Perhaps all that media “hype” about the dangers for kids on the Web over the past 10 years, then the efforts local law enforcement and parents have made to educate our children on the dangers of the Web is paying off. I was quite encouraged to read an article in TechCrunch today about how kids don’t use Twitter primarily because they don’t feel it’s safe. This is good.
As the article points out, research indicates teens and “tweens” feel safer in closed Social Networks (i.e. Facebook, Bebo and MySpace) because they can better manage “who” they are connecting with. This is showing a change in online social behaviour. Perhaps this is one of the first larger signs of how society is learning to adapt Social Media tools.
Our kids are developing a “Web sense” about how they use these tools. What will be interesting is to see how these behaviours become more “normative” and in what ways Social Media tools and services become used. Do you think this is a positive sign? What changes in the “Net Generation” kids do you think we’ll see in terms of social behaviour with technologies such as Social Networks.
I’m not a sociologist, but this seems a Leading Indicator of a deeper societal change as we adapt a technology to our culture. Your thoughts?
