Sorry it's been a while since my last post. A great holiday to Gran canaria was followed by two weeks at work with my head dissapearing somewhere!
I gained a fascinating insight into the future of web design last night. My 8 year old son has been telling me all week about his great new discovery - club penguin.
It's a social networking site for young people - the idea is that you make a character, a penguin, that you can explore the club penguin world with, interacting with other penguins as well as games, fun and educational activities.
I told someone about this who has a 2 year old daughter and they were horified that I was encouraging him to spend time on there .... a clear differentiator between a web native and a web immigrant???
Well, I would have thought so - but I'm 38 and an immigrant and she's 28 and much nearer to being a native. Oh, by the way, the term web native is someone that has known the internet at school and used it as part of their daily lives since early adulthood. Obviously web immigrant is someone that hasn't. The current cross over point is 20 - 23 years old.
It seems not. It seems that it may have been more to do with a security issue. Personally I think that the time to educate someone that the internet and web persona's are real people and a manifestation of their imagination, and to be aware of the risks whilst still enjoying the experience can't happen young enough.
And I'm delighted that my son, who isn't particularly academic, or motivated towards reading or writing for fun has found an activity that will help his keyboard, spelling, typing, reading, and social interaction skills!
Viva penguins!!!
Take care. Gary.
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“Feedback” – here it is! I'm definitely a web immigrant. I'm not particularly great with gadgets, but can just about handle my laptop, itunes and an ipod. Buying a digital camera this summer was major progress for me! Blogs and social networking sites are all very new to me, maybe it is a generation thing? (Am I alone here – help me out!)
Gary’s first blog report – use of social networking internet sites at work – I found thought provoking. What do I want to talk about? Facebook. I cannot count (well obviously I can, but you know what I mean!) how many times I have been asked ‘are you on Facebook?’. And I accept that I haven’t experienced it yet, so maybe I need to try it out first!
Within the university culture, I have seen Facebook cause upset, anger, jealousy, confusion and addiction. That doesn’t sound very positive to me! In today’s society we have text, msn, email and Facebook to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances. Whilst it may be a useful tool, I also think that it eventually makes it harder for people to socially interact in person. I spend all my time at the computer working, the last thing I want to do is spend my leisure time looking at Facebook.
I’ve begun to realise that there are many people who actually find it very difficult to meet new people in person. Okay, you can argue that Facebook is just a medium to keep in touch with people. But all the time they’re on Facebook, they could be out there either meeting these people or meeting new people. Maybe Im missing the point!
For me it all comes back to travelling. Are you going to argue that Facebook is great for meeting new people? Either you are a traveller or you’re not. Travelling is a great example of being out there and ‘doing it’ - meeting new people.
Finally, social networking sites for children. So let’s be clear: 1) I haven’t experienced Facebook. 2) I don’t have any children! But I am a training dietitian (plug over!). Today and the foreseeable future brings for our younger generation serious lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes. Do we really want to encourage our children to be spending more time sitting down and being immobile, when they could be out there running around expending energy with their mates? Im not saying that computers and social networking sites don’t have a role to play, but I am saying it is all about balance and that physical activity and a healthy diet are just as important.
I would much rather speak to someone on the telephone, or even better face to face. So, can you find me on Facebook? No. Can you click on a link and find out more about me? No! But I must confess to enjoying writing this... maybe you will see me soon on Facebook and even my own blog! Never say never!
Take care.
Sal
:-)
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