Ebook of the Week - The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future

Watkins, S. Craig. The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future.  Boston: Beacon Press, 2009.

 In The Young and the Digital, S. Craig Watkins offers an interesting portrait, both celebratory and wary, about the coming of age of the first fully wired generation.  The book draws from more than 500 surveys and 350 in-depth interviews with young people, parents, and educators to understand how a digital lifestyle is affecting the ways youth learn, play, bond, and communicate. Published in 2009, Watkin’s analysis may not cover the very most recent developments in social networking, but it still has relevance vis-à-vis the current state of online social networking and its (mostly) young user base.  In its 208 pages, Watkins debunks popular myths surrounding cyberpredators, Internet addiction, and social isolation, and covers the influence of MySpace and Facebook, the growing appetite for “anytime, anywhere” media and “fast entertainment,” how online “digital gates” reinforce race and class divisions, and how technology is transforming America’s classrooms.

Previewed by John Breitmeyer.  Click here to read the book.