Psychosocial Issues and New Possibilities
Among some of the psychosocial issues being raised by critics is the notion of children taking the new technology for granted. Unlike older age groups that have witnessed the rapid evolution of computer technology and all of its consequences, for present-day children there is nothing in the way of novelty to be appreciated. To them, it is simply another element of the environment to be manipulated and used toward some worthwhile end. A natural and easily observable result of this, is the fact that today’s children have an uncanny sense of familiarity with computers that is at the very least foreign to most adults. According to one source, there are approximately 10 million youths in the United States that are now online, with that figure expected to more than quadruple by 2002 (www.privacyrights.org). Nowadays, children can enjoy a sort of empowerment uncommon to most other generations at their age. In the words of Nicholas Negroponte, director of MIT’s Media Lab, “As children appropriate a global information resource, and as they discover that only adults need learner’s permits, we are bound to find new hope and dignity in places where very little existed before” (Bennett, 1998). In addition to allowing today’s youngsters to explore the vast reaches of cyberspace from the comfort of their home terminal, a different kind of empowerment is inherent in the virtually anonymous nature of the Internet. Childhood can be wrought with insecurities regarding such superficial traits as one’s physical appearance or disabilities. The irrelevance of such factors in the medium of cyberspace gives youngsters an otherwise unrealistic opportunity to interact with people who have no choice but to judge them instead on the merits of their intelligence and personality.
| More on Child-Parent Dynamics: | Psychosocial Benefits |
| A Girl Named Alice | Filtering Mechanisms |
| Advertising | References |
From the
Flinstones to the Jetsons:
How Technology is Sprocketing the American Family into the New
Millennium
| PROJECT HOME PAGE | Computer and Internet Demographics by Jason Stewart |
| The Cyber-Struggle Between Parents and Children by Julie Carvey | Gender Roles In
Cyberspace by Leslie Simon |
This project was produced for Psy 380, Social Psychology of Cyberspace, Spring 1999, at Miami University. All graphics in these pages are used with permission or under fair use guidelines, are in the public domain, or were created by the authors. Last revised: . This document has been accessed times since 1 May 1999. Comments & Questions to R. Sherman