The Impact Of Growing Up In the Digital Age

Generation Digital: Politics, Commerce, and Childhood in the Age of the Internet is a new book by Kathryn C. Montgomery. It comes out on July 31st and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com. I've already ordered my copy and can't wait to read because I find the topic so fascinating. The Internet has been part of my life since I was ten years old dialing up to BBSs with my 2400bps modem and In my adult life I've been concerned with the impact that might have had, most notedly social, communal and even religious. The rules for socializing on the Internet are different than those in the real world. There is no law. There is no god. Boundaries only exist as defined by niche communities. It seems that disenfranchised young people (you know, the "weird" kids) might be more comfortable in front of their terminal than in the real world. If in their minds, the Internet is "Right" and the real world is "Wrong," think of the challenges that presents to society.

Review from Amazon.com
"Kathryn Montgomery brings clear thinking and empirical evidence to one of the most important and widely misunderstood issues of our time: how children and teenagers shape and are shaped by digital culture. Are 'digital natives' more or less engaged with civic matters? What are the effects of the commercial targeting of youth? How vulnerable are children to Internet pornography and online predators? What laws can protect both freedom of speech and the private lives of minors? Until now, many of the claims that advocates have made regarding these issues have been based on beliefs rather than evidence. Montgomery--a media scholar, activist, and mother--brings an encyclopedic and well-organized body of evidence to bear on a debate that has been confused by moral panics, uninformed analyses, and ideological agendas."
--Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community and Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution

Book Description from Amazon.com
...The media have pictured the so-called "digital generation" in contradictory ways: as bold trailblazers and innocent victims, as active creators of digital culture and passive targets of digital marketing. This, says Montgomery, reflects our ambivalent attitude toward both youth and technology. She charts a confluence of historical trends that made children and teens a particularly valuable target market during the early commercialization of the Internet and describes the consumer-group advocacy campaign that led to a law to protect children's privacy on the Internet. Montgomery recounts--as a participant and as a media scholar--the highly publicized battles over indecency and pornography on the Internet. She shows how digital marketing taps into teenagers' developmental needs and how three public service campaigns--about sexuality, smoking, and political involvement--borrowed their techniques from commercial digital marketers. Not all of today's techno-savvy youth are politically disaffected; Generation Digital chronicles the ways that many have used the Internet as a political tool, mobilizing young voters in 2004 and waging battles with the music and media industries over control of cultural expression online.

YouTube: The Book!

Michael Miller, an accomplished nonfiction writer in the world of computing and internet guides has recently released a book on using YouTube called YOUTUBE 4 YOU. Personally, (and in the tradition of Web 2.0) I thought YouTube was fairly self explanitory. A quick look at the description and table of contents below and it's clear that this book is written for tards. That said, it is ranked #4208 on Amazon.com which means that people are in fact buying it. If anything, this goes to show that YouTube is still largely untapped. The most viewed video on YouTube is at 51 million views. This seems like a huge number, but considering that the Internet is global, there is quite a ways to go. Who knows? For the less savvy, this book might actually be useful.

BOOK INFO FROM AMAZON:
VIEW. UPLOAD. SHARE. That's what YouTube is all about–viewing, uploading, and sharing your favorite videos. And the book you hold in your hands will help you get the most out of this hot website. You'll learn how to find the latest viral videos, share your favorite videos with friends and the YouTube community, and shoot and upload your own videos to the YouTube website. YouTube 4 You is the first book to take you inside YouTube, show you how the site works, and provide tips and tricks for becoming a more successful YouTuber!

You’ll Learn How To
• Find and watch the latest videos
• Manage and share your favorite videos
• Download and save YouTube videos to your computer or iPod
• Upload your own YouTube video creations
• Get more out of the YouTube community
• Troubleshoot viewing and uploading problems

Contents
Introduction 1
Part I YouTube 4 Everyone
1 Welcome to YouTube 7
2 Getting Around the YouTube Site 13
Part II YouTube 4 Viewers
3 Finding Videos to Watch 27
4 Watching YouTube Videos 39
5 Managing and Sharing Your Favorite Videos 49
6 Downloading YouTube Videos to Your PC–and Your iPod 61
Part III YouTube 4 Video Makers
7 What Type of Videos Do You Want to Upload? 75
8 Creating Videos 4 YouTube 89
9 Uploading Videos to YouTube 99
10 Managing Your Uploaded Videos 109
11 Who Owns What: Legal Issues with YouTube Videos 117
Part IV YouTube 4 Advanced Users
12 Joining the YouTube Community–and Creating Your Own Channel 133
13 Adding YouTube Videos to Your Own Site or Blog 153
14 Profiting from Your YouTube Videos 163
15 Getting More Out of YouTube–With Third-Party Tools 175
16 Troubleshooting YouTube Problems 183