bed, I noticed that this ad shows a married couple, evident by a wedding ring that is visible on the ring finger of the man’s left hand.  The web ad shows an African American couple whose marital status cannot be determined. The African American couple is not resting peacefully, but enjoying each other playfully. That ad definitely sends a different message. The web ad also has the woman in the more aggressive role.

Regarding class, there are nuances of lavishness. The couple appears relaxed and trouble free. Does it convey the message that wealthy people sleep better or have fewer troubles? Yes, it definitely reinforces those stereotypes relative to class.

Jean Kilbourne’s statement regarding change being dependent upon “an aware, active, educated public that thinks for itself primarily as citizens rather than primarily as consumers” means that each person has the right to be an individual, authentically himself or herself, not defined by advertisers who attempt to make people appear incomplete or unacceptable without the product that is being sold. A person can be both a citizen and a consumer, but the key is for them to think for themselves and determine their own legitimate needs rather than allow the advertisers to tell them what they need. Citizens have rights, including the right to think for themselves. If a person is primarily a citizen he or she won’t buy just because they have been convinced by the advertiser that they need a particular item or because they believe the item will transform them into a personification of the images that the ad suggests. A person who is primarily a consumer will allow himself or herself to be sold without thinking it through for themselves every time.