Digital Natives Emotionally Detached from Media

Switching between media 27 times an hour is super multi-tasking – Wow!

From T.C. Sottek Study: 'digital natives' switch devices and platforms every two minutes, lack emotional engagement

A new study revealed by Time indicates that those who grew up with mobile tech are restless and emotionally detached consumers, switching between TVs, magazines, tablets, smartphones, or channels within platforms about 27 times an hour while experiencing “fewer highs and lows of emotional response.” The study says that these “digital natives” use media to “regulate their mood,” and that as soon as they’re bored or tired, they shift their attention elsewhere. And while a cursory glance at any vacuous, smartphone-equipped person might be enough to declare the findings plausible, Time’s study appears to be more scientific: researchers used biometric monitoring and point of view video capture to monitor people’s daily media consumption habits.

 

Tough to Keep Up With These Kids ...

… it's generational. Maybe it's time to just sit back and watch them pass us by.

The Digital Natives are Restless

Good stuff from Jessica Hagy

Are Kids Wired For Mobile Learning?

Jane's Pick of the Day: Are We Wired For Mobile Learning? (Infographic):

Whether or not you agree with the term “digital native” and what it stands for, this is an interesting infographic  - from the Voxy Blog (where you can find full details of how to embed it on your blog).

Because of the proliferation of new technologies, the younger generation today is outgrowing traditional forms of education – remember pencils, chalkboards, textbooks and graphing calculators? Whether we are in the car, on the train, at work, or in a classroom, mobile technology in particular is giving us the ability to learn on-the-go. See the infographic below to learn why we are wired for mobile learning, and how we can use mobile technologies to educate ourselves.

Via: Voxy Blog

Engineering is Hard

Some fairly simplistic analysis from Mark Bauerlein. He lists the starting salaries for a number of engineering degrees and wonders why more students aren't completing bachelor's degrees in engineering. As someone who actually teaches engineering, I would point to a number of factors that limit the number of students pursuing degrees in engineering. Number one on the list is difficulty. The entry level math course for engineering is Calculus I and many colleges are moving to make Calc II the first math course. How many of our students are ready for Calc I their first semester? Even students that excel at math may opt of a business degree, which they perceive as "easier."

I have a colleague who worships Bauerlein and his book "The Dumbest Generation." While the book makes some good points, I think in the end Bauerlein underestimates what our kids can do. I would argue that our kids live in a digital world, but many of us are still teaching them in an analog world. Bauerlein points to kids immersion in digital and electronic media and their inability to recall facts and figures that have traditionally been taught in schools. I would argue that this has nothing to do with technology - think of Jay Leno's "jay-walking" segment and the number of adults (not digital natives) that can't answer simple questions. Our kids can do things with technology that earlier generations couldn't even dream of. So what do we do? We bring them into class and tell them to turn off their cell phones, put away their laptops, and take out a pad of paper and a pen or pencil. Maybe if we occasionally engaged them with technology, they could learn the Gettysburg address and some of the other facts and figures that we use to measure knowledge in our analog worlds. And maybe we could start measuring knowledge in new ways.

Salary by Major

The National Association of Colleges and Employers has released Winter 2010 results of its ongoing survey of starting salaries for different bachelor degrees. Here are the top ten:

Petroleum Engineering $86,220

Chemical Engineering $65,142

Mining and Mineral Engineering $64,552

Computer Science $61,205

Computer Engineering $60,879

Electrical/Electronics & Communications Engineering $59,074

Mechanical Engineering $58,392

Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering $57,734

Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering $57,231

Information Sciences & Systems $54,038

A summary appears here.

Why, one wonders, haven't the number of bachelor's degrees in engineering shot upward in the last 10 years?

Digital Learners - Pay Attention

This video is a couple years old, a little long, and frankly makes me sleepy, but it's well worth the watch. A lot of interesting points embedded throughout. My favorite - "it's not attention deficit, I'm just not paying attention." Encourage your colleagues to watch this before they leave for their holiday break, or maybe when they return in January.

Video: Digital Learners

‘Since most of today’s students can appropriately be labeled as ‘Digital Learners’, why do so many teachers refuse to enter the digital age with their teaching practices? This presentation was created in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching.’

Teaching the Digital Student

Great interview with S. Craig Watkins, an associate professor of radio, TV, and film at the University of Texas at Austin. In the interview, Professor Watkins discusses social media and social networking, and the implications for students and the classroom. I touched on similar ideas in Teaching and Learning - The Digital Student. In the two questions I've excerpted below, Watkins shares some great insights regarding todays' students. Can't wait for the book!

How Students, Professors, and Colleges Are, and Should Be, Using Social Media

His soon-to-be-published book, The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future, touches on those ideas.

Q. How has technology made today’s students different from students a decade ago?
A. They’re really the first generation of teenagers who grew up with the household computer and the Internet as a kind of everyday experience and everyday technology in the household. So they’re used to a much more active way of engaging their environment, a much more active way of gauging the information landscape. Have they developed a set of skills? Have they developed habits that are simply out of step with those more traditional ways of conducting or modeling a classroom? I think they have.

Q. How has today’s student changed how professors prepare their classes?
A. It’s really forcing university professors to think about their teaching style and the pedagogical techniques that they use in the classroom. In other words, I’ve become increasingly dissatisfied with simply delivering a traditional lecture in the classroom. I’m beginning to debate whether or not it’s effective, whether or not it works, whether or not it’s a useful tool or a useful way to engage and create a kind of learning space or a learning environment. They’re active learners, as opposed to passive learners. That one-way flow of content -- I don’t know how effective that is anymore.

In Praise of Online Learning

Great post from Don Tapscott at Grown Up Digital. I know many faculty that dipped their toes into online education in its' infancy and were less than impressed, finally giving up on the medium. But online education has come a long way and many people have worked hard to improve the tools, the training, and the quality control. I don't doubt that you'll still find some clunkers out there, but online learning has proven itself in higher ed and when done right is an important part of every schools' offerings.

One aspect of the report that I find particularly interesting is the efficacy of blended learning. I've always been a big believer in providing online content to my students to supplement the face-to-face content. Blended learning is a great way to connect with students with different learning styles, allow over-achievers to delve deeper into a topic, and as the study points out blended learning often includes additional learning time allowing students to proceed at their own pace and lets them repeat material they find difficult. Lastly, I think it's important we not underestimate the value of providing content to students in this digital environment that so many of them have grown up in and are so comfortable in.

Online learning boosts student performance

The U.S. Department of Education has just released a report comparing traditional face-to-face classroom instruction to learning supplemented or completely replaced by online learning. The conclusion: ‘Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional face-to-face instruction.’

The most effective teaching method blended face-to-face learning with online learning. The study notes that this blended learning often includes additional learning time because students can proceed at their own pace and lets them repeat material they find difficult.
...

Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International, was quoted on the New York Times’ website that ‘The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing - it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction.’

There's even some insight into what has changed to make online courses so effective:

The story notes that until fairly recently, online education amounted to little more than electronic versions of the old-line correspondence courses. That has really changed with arrival of Web-based video, instant messaging and collaboration tools.
...

The real promise of online education is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms. In Grown Up Digital, I describe this as “student-focused” learning as opposed to traditional “teacher-focused” broadcast techniques with the teacher in front of a large class. The story correctly notes that online learning enables more “learning by doing,” which many students find more engaging and useful.

The moral of the story: Students would be better served with much of the curriculum being online. And to repeat what I said in the book, this does not mean a diminished role for teachers. Their time would be freed up to give extremely valuable one-on-one teaching. [Emphasis added - MQ]

Digital Students

Lisa Tuttle-Huff, Principal of the Green Tree Health Science Academy, describing students improved performance in blended online course versus traditional delivery with a textbook. Watch my video on teaching the digital student.
District to revamp online programs

“What we’ve found with these students are that everything seems to be digital for them,” she said. “Multi-media is the way that captured their attention all their lives. You get their attention and you also have a teacher there to do hands on activities.”

Texting vs. Teaching: Who Wins?

Great article that makes a point I have often tried to make - students are texting in class because they're bored. If we as educators did a better job of engaging them, they'd have no reason to text.

Texting vs. Teaching: Who Wins?

Our high schools are full of secretly texting, blithely unengaged adolescents, my colleague Dan de Vise reveals today in a story on a Montgomery County proposal to let students text during lunch. Dan’s story describes the situation well. Educators can’t keep up with the latest technocrazes. They banned cellphones for awhile, then decided they were necessary for emergencies. They figured no one would use them in class, forgetting that the text function allows a flurry of conversations without the miscreants making a discernible sound.

No one in the story asks my question: What do good teachers do about this? The best classes, in my experience, are the ones in which the teacher is holding a conversation with the entire class. Nobody is allowed to sit in a corner and dream about the prom, or text their dress choices to friends. The teacher has her eyes on the entire class, and is calling on everybody. If you are not paying attention, you are going to get caught. If the instructor is particularly good, the frequent texter decides what the class is doing is more interesting than sending another message. [Emphasis mine - MQ]

But since such classes are relatively rare, and teaching often involves the instructor talking and students listening, it is relatively easy for texters to avoid detection, and relatively common for them to be so bored they prefer to tune out and send messages. The standard adminstrative response is to try a new rule--like texting only during lunch--that might or might not alleviate the problem, when the answer to almost every educational mishap or distraction is not more rules, but more good teaching.

Kids and Texting

An interesting piece on kids and texting in the New York Times. Unfortunately, two passages quotes MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle are so far off the mark, that I question the merit of the entire article. Texting May Be Taking a Toll on Teenagers - NYTimes.com:

In this first passage, Turkle posits that a kids 'job' during adolescence is to separate from their parents, and become the person they are meant to be. Staying connected with parents, by texting with them, inhibits this growth. What a load of hogwash! How is this any different than a kid who calls her mother every night?

Sherry Turkle, a psychologist who is director of the Initiative on Technology and Self at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and who has studied texting among teenagers in the Boston area for three years, said it might be causing a shift in the way adolescents develop.

‘Among the jobs of adolescence are to separate from your parents, and to find the peace and quiet to become the person you decide you want to be,’ she said. ‘Texting hits directly at both those jobs.’

Psychologists expect to see teenagers break free from their parents as they grow into autonomous adults, Professor Turkle went on, ‘but if technology makes something like staying in touch very, very easy, that’s harder to do; now you have adolescents who are texting their mothers 15 times a day, asking things like, ‘Should I get the red shoes or the blue shoes?’ ’

As for peace and quiet, she said, ‘if something next to you is vibrating every couple of minutes, it makes it very difficult to be in that state of mind.

‘If you’re being deluged by constant communication, the pressure to answer immediately is quite high,’ she added. ‘So if you’re in the middle of a thought, forget it.’

In the second excerpt, she sees kids being resentful of parents on their own Blackberrys, taking attention away from the kids. Which kids did she study? This is so far out of my own experience and observations.

Professor Turkle can sympathize. “Teens feel they are being punished for behavior in which their parents indulge,” she said. And in what she calls a poignant twist, teenagers still need their parents’ undivided attention.

“Even though they text 3,500 messages a week, when they walk out of their ballet lesson, they’re upset to see their dad in the car on the BlackBerry,” she said. “The fantasy of every adolescent is that the parent is there, waiting, expectant, completely there for them.”

Google Wave

Google just announced/previewed Google Wave at their Google I/O developer conference today. While this new product is only available to developers now - public at the end of the year - it looks very promising. It appears to be a communication tool that brings together all the different technologies (email, IM, chat, blogs, wikis, video, etc) into one unified interface. It supports group and multiple conversations. This product seems to be targeted to the digital natives I have been talking about, supporting their ability to multitask their communications.

Google Riding 'Wave' To Redefine Collaboration

Wave encompasses more than e-mail. It matches or exceeds the functionality of several major application types, including instant messaging, discussion forum software, wikis, and blogs. Rather, it will eventually, as it moves toward commercial release later this year.

Google Wave is a product, a platform, and a protocol. It's a cross between conversation and document that allows users to do with one tool what they currently do with many. It works in a Web browser on the desktop or on mobile phones, like Apple's iPhone or Google Android devices.

Just as Ajax technology has blurred the identity of Web sites by allowing content to be embedded on any Web site, Wave blurs the distinctions between communications modes and between content creation applications.

Writing a Wave is a lot like typing text into Gmail, Google Docs, or a blog posting form in one's browser. To the left of the right-hand column featuring the discussion, there's an in-box with other Waves. And to the left of that, there's a navigation pane atop a list of contacts that looks very similar to Gmail's layout.

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Does Your College Offer a Social Networking Course?

Starting next Fall, Santa Barbara City College will begin offering just such a course. While any of our students probably know more about social networking than our faculty, it's probably time to develop a course in social media and networking. Unfortunately, as a discipline, social media/networking is not fully-formed and still a moving target. How do you create a credit course focused on such a rapidly-changing subject - especially given the glacial rate of change in academia? Reading about this course, it seems that the goals of the course are not well-defined, including to "to learn and have fun," and the content is described as new, innovative and
experimental. As with any course,  I think it's important to define a clear outcome - what are we hoping to accomplish with social media? Do we hope to build a brand? Get a job? Build a learning network? Market ourselves? All of the above?

My take - create a very amorphous course, which is redefined each time it's taught through student-to-student and faculty-to-student and even web-to-student interactions. I think the outcome is also a personal outcome for each student, that evolves as the course progresses. Some students will be interested in marketing, some in building a business brand, and others in outcomes we haven't even thought of.

Social networking class offered in fall

beginning in Fall 2009, City College will be offering an online class to hone your social networking skills with "Social Media and Social Networking," taught by Library Director Kenley Neufeld. Steven W. DaVega, director of the School of Media Arts Mobile Media Institute, implemented the course.

"It's a chance to explore some new technologies and help develop the future," Neufeld said.

The class will integrate different social networking Web sites that apply not only to self-promotion, but also to media, business and marketing.

"It's really the most relevant thing you can do," DaVega said. He added that teaching a networking class in a multimedia program is new for colleges. DaVega said that while other colleges have offered a social networking class in library sciences or applied communication, this class will focus on applied media.

Young People's Web/TV Habits

Ewan McIntosh shares some really interesting research into young people's web/tv habits. If you teach or have kids or grandkids, these findings probably confirm what you've been observing. The question I've been trying to answer is how does or should this sort of data impact teaching and learning - specifically what we do in the classroom?

Andy Pipes at Channel 4 has published some of the results of in-depth research carried out for the Channel into how young people relate to the web, gaming, the telly and each other. It's got some insights that would dispel some of the myth mongering that will take place in this summer's education conference circuit. Prepare your bullshit bingo cards now...

• 'They personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera)
  
• They frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV
  
• 25% of them agree that ‘I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone access’
  
• A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time
  
• They have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces
  
• And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC

'Yet despite living such a ‘connected’ life, kids these days still find technology a means to an end - primarily meeting up with their friends, watching television and listening to music. Above all, youth’s obsession with technology is around communication. The average person surveyed was doing 5 simultaneous actions whilst they watched television these days; and the majority of those actions involved communicating at some level. One young teenage girl admitted ‘I talk to my friend and MSN (instant message) her at the same time.’ In fact, a full 34% of those asked said that they texted friends they were with at the time...'

'The TV is still young people’s most popular way to consume media, though in terms of time spent, TV time is pipped to the post by spending time on the internet.'

Teaching and Learning - The Digital Student

Here's a recent presentation I gave, Thursday May 14th, to kickoff one of our end of year faculty days. I wasn't able to record it live, so I've recorded it and posted it here.

Writing in a Digital Age

This is a discussion that is just beginning on our campus.
Educators using technology to improve writing

As middle and high school students finished their state-required writing exams this week, a new report outlined the need to change how writing is taught in schools.

The report, titled 'Writing Between the Lines -- and Everywhere Else,' released Wednesday, is the third installment from the National Council for Teachers of English that looks at how schools can promote literacy in the fast-paced online culture.

The idea is that students spend more time writing outside class on computers and cellphones and that teachers should tap that interest and find ways to merge the two rather than focusing on research papers, essays, journal or letter writing.

'So much of it [students' online writing] is so shallow and repetitious,' said Sandy Hayes, past chairwoman of the council's middle-level section and a 36-year teaching veteran.

'It is that dilemma of how do we bridge the gap between quick, shallow writing and thoughtful, based-on-information writing.'

21st Century Literacies

Interesting post by English professor Mark Bauerlein. I love blogging - as does Bauerlein, and enjoy texting, IMing, and communicating with video and all of the other 21st Century tools available to us. While I agree that we shouldn't supplant our college composition and research writing courses with these "new media" tools, I think it's important to realize that students must also become proficient in using these tools. It is going to become increasingly important for students to possess a digital media literacy unlike anything we have been required to do. Whether working as a freelance writer, an architect, or a consulting engineer, our future workforce must be digital media savvy. As an architect, imagine competing for jobs with a one-person shop that can generate blog posts, web-traffic, viral video, animation - even a social network of happy customers ready to recommend their work. What ever field our kids choose, it will no longer be just about the quality of their work, but also their digital media and social networking skills. Brainstorm: The NCTE Reports on Writing and 21st Century Literacies

The National Council of Teachers of English has a series on 21st century literacies, and this week at the CCCC in San Francisco, it will release the third paper in the series entitled ‘Writing between the Lines—and Everywhere Else.’ (Go here for the press release.) The announcement provides the rationale, noting that while students complete writing assignments for school, ‘today, as in the past, much writing also goes on outside of school, and students don’t recognize their self-directed, often online, out-of-school writing as writing that counts as much as the writing they do in school.’

Well, one might say, why in the world should they regard texting, posting, blogging, tweeting, and the rest as counting as much as class assignments? They aren’t graded, they don’t require research, they don’t observe grammar and punctuation and spelling, and they address peers, not adults. They may consider their leisure writing as significant, but in a different way, sensibly recognizing the respective circumstances of academic and leisure writing.

NCTE, however, aims to ennoble leisure writing, to set it on the same level as academic writing. The announcement continues:

‘Today people write as never before—texting, on blogs, with video cameras and cell phones, and, yes, even with traditional pen and paper. People write at home, at work, inside and out of school. To recognize and celebrate this writing, NCTE has announced its National Day on Writing.’

This agenda doesn’t make sense, at least not to me. Why devote a national organization’s energies and resources to a national day celebrating texting? A month or two ago, I’ve been told, someone broke the 30,000 textings-in-one-month barrier. Do these practices need the endorsement of professionals?

It’s strange, but the leveling agenda plus the odd framing of writing continues elsewhere in the series. The previous paper is entitled ‘Writing in the 21st Century,’ by Kathleen Blake Yancey, NCTE past president. (To access the pdf, go to the press release linked to above and click on the second bullet point.)

Here is the second paragraph of the report:

‘Historically, we humans have experienced an impulse to write; we have found the materials to write; we have endured the labor of composition; we have understood that writing offers new possiblity and a unique agenda. Historically, we composers pursued this impulse to write in spite of—in spite of cultures that devalued writing; in spite of prohibitions against it when we were female or a person of color; in spite of the fact that we—if we were 6 or 7 or 8 or even 9—were told we should read but that we weren’t ready to compose. In spite of.’

What to say about this odd opening? The first sentence is a notch above the freshman’s opening ‘Since the beginning of time . . .’ The next sentences cast writing in heated terms of struggle and liberation (‘impulse,’ ‘labor,’ ‘possibility,’ ‘unique agenda’). And then we have anti-writing cultures, racist and sexist prohibitions, and age tyranny. Cap it off with that inane melodramatic phrase ‘In spite of’ (italicized in the original).

Keep in mind that this report proposes a recommendation that teachers bring 21st century writing habits (texting etc.) into the classroom. That is a complex and far-reaching revision, and it merits a steady and scientific approach to, among other things, social and technological trends, the relation of classrooms to society, and the intellectual value of those new literacy habits.

But when a report starts out by overloading the central concept with political overtones and identitarian dramaturgy, one wonders about the agenda. Why has NCTE come down so strongly and so enthusiastically on the side of 21st-century literacies?

Millennials

A little long - 90-minutes, but an interesting discussion between two authors, Mark Bauerlein and Neil Howe, on opposite sides of this question. Who knew CSPAN had this knd of stuff! The Millennials: The Dumbest Generation or the Next Great Generation?

Mark Bauerlein and Neil Howe talk about the Millennial Generation and how it ranks compared to other generations. The two authors, who have opposing books on the subject, also talk about the influence of different technologies on the learning habits of those born between 1980 and 2000. This event was hosted by the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, DC.

UPDATE: If you have difficulty getting the video to load, click on the red flash video button on the page linked to above.

Connecting with Digital Natives

Since last semester - Fall 2008 - I've had a little "chat box" on my faculty webpage - see below:

Students, parents, prospective students, etc can check to see if I'm online and available. If I'm available, the little dot next to "Chat with Michael Qaissaunee" is green, if I'm away or unavailable, the dot is grayed out. Pretty cool! I've had students ask me questions after class, before class, even at 11 pm. It's a communication medium they're very comfortable with.

Here's the a chat session with one of my engineering students:

I've blacked out the student's name, to protect their privacy. Notice that the student comes up as "Guest" - I've told them in class that they have to identify themselves and the class. By default the chat session is not logged or recorded. Lastly, I do have the ability to make myself invisible, if I'm working on something else or it's too late at night.

How do you connect with your students?

More on Pew's Generations Online in 2009

Here's more from the Pew study, I linked to earlier.
Study: Sizing up the Online Generation Gap - ClickZ

Internet users take part in different activities based on their age group. That's according to a report, "Generations Online in 2009" released by Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Each age group, whether it's Generation Y or Baby Boomers, are all active on the Internet but do different activities. Generation Y, those between ages 18 and 32, comprise 26 percent of the adult population and 30 percent of the Internet-using population. Among the generational age groups, this is the largest.

Generation Y is also the most social. This group is most likely to use the Internet to play games (50 percent); watch videos online (72 percent); send instant messages (59 percent); use a social networking site (67 percent); create a profile on a social networking site (60 percent); read a blog (43 percent); create a blog (20 percent); or visit a virtual world (10 percent).

"Generation Y is the most well-rounded," said Susannah Fox, associate director at Pew Internet. "They are the most likely to have access to the most online technologies most of their adult lives. That means they probably can't imagine a world without these online activities. They probably never had a chance to form habits like older generations, and probably seems natural."

Social networks are high on the list of activities of Generation Y, a trend cited in an earlier report released by Pew Internet.

Generation X, defined as those between the ages of 33 and 44, share some similarities with Gen Y. Like Gen Y, people in this age group are likely to play games online (38 percent); watch videos online (57 percent); get job information (55 percent); send instant messages (38 percent); use social networking sites (36 percent); create a social networking site profile (29 percent); read a blog (34 percent); and create a blog (10 percent). Where those in the 33 to 44 age group stand out is in research.

Yet, this cohort is more likely than Gen Y to get information on health (82 percent); buy online (80 percent); bank online (65 percent); or visit government Web sites (64 percent) than other groups.

"Generation Y is most likely to have sampled most of what's available online, but generation X seems to be in a life stage that gives them the opportunity to use the Internet experience that they have," Fox said. "They're a pretty wired generation, plus they're at the point online where they're starting to manage some capital."

The population between 70 and 75 years old has grown the most. In a 2005 Pew Internet study, 26 percent were online. At this time 45 percent of the age group is now online.

"People are aging into this group," Fox said. "People are hanging onto their Internet connection through their life stages. We see the saturation start to seep into our older populations."

E-mail is heavily used across all age groups, though Internet users ages 55 and older rely on the medium more heavily. Ninety percent of younger Boomers (ages 45 to 54) and older Boomers (ages 55 to 63) are equally likely to use e-mail online. The Silent Generation, defined as those between 64 to 72) uses e-mail (91 percent), while 79 percent of the G.I. Generation, ages 73 and older, uses e-mail.

Search, watching videos, news, and travel are also universal categories across all age groups.

"This report can give some nuance to the stereotypes we hold about generations and online activities," Fox said. "Some of these stereotypes hold true. It's pretty likely that teens with Internet access will go on social networking sites. It's also true that if you're in your 70s it's less likely you will have Internet access and will stay in the shallow waters of e-mail and search. Then there are those people in the middle, who are also doing interesting things."

Pew Internet conducted a series of telephone interviews in August 2008 of adult Internet users to compile the data for the study.