Though many people experience a so-called “digital divide” when it comes to technology, according to a recent study social networks like MySpace benefit everyone with technological, creative, and communication skills, regardless of economic status. The study surveyed students from the age of 16-18 in urban high schools throughout the Midwest.
“What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today,” Christine Greenhow, a learning technologies researcher from the University of Minnesota’s College of Education and Human Development, said in a release Friday.
The new study, which found that 94% of all students had access to the Internet and participated socially online directly contradicts a 2005 Pew study which found that students from economically disadvantaged families suffered a digital divide. Over 80% use the Internet and nearly three quarters are plugged into social networking at such sites as MySpace.
“Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout,” Greenhow continued. “They’re also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology.”
However, like everything in life, the results show access to those technologies is a two-edged sword. An increase in so-called “cyber bullying,” as evidence by the high profile court case where an adult masqueraded as a teen girl and humiliated another girl into committed suicide, has prompted many state and federal legislatures to consider legal alternatives which would make cyberbulling a criminal offense. Research suggests that over fifty percent of kids have been cyber-bullied in some regard by either being ridiculed online or even had their passwords stolen and their accounts hacked.
“The problem with cyberbullying is that kids aren’t even safe in their own home, because they’re being harassed through the computer or cell phones 24/7 potentially,” said California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, “we’re seeing increasing violent actions resulting from it.” Sanchez is the co-author of the bill which would make cyber-bullying a crime.
But even though users of such sites like MySpace and Facebook can face some hassle, the results of the Minnesota study show that regardless, student benefit both socially and educationally from having a presence online and that MySpace and other social network sites may be what has leveled the playing field for low-income students who have become just as technologically proficient as their friends. The study also goes on to suggest that school’s efforts to block access to such social networks can have a detrimental effect to a student’s technological development and, in fact, educators should actually encourage their students to develop a life online through them.
With access available through libraries, cell phones, and other technologies, the challenge isn’t so much hardware based at literacy centered. And having a social network that can actually be world wide not only improves that literacy, but gives students growing up online a wider world view.
