Visit the PBS' web site, Frontline and watch "Generation Like." Please respond to the class blog with a reflection on Douglas Rushkoff's hard hitting essay on what internet culture is doing to our adolescents.
There was so much to respond to in "Generation Like" that it's hard to figure out where to start. I'm going to try to organize my thoughts by listing the top 3 things that made me upset while I watched the piece.
1) A mother taking "full body" pictures of her 13-year old daughter and encouraging her to put them online for the sole purpose of maximizing "likes".
2) A 13-year old boy acting like a complete asshole because acting like an asshole seems like it might be the best way to get his family out of poverty.
3) A teenager spending about 5 hours (and working until she was in pain) promoting a movie just to get "sparks".
After seeing this depressing parade of people and corporations manipulating each other, my thoughts turned to my son, who is 4 and a half. How am I going to help him navigate this mess? How am I going to help leverage the power of the web in general and social media in particular to make his life better? How am I going to help him avoid being sucked into a mindset in which "likes" are connected to self-worth and "sparks" have value?
I suppose the only thing I can do is lead by example and teach him to understand how contemporary advertising works. I think I'll subscribe to more magazines, so that he'll see me spending less time on my computer. I think I'll continue to resist getting a smartphone, so that when I go outside with my son, we don't bring the Web with us. I think I'll make sure that when my son starts using social media, he understands that people "liking" him is not the same as people liking him.
I'm also aware that 200 years ago the Amish dealt with the same emotions that I'm dealing with now. They chose to stay the same while the world changed around them and that's had mixed results.
Generation Like is an eye-opening documentary where Rushkoff sheds light on important issues such as data mining and how companies track individuals’ information and their ‘likes’ to generate profit. It is a great documentary to watch with students and to facilitate a discussion around the topics of data mining, digital footprint, digital citizenship, privacy, safe and responsible use of the Internet among many others (such as "selling out"). I believe it is our responsibility as educators to raise awareness and educate students on these issues. Students especially in middle school and high school might not be cognizant of how their information and their interaction on certain sites can be compromised and manipulated.
Another critical issue that Rushfoff touches on in his documentary is how youths are engrossed with their personal profile pages on social media platforms and the way they represent and express themselves. I was taken aback for a moment when I saw how some teens presented themselves and the type of pictures they posted on Instagram to generate likes. I couldn’t but think how crucial it is for schools to adopt social and emotional learning (SEL) curricula to help students develop competencies that will shape their identity development, self-awareness, and responsible decision-making in this digital age. Edutopia has an interesting article on SEL and the competencies it aims at developing http://www.edutopia.org/sel-research-learning-outcomes
It is critical for the education system to adopt social and emotional learning especially when students primarily in middle school and high school might not be cognizant of how their information and their interaction on certain sites can be compromised and manipulated.
The current youth also referred to as Generation Like cannot fathom how divergent internet culture was for previous generations. As a considered a member of Generation Y, there may be a digital disconnect between those in the current generation and those of past. The digital media spectrum has entirely changed. Those not actively participating in social networking, may find it burdensome to relate or understand modern adolescents. Contemplating back to my days as an adolescent, internet culture was in a state of infancy. Those were the days of AOL Instant Messenger, Myspace, and Flickr. Many of my peers and I had to endure a dial-up tone to set up an internet connection. It is evident that the media enviornment has become an entirely different landscape. A landscape that possesses various outlets that are readily available and used momentarily by teens to express their individuality, tastes, opinions, and connect simultaneously with one another.
Rushkoff touches on the notion that there is an apparent sophistication and sense of empowerment about how adolescents today consume media. Internet culture has created a mashup of cultural commerce that many teens are actively apart of and supporting through their uses of the “like”. Much of our time on the internet is spent awaiting “likes” from “friends” on a multitude of social media networking sites. This anticipation of “likes” or approval from others is not limited to adolescents but all users of social networking sites. Equivalently with most instances in life, one must give to receive. Adolescents in particular find it liberating to “like” content of their friends, brands, and companies of interest. In turn, they post content (photos, videos, text, etc.) with the intention to receive the tremendously sought out instant gratification that comes along when others “like” us. Humans are social beings longing for interaction on some sort of level. Forming peer networks with aligning interests is a form of accreditation. Adolescents crave connection as well as attention from one another because of their innate desire to be associated and validated in their peer groups. Posting content enables adolescents to share their experiences, form interpersonal peer relationships, and deem what is cool or popular today. Those with countless “likes” are the specific demographic many Fortune 500 companies and brands are targeting because of their profound social presence. This phenomenon of embodying a social presence is attractive to many internet users, specifically adolescents. The more followers or “likes” an individual has, the more naturally other users gravitate toward them. These individuals are the product of coined terms like “Instafamous” or “Facebook Famous”. These titles give them immense power in social currency, thus impacting their peers and turning their popularity into vast monetary value for companies. No longer do companies have to target or seek out consumers to promote their products, but rather the current consumer promotes products on their own by the posting of content, number of followers, and “likes” of pages.
The rigid dichotomy between professional and personal life is no more. The freedom and liberty to “like”, follow, watch, share, retweet and post any content erases any divide that may have separated what happens to us professionally and personally in the past. Now, many choose to combine all aspects of their identities. Personal and professional life has become one in the same due to our manipulated digital persona. Adolescents show that the internet culture of today is backed by social media networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. Thanks to the post, tag and the “like”; each moment we partake in real time can be mimicked on social media networking sites at any current or future moment. Social media networking sites enables any individual to build their own digital brand. No longer are the days where one’s identity is limited by what we tell others. Currently, it is limited by what we choose to digitally associate ourselves with. Internet users in general or “friends” see our pages/profiles and believe they “know” all about us. Every moment we are branding and marketing ourselves, our ideas, our interests, and opinions. Adolescents are formulating their identities continuously. This manipulated digital identity will transcend into all aspects of the adolescent's life; personally, socially, emotionally, and ultimately professionally.
I recently started a new job working in the marketing department of a major corporation so it was interesting to watch this program through a marketing lens as well as a parent, consumer, and educator. At work we hire people who have a strong social media presence—who blog and tweet and have built a large number of followers and can bring that circle of influence with them into the company. That is a commodity in today’s world and in some ways I think it’s great that kids can create this currency for themselves. Building your personal brand is a form of entrepreneurialism. Today you don’t need to go the right schools or have the right connections. You can make something of yourself if you are creative, have some personal marketing skills and put the time and effort in—you don’t even have to invest much money to do it!
I thought it was interesting that the kids they interviewed did not know what was meant by the concept of “selling out”. My daughter is 17 and I asked her if she knew what it meant and she had a very clear idea about that concept. Maybe she’s an anomaly?
I think we should be teaching kids about marketing concepts and also about the technology and analytics that go into these marketing campaigns. They will most likely need these skills in most jobs in the future. These types of examples could become real-world math or analytical problems and also inform them as consumers at the same time.
Lisa, I agree that we should be teaching kids about marketing concepts and also about the technology and analytics that go into these marketing campaigns. These are valuable skills that all youth will need for future occupations and careers.
I agree with you Lisa when you say when it's great that kids have found away to create currency for themselves, but also agree with Mike in being disgusted by the ways they are doing it.
I have seen these videos on youtube of kids who have found positive ways to use social media. Check out the videos "A Sincere Compliment" and "We are Daniel Cui". We need to find ways to teach students to use social media to make changes in the world in a positive way. When kids become popular on youtube instead of supporting different brands we could teach them how to use that popularity to make changes.
I was seriously concerned for the kids worried about their "Like" status, and I was waiting for the "Unlike" generation video to follow. All the kids who don't get "likes" or aren't working in social groups like the teens in the first part of the video who were really supportive. We hear in the news about emotional issues that teens are struggling with such as depression, and even suicidal thoughts around social media. It is really sad.
I loved the segments on Tyler Oakley, and the younger skateboarder child. But the Young boy went from sweet skateboarder who got endorsed by his favorite brands, to a child willing to do anything to get more followers on his Youtube channel. Some of those images really began to make me sort of sick to my stomach.
I have shared this with colleagues and friends with ids, and it has opened up Huge dialogues in multiple settings... thank you for having us view the other side of LIKE. I can't stop talking about it...
I loved the kid, Tyler, that skateboards and pulls pranks. I did that kind of stuff with my friends in high school, long before social media existed, simply because it was fun. We didn't film it, or get likes, but we enjoyed it anyway. Kids will be kids. He's getting sponsorships out of it, which is an added benefit for him, the only concern I have is that children tend to struggle with fame as the grow up and desire more and more of it. But that's been a concern and problem since before social media.
I'm in the midst of starting a YouTube channel and I actually enjoyed this video as a primer for what I may need to do to spread awareness about the channel and create a sort of marketing campaign around it.
Nicole Ricciardi: While watching Douglas Rushkoff’s Frontline report on “Generation Like”, I couldn’t help but see the parallels among today’s social media addicted society and the anti-utopia Aldous Huxley describes in his novel, “Brave New World”. Huxley feared that society’s desire is what will ruin us – technology would give us everything we could possible think of rendering us an unthinking, trivial culture. As Rushkoff’s report points out, the Hunger Games series also satirizes what is going on today in terms of companies and advertisers using social media as a means of control over an unknowing audience. Many young people are blind to how deep and murky the water can be underneath all of the likes and retweets they produce on a daily basis. There are agencies analyzing your every move and tailoring your social media environment to your interests and subliminally directing your subsequent actions without you really knowing it. How do we teach kids to be aware of what’s going on when it’s not so transparent in the first place?
What really resonated with me while watching this report was the level to which adolescents are going to successfully create fanbases for themselves, whether it’s on a small or large scale involving friends or strangers they’ve never met. Young people looking for attention and / or validation from their peers is not new, but the current stage is different and much more far reaching than ever before. The bigger the stage, the harder it is to get those “likes” that adolescents (and adults) so fervently seek, hence the development of more sensational content in order to get that recognition. It’s scary to think of kids putting so much of themselves out there to only be disappointed by the finite number of how many people look and judge their online persona. Who decides when the numbers are high or low? What happens when you achieve what you perceive to be ultimate fandom? The answers to these questions are a bit scary, depending on who you’re asking. It’s also made me think about my own self now as an adult participant in various social media environments and wondering if getting excited by someone liking a photo is a form of subconscious self-destruction? Do I share too much? Or in the eyes of kids today, do I share too little?
Another comment – I found the segment towards the end of the video about Daniella promoting herself and her singing online to be really disturbing. A seemingly regular kid is influenced by her own mother to document herself through social media for the sake of getting likes (I’m assuming it originally started out to promote her singing? It starts to become unclear as the segment goes on). Is becoming a puppet in the social media arena really what we want to teach our kids? I was actually fairly appalled / shocked when Daniella’s mother openly admits that she allows her daughter to become physically / sexually idolized via Instagram (“full body shots”). I couldn’t agree more with Rushkoff when comments, “listening to her, I’ve realized how pervasive our value system has become”.
When I posted this video on my Facebook profile I captioned it with, "Is there a like store I don't know about?!"
Truth is. There is a virtual one that exists and what we unintentionally purchase is social status and self-validation. Whether its a conversation for some around self-esteem or popularity, I can equate the evolution of likes to my adolescent social symbol of the amount of photos of other people I had on my binder sleeve. In middle school it was all about Xanga and your HMTL literacy showed through how many cool effects you had on your profile. I remember people asking me to design them backgrounds and asking for codes on how to change the browser cursor or have falling text from the top of the screen. When Myspace rolled around, social status was about who was on your top 8 and on whose top 8 did you make the cut for.
These social algorithms for how people want to be seen online is a key element of the influences of online profiles and social networking. There is power in being seen and even more power in being seen by MANY people. It amazed me how natural and intuitive using the technologies was for many of the teenagers featured in this documentary. Even more so, I was impressed at how the necessity of an online presence for independent musicians has created jobs for people.
Equally triggering for me was the way the last featured kid (the skateboarder) has turned his social network into a problematic entertainment platform – exploiting himself and the people around him.
There was so much to respond to in "Generation Like" that it's hard to figure out where to start. I'm going to try to organize my thoughts by listing the top 3 things that made me upset while I watched the piece.
ReplyDelete1) A mother taking "full body" pictures of her 13-year old daughter and encouraging her to put them online for the sole purpose of maximizing "likes".
2) A 13-year old boy acting like a complete asshole because acting like an asshole seems like it might be the best way to get his family out of poverty.
3) A teenager spending about 5 hours (and working until she was in pain) promoting a movie just to get "sparks".
After seeing this depressing parade of people and corporations manipulating each other, my thoughts turned to my son, who is 4 and a half. How am I going to help him navigate this mess? How am I going to help leverage the power of the web in general and social media in particular to make his life better? How am I going to help him avoid being sucked into a mindset in which "likes" are connected to self-worth and "sparks" have value?
I suppose the only thing I can do is lead by example and teach him to understand how contemporary advertising works. I think I'll subscribe to more magazines, so that he'll see me spending less time on my computer. I think I'll continue to resist getting a smartphone, so that when I go outside with my son, we don't bring the Web with us. I think I'll make sure that when my son starts using social media, he understands that people "liking" him is not the same as people liking him.
I'm also aware that 200 years ago the Amish dealt with the same emotions that I'm dealing with now. They chose to stay the same while the world changed around them and that's had mixed results.
Generation Like is an eye-opening documentary where Rushkoff sheds light on important issues such as data mining and how companies track individuals’ information and their ‘likes’ to generate profit. It is a great documentary to watch with students and to facilitate a discussion around the topics of data mining, digital footprint, digital citizenship, privacy, safe and responsible use of the Internet among many others (such as "selling out"). I believe it is our responsibility as educators to raise awareness and educate students on these issues. Students especially in middle school and high school might not be cognizant of how their information and their interaction on certain sites can be compromised and manipulated.
ReplyDeleteAnother critical issue that Rushfoff touches on in his documentary is how youths are engrossed with their personal profile pages on social media platforms and the way they represent and express themselves. I was taken aback for a moment when I saw how some teens presented themselves and the type of pictures they posted on Instagram to generate likes. I couldn’t but think how crucial it is for schools to adopt social and emotional learning (SEL) curricula to help students develop competencies that will shape their identity development, self-awareness, and responsible decision-making in this digital age. Edutopia has an interesting article on SEL and the competencies it aims at developing http://www.edutopia.org/sel-research-learning-outcomes
It is critical for the education system to adopt social and emotional learning especially when students primarily in middle school and high school might not be cognizant of how their information and their interaction on certain sites can be compromised and manipulated.
DeleteThe current youth also referred to as Generation Like cannot fathom how divergent internet culture was for previous generations. As a considered a member of Generation Y, there may be a digital disconnect between those in the current generation and those of past. The digital media spectrum has entirely changed. Those not actively participating in social networking, may find it burdensome to relate or understand modern adolescents. Contemplating back to my days as an adolescent, internet culture was in a state of infancy. Those were the days of AOL Instant Messenger, Myspace, and Flickr. Many of my peers and I had to endure a dial-up tone to set up an internet connection. It is evident that the media enviornment has become an entirely different landscape. A landscape that possesses various outlets that are readily available and used momentarily by teens to express their individuality, tastes, opinions, and connect simultaneously with one another.
ReplyDeleteRushkoff touches on the notion that there is an apparent sophistication and sense of empowerment about how adolescents today consume media. Internet culture has created a mashup of cultural commerce that many teens are actively apart of and supporting through their uses of the “like”. Much of our time on the internet is spent awaiting “likes” from “friends” on a multitude of social media networking sites. This anticipation of “likes” or approval from others is not limited to adolescents but all users of social networking sites. Equivalently with most instances in life, one must give to receive. Adolescents in particular find it liberating to “like” content of their friends, brands, and companies of interest. In turn, they post content (photos, videos, text, etc.) with the intention to receive the tremendously sought out instant gratification that comes along when others “like” us. Humans are social beings longing for interaction on some sort of level. Forming peer networks with aligning interests is a form of accreditation. Adolescents crave connection as well as attention from one another because of their innate desire to be associated and validated in their peer groups. Posting content enables adolescents to share their experiences, form interpersonal peer relationships, and deem what is cool or popular today. Those with countless “likes” are the specific demographic many Fortune 500 companies and brands are targeting because of their profound social presence. This phenomenon of embodying a social presence is attractive to many internet users, specifically adolescents. The more followers or “likes” an individual has, the more naturally other users gravitate toward them. These individuals are the product of coined terms like “Instafamous” or “Facebook Famous”. These titles give them immense power in social currency, thus impacting their peers and turning their popularity into vast monetary value for companies. No longer do companies have to target or seek out consumers to promote their products, but rather the current consumer promotes products on their own by the posting of content, number of followers, and “likes” of pages.
CONTINUED:
ReplyDeleteThe rigid dichotomy between professional and personal life is no more. The freedom and liberty to “like”, follow, watch, share, retweet and post any content erases any divide that may have separated what happens to us professionally and personally in the past. Now, many choose to combine all aspects of their identities. Personal and professional life has become one in the same due to our manipulated digital persona. Adolescents show that the internet culture of today is backed by social media networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. Thanks to the post, tag and the “like”; each moment we partake in real time can be mimicked on social media networking sites at any current or future moment. Social media networking sites enables any individual to build their own digital brand. No longer are the days where one’s identity is limited by what we tell others. Currently, it is limited by what we choose to digitally associate ourselves with. Internet users in general or “friends” see our pages/profiles and believe they “know” all about us. Every moment we are branding and marketing ourselves, our ideas, our interests, and opinions. Adolescents are formulating their identities continuously. This manipulated digital identity will transcend into all aspects of the adolescent's life; personally, socially, emotionally, and ultimately professionally.
I recently started a new job working in the marketing department of a major corporation so it was interesting to watch this program through a marketing lens as well as a parent, consumer, and educator. At work we hire people who have a strong social media presence—who blog and tweet and have built a large number of followers and can bring that circle of influence with them into the company. That is a commodity in today’s world and in some ways I think it’s great that kids can create this currency for themselves. Building your personal brand is a form of entrepreneurialism. Today you don’t need to go the right schools or have the right connections. You can make something of yourself if you are creative, have some personal marketing skills and put the time and effort in—you don’t even have to invest much money to do it!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting that the kids they interviewed did not know what was meant by the concept of “selling out”. My daughter is 17 and I asked her if she knew what it meant and she had a very clear idea about that concept. Maybe she’s an anomaly?
I think we should be teaching kids about marketing concepts and also about the technology and analytics that go into these marketing campaigns. They will most likely need these skills in most jobs in the future. These types of examples could become real-world math or analytical problems and also inform them as consumers at the same time.
Lisa, I agree that we should be teaching kids about marketing concepts and also about the technology and analytics that go into these marketing campaigns. These are valuable skills that all youth will need for future occupations and careers.
DeleteI agree with you Lisa when you say when it's great that kids have found away to create currency for themselves, but also agree with Mike in being disgusted by the ways they are doing it.
ReplyDeleteI have seen these videos on youtube of kids who have found positive ways to use social media. Check out the videos "A Sincere Compliment" and "We are Daniel Cui". We need to find ways to teach students to use social media to make changes in the world in a positive way. When kids become popular on youtube instead of supporting different brands we could teach them how to use that popularity to make changes.
I was seriously concerned for the kids worried about their "Like" status, and I was waiting for the "Unlike" generation video to follow. All the kids who don't get "likes" or aren't working in social groups like the teens in the first part of the video who were really supportive. We hear in the news about emotional issues that teens are struggling with such as depression, and even suicidal thoughts around social media. It is really sad.
ReplyDeleteI loved the segments on Tyler Oakley, and the younger skateboarder child. But the Young boy went from sweet skateboarder who got endorsed by his favorite brands, to a child willing to do anything to get more followers on his Youtube channel. Some of those images really began to make me sort of sick to my stomach.
I have shared this with colleagues and friends with ids, and it has opened up Huge dialogues in multiple settings... thank you for having us view the other side of LIKE. I can't stop talking about it...
ReplyDeleteI loved the kid, Tyler, that skateboards and pulls pranks. I did that kind of stuff with my friends in high school, long before social media existed, simply because it was fun. We didn't film it, or get likes, but we enjoyed it anyway. Kids will be kids. He's getting sponsorships out of it, which is an added benefit for him, the only concern I have is that children tend to struggle with fame as the grow up and desire more and more of it. But that's been a concern and problem since before social media.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the midst of starting a YouTube channel and I actually enjoyed this video as a primer for what I may need to do to spread awareness about the channel and create a sort of marketing campaign around it.
Nicole Ricciardi: While watching Douglas Rushkoff’s Frontline report on “Generation Like”, I couldn’t help but see the parallels among today’s social media addicted society and the anti-utopia Aldous Huxley describes in his novel, “Brave New World”. Huxley feared that society’s desire is what will ruin us – technology would give us everything we could possible think of rendering us an unthinking, trivial culture. As Rushkoff’s report points out, the Hunger Games series also satirizes what is going on today in terms of companies and advertisers using social media as a means of control over an unknowing audience. Many young people are blind to how deep and murky the water can be underneath all of the likes and retweets they produce on a daily basis. There are agencies analyzing your every move and tailoring your social media environment to your interests and subliminally directing your subsequent actions without you really knowing it. How do we teach kids to be aware of what’s going on when it’s not so transparent in the first place?
ReplyDeleteWhat really resonated with me while watching this report was the level to which adolescents are going to successfully create fanbases for themselves, whether it’s on a small or large scale involving friends or strangers they’ve never met. Young people looking for attention and / or validation from their peers is not new, but the current stage is different and much more far reaching than ever before. The bigger the stage, the harder it is to get those “likes” that adolescents (and adults) so fervently seek, hence the development of more sensational content in order to get that recognition. It’s scary to think of kids putting so much of themselves out there to only be disappointed by the finite number of how many people look and judge their online persona. Who decides when the numbers are high or low? What happens when you achieve what you perceive to be ultimate fandom? The answers to these questions are a bit scary, depending on who you’re asking. It’s also made me think about my own self now as an adult participant in various social media environments and wondering if getting excited by someone liking a photo is a form of subconscious self-destruction? Do I share too much? Or in the eyes of kids today, do I share too little?
Another comment – I found the segment towards the end of the video about Daniella promoting herself and her singing online to be really disturbing. A seemingly regular kid is influenced by her own mother to document herself through social media for the sake of getting likes (I’m assuming it originally started out to promote her singing? It starts to become unclear as the segment goes on). Is becoming a puppet in the social media arena really what we want to teach our kids? I was actually fairly appalled / shocked when Daniella’s mother openly admits that she allows her daughter to become physically / sexually idolized via Instagram (“full body shots”). I couldn’t agree more with Rushkoff when comments, “listening to her, I’ve realized how pervasive our value system has become”.
When I posted this video on my Facebook profile I captioned it with, "Is there a like store I don't know about?!"
ReplyDeleteTruth is. There is a virtual one that exists and what we unintentionally purchase is social status and self-validation. Whether its a conversation for some around self-esteem or popularity, I can equate the evolution of likes to my adolescent social symbol of the amount of photos of other people I had on my binder sleeve. In middle school it was all about Xanga and your HMTL literacy showed through how many cool effects you had on your profile. I remember people asking me to design them backgrounds and asking for codes on how to change the browser cursor or have falling text from the top of the screen. When Myspace rolled around, social status was about who was on your top 8 and on whose top 8 did you make the cut for.
These social algorithms for how people want to be seen online is a key element of the influences of online profiles and social networking. There is power in being seen and even more power in being seen by MANY people. It amazed me how natural and intuitive using the technologies was for many of the teenagers featured in this documentary. Even more so, I was impressed at how the necessity of an online presence for independent musicians has created jobs for people.
Equally triggering for me was the way the last featured kid (the skateboarder) has turned his social network into a problematic entertainment platform – exploiting himself and the people around him.