Cutline Speaks

Growing Up Online

posted by Megan on January 22, 2008

After years of being an economist, my husband gave it up to build a business tutoring high school students. So now instead of dinner conversations about transfer pricing and game theory, we talk about SAT scores and college acceptances, and as you can imagine, Facebook, YouTube, and The Hills.

Anyone who isn’t convinced we’re entering a new era of communications needs to spend a couple of hours with a sixteen year old. It’s eye opening. We thought email changed the world, but the freedom and creativity that comes with blogging, texting, sending digital pictures on a whim, or filming videos on every topic imaginable is simply mind blowing.

Tonight, FRONTLINE is airing a special called “Growing Up Online.” It will take viewers “inside the private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about just how radically the Internet is transforming the experience of childhood.”

While there are certainly risks, and FRONTLINE will explore them, there’s also a whole new world that is opening up. Whether or not they realize it, today’s kids are demanding more from their teachers and their education than ever before. They’re also demanding more from the companies who develop products for them, and from the companies who advertise to them, and, soon, from the companies who wish to employ them.

Imagine what their children will be like twenty years from now! I’m planning to Tivo the FRONTLINE show. It’ll no doubt be more interesting dinner conversation!

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