The Young and the Digital @ SXSW 2010

I am happy to announce that I have been invited by the organizers of the South by Southwest Interactive Festival to participate in their South by Bookstore event. I’m looking forward to sharing some of the research and insights generated from the work that led to the writing of The Young and the Digital and beyond. SXSW is always an interesting experience and a fun opportunity to see the future when it comes to new media technologies.

The Young and the Digital in 2010: Studying the Mini-Generational and Participation Gaps

Our research team will be quite active in 2010. In addition to continuing our work with various organizations and digital media educational efforts our research agenda sets its sights on two interesting aspects of the digital world. The first area stakes out a space to explore the generational shifts that are constantly remaking the social media landscape. The second area seeks to document and analyze the increasingly diverse makeup of the digital media world.

Generational Shifts
When I talk about my research with various organizations and colleagues around the world I am often asked: how does the use of social media change over time? In other words, what would a longitudinal study of social media behaviors reveal about the complex ways we participate in digital media culture? Recently, The New York Times posted an interesting piece, The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s that underscores the mini-generational gaps that make it difficult to talk in very broad terms about youth and digital media. Lee Rainie, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, told the Times, “People two, three or four years apart are having completely different experiences with technology.”

The article points out that the digital media behaviors of 22-year old college students are very different than eighteen year old college students. It speaks to how quickly engagement with digital media evolves. We’ve been tracking this in our own research. Three years ago when we started collecting survey data from college age persons about their use of social network sites we asked this question: “How often do you check social network sites?” When we launched a new national survey two months ago (November 2009) we realized that the question–just three years old–appears outdated.

The question assumes that there are times in the day when young collegians are not connected, not updating their status, or not looking out for new content posted, for example, in their Facebook news feed. Young people are “always on,” that is to say, always connected to a device and their peers no matter if they are at school, work, the gym, bar, or even while driving. They are always connecting, sharing, and communicating. Today, the more relevant question might very well be, “when are you not on a social media platform?”

The survey project that we recently launched is designed to probe how the use of social media changes in a relatively short window of time. We know from our previous research that teens use of social media varies significantly from the college students usage of social media. Our latest project is designed to produce an evidenced-based portrait that compares and contrasts the social media practices of current college students with recent college grads. One of our hypothesis is that the motivation for using social media is marked, in large measure, by the various stages of the life-cycle. We believe that the intensity and types of participation in the social media world are constantly evolving in relation to external factors like work, family, and geographical mobility.

So, are college grads more or less likely than current college students to share personal information about themselves in Facebook? Do college grads find themselves using social media more or less often than college students? And does the composition of their network change in the transition from college to the professional world? These are just some of the questions that our research is poised to address in an effort to further illuminate the mini-generational distinctions that are part of social media world.

We will be posting some preliminary results and data points from the survey in the next few weeks.

Diversity and the Digital Media Participation Gap

In February, the MacArthur Foundation and the Digital Media and Learning Hub at the University of California, Irvine are hosting The Digital Media and Learning Conference. The theme for the inaugural event to be held in La Jolla, California is, Diversifying Participation.

Fifteen years ago the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released the now famous report Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the “Have Nots” in Rural and Urban America. That report along with additional research from scholars, community activists, and policy makers established the framework for what is now known as the digital divide, a reference to the rise of the technology rich and the technology poor. The original digital divide narrative focused primarily on who did and did not have access to computers and the Internet. The belief, of course, was that those on the digital margins, often the poor, the rural, and less educated would fall farther behind their more affluent, suburban, and educated counterparts.

It did not take long for researchers to expand the focus of digital media and diversity beyond the question of access. More recently researchers have explored what is typically referred to as the participation gap– a recognition that as a more diverse population engages the digital media world they bring different skills, competencies, and interests to their online experiences. As the organizers of the Diversifying Participation conference write in their announcement, “Young people have differential access to online experiences, practices, and tools and this has a consequence in their developing sense of their own identities and their place in the world.” Trying to identify, document, and comprehend these different experiences and practices and what they mean for achieving a more equitable digital world represents an exciting stage of research.

One of the assumptions that accompanied the original digital divide narrative is that black, Latino, and working class communities, for example, were not engaged with social and mobile media technologies. The data that we have been collecting demonstrates just how wrongheaded that assumption is. Still, even as black and Latino youth are using technology their participation in the digital media world produces notable perils and possibilities.

I’m giving one of the keynote addresses for the Digital Media and Learning and Learning Conference. My presentation considers how the social media practices of black and Latino youth compel us to rethink the participation gap and the emergent issues surrounding their immersion in the digital world. I’ll also be talking about these issues at conferences at Ohio St. University, a community organization in Washington DC, and another MacArthur funded event at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

As these and other events approach I will be sharing my observations and presentations on this website.

Teens, Technology, and Sexting: Criminal Acts or Teachable Moments?

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new report on teens and “sexting,” a reference to teens who use their mobile phones to send nude or partially nude photos to their boyfriends and girlfriends. NPR did a story on the report which you can see here. Teens and Sexting was written by Amanda Lenhart of Pew in conjunction with Richard Ling who teaches at the IT University of Copenhagen and Scott Campbell of the University of Michigan. I know Scott and recently had a chance to share a panel with him on social networks. Their report is timely for several reasons. Here are a few of the findings from the study:

• 4% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of themselves to someone else via text messaging.

• 15% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have received sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of someone they know via text messaging on their cell phone.

• Older teens are much more likely to send and receive these images; 8% of 17-year-olds with cell phones have sent a sexually provocative image by text and 30% have received a nude or nearly nude image on their phone.

Sexting was just entering our societal vocabulary when I was finishing The Young and the Digital. When a small number of prosecutors around the nation began charging teens who engaged in sexting with disseminating and possessing child pornography the headlines grew. But does it make sense to treat sexting as a crime? Further, how do we make sense of teen sexuality in the digital age?

As I read the Pew report I recalled how some of my research for The Young and the Digital addressed issues of teens, technology, and sexuality. In one of my research interviews Mr. Walker, a high school teacher, discussed his students use of MySpace. He was clearly disturbed by some of the content they were posting and suggested that I see for myself the kinds of online identities his students were creating. So, we surveyed about twenty profiles. It was an eye-opening experience.

In nearly all of the profiles that we looked at, the online identities were incredibly theatrical and aspirational. Specifically, his students were living out many of their fantasies through the identities they created with social media. As we continued to scan the profiles Mr. Walker noted how many of his students were striving to appear older. One thirteen-year-old student, for example, listed his age as fifteen. Likewise, a fourteen-year-old pupil listed her age as sixteen. This, it turns out, is a typical tendency in young people’s online behavior. One study found that while most teens did not pretend to be someone else in the social sites they visit, 86% of teens did pretend to be older online.

In most instances the desire for a more mature persona took on a decidedly sexualized tone, an expression of online identity that worried Mr. Walker. But as we looked at the profiles much of what I noticed was pretty normal behavior. Both the young men and women flirted with the camera while playing to the gazes of the peers they presumed would be watching. The young men proudly displayed bare chests, meticulously places tattoos, and flexed muscles. Similarly, the young women performed in poses that were simultaneously provocative and submissive. I walked away from my conversation with Mr. Walker convinced that much of what I saw was playful and not profane; indeed, exploratory rather than explicit. Of course, sexting takes place in more private communication so we did not see anything even remotely similar to what has been reported.

Teens have long associated sexuality with greater independence, personal control, and a path to adulthood. Many adolescent researchers believe that teens’ exploration of sexuality occurs during a period of immense physical, hormonal, social, and emotional change. Today, teens are using social media to negotiate this period of great change.

Teens have been at the center of my research for more than ten years and one thing is clear. While they may not own much teens develop a very early and clever sense of the most important thing they will ever own: their bodies. In social network sites I noticed that teens take great pride in their rapidly changing bodies and use them quite literally to articulate what I call the “aspirational self.” The incessant desire to control and use their bodies as a source of pleasure and personal expression is a key theme in young people’s journey toward greater social, emotional, and physical maturity. In the universe of user-generated media this is realized in spectacular and sometimes troubling fashion.

Rather than prosecute young people for sexting, we need to use these as “teachable moments” about technology, sexuality, and intimacy. In the digital world teens are acting out many of the scripts and images they consume in popular culture. Unfortunately, the images of femininity and masculinity in pop culture provide narrow notions of gender identity for teens to experiment with. A 2005 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation titled Sex on TV4 found that between 1998 and 2005, the number of sexual scenes on television nearly doubled. In my 2006 book Hip Hop Matters I document the degree to which popular music and music videos marketed to young people incorporate increasingly sexualized content, bodies, and imagery.

It seems that among a minority of teens exchanging nude or semi-nude images with each other is acceptable. In some instances, according to Pew, sexual images “are shared between two romantic partners, in lieu of, as a prelude to, or as a part of sexual activity.” Some teens believe that their peers are pressured by a person they like to send a sexual image via text. One fourteen-year-old girl told Pew that she sent inappropriate images to boys that she liked. “I felt like if I didn’t do it, they wouldn’t continue to talk to me.”

In my research one parent noted how some of the teens in her son’s peer group were using mobile phones to control a romantic partner. Text messages were used as a surveillance tool, “where are you!” or “who are you with?” The Pew report suggests that teens are also using text messages to harass, embarrass, and even pressure each other into some kind of sexual activity.

In the age of social and mobile media, teens’ exploration with sexuality will likely become even more curious and adventurous but not necessarily dangerous. The ability to seek out more information and even exchange their thoughts about sexuality creates the possibilities for learning how to manage sexual situations in ways that are both safe and healthy.

In the case of sexting, technology is not the problem. Consequently, the solution is not to criminalize sexting but to help our kids grapple with the natural curiosities they develop regarding their sexuality. The use of social and mobile media in teen courtship rituals is yet another reason for us to engage our kids about technology, formally in places like schools and informally in homes and media.

Studies like the Pew report illustrate why educating young people about the social consequences of social media is one of the great challenges of life in the digital world.

Rick Perry Gets Personal and Political: Social Media Politics Texas Style

Last week I learned that Texas Governor Rick Perry was embracing social media in an interesting kind of way in the run-up to his 2010 re-election bid. Take a look at this Perry personalized video ad.

In the ad Perry can be seen talking directly to a supporter; someone named Dennis. Apparently, Perry has hired a company to craft about 100,000 of these personalized videos. It’s politics version of Amazon.com’s, “since you bought this book we thought you might be interested in this one.”

According to the Perry campaign the videos are designed to create a more personal connection between the politician and voters. Elise Hue was doing a story for the Texas Tribune, a new non-profit news organization devoted to covering all things politics in Texas. Elise and I talked about the use of social media in political campaigns, the handling of politicians as products, and whether or not any of this is good for democracy. (You can watch her report here).

“So what are the implications for politics?” Elise asked me. “It’s a mixed bag,” I replied. Here is what I meant. It is clear that social media is, to quote author Michael Lewis, “the new, new thing” in politics. In the aftermath of the 2008 presidential election politicians of all stripes will be using social media. But how they use it certainly varies. Some use social media to raise money. Some use it to broadcast their message with great precision. Others use it to create a sense of intimacy and community. Needless to say, some social media strategies benefit democracy better than others.

One thing that we have learned about the migration to digital is that traditional hierarchies are being challenged like never before. Along the way, new kinds of relationships and conversations are emerging. Evidence of this is happening all around us as voters talk directly to candidates, news audiences to reporters, and students to teachers just to name a few examples. It’s no longer a one-way discussion. Conversation via social media is something that future generations of voters and candidates will assume. In a 2008 report titled, “Post-Election Voter Engagement,” the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that more than half, 51%, of then President-Elect Barack Obama’s supporters expected some form of communication from the new administration through social media including email, text messaging, or social network sites. Many of these voters expect to share conversations with the administration, too.

Politicians who cut their teeth on a very different media model–broadcast–are trying to adapt to the social media landscape. Whereas broadcast is top-down, passive, and one-to-many the social media model, at its best, is bottom-up, participatory, and peer-to-peer.

A few months ago we went out into the field with a new study. Part of the project considers to what extent the use of social platforms like Facebook develops a civic dimension. Just from some of the early data results I can tell you that social media is infiltrating just about every aspect of young people’s lives including their consumption of news and their engagement in civic life. Still, nothing in our research suggests that these kinds of targeted ads will resonate with young technology users.

The personal ads by the Perry campaign appear to be using social media techniques to deliver a broadcast style message. In short, new tools, same tactics. It is unclear if these videos encourage some of the signature features of today’s digital media culture like conversation, community, and sharing.

Meanwhile, the Perry personalized video is emblematic of what has long been troubling about the marriage between politics and modern media: the triumph of style over substance. This is not unique to our time; it dates back more than a century as the press and later, electronic images emerged as, arguably, the most powerful factors in American political culture.

The use of media to sell candidates to the voter has a long history in American politics but it turned an important corner in the 1960s. In 1969 a twenty-five year-old writer named Joe McGinnis wrote The Selling of the President: 1968. It became an instant classic. On the front of the book Richard Nixon appears on the cover of a cigarette box.

In the 1960s there was a growing recognition that the techniques used by cigarette makers to sell their product to American consumers were dubious at best. McGinnis made a similar argument about how political candidates are packaged and sold. Nearly forty years after publishing “The Selling of the President” McGinnis writes, “In the summer of 1968…I learned something nobody wanted the American public to know: The two presidential candidates, Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, had hired advertising agencies to package them like products and sell them to the American people.” Style mattered more than substance. Politicians, increasingly, were handled like consumer products and politics have never been the same. Democracy suffers as we see the blurring of the lines between selling cigarettes and selling politicians, performing and governing. In the digital age shouldn’t we expect a different kind of ethics in politics?

America’s experiment with democracy is entering a new era in the age of social media. What we must demand from candidates is that they use social media to encourage engaged citizenship, community, and dialog rather than as the latest tool to sell tested sound bites and packaged candidates at a time when bold and visionary leadership is needed now more than ever.

The Young and the Digital on KUT/NPR

Here’s a short interview I did recently with KUT’s Jennifer Stayton. In the interview we talk about a host of issues including the appeal of being constantly connected, why young people are attracted to the online world, what they believe is negative about their own engagement with social media, and just how tiring it is to be “always on” in the digital world. You can listen to the interview here.

Twitterball: Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Ochocinco and the Future of Sports

Earlier this week I was watching ESPN’s Sportcenter Live when producers of the show interrupted the program with a breaking news report. Minutes earlier, Tiger Woods, the world’s most famous athlete, used his website to post a public apology to his wife and kids and combat the rumors that were rapidly spreading about his private life. With the stroke of a keyboard Tiger used his website to, at least momentarily, reframe the press coverage about his recent troubles.

ESPN was not the only news outlet that immediately reported on the statement. Several other major news media organizations ran front page stories on their websites, too. What really caught my eye was the fact that each of the stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times used one source for their initial reporting–Tiger Woods.

After observing how Team Tiger was able to spin the news reporting I began to think about how social media is transforming the culture of sports. A few weeks ago I had an interesting conversation with Eddie Matz, senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. Eddie’s writing a piece on professional athletes use of social media platforms like Twitter.

Shortly before my chat with Eddie former Kansas City Chiefs running back Larry Johnson found himself in serious trouble and, eventually (albeit briefly), out of a job after he used a gay slur in a Twitter post. The firestorm that confronted Johnson was yet another reminder of how the sportsworld, like virtually every other institution in America, has been forced to grapple with the spread of social media. As a generation of athletes accustomed to social media and the “always on” norms of digital media culture enter pro sports the executives of billion dollars sports franchises have been forced to upgrade their knowledge about social media. In many NFL training camps this summer several teams instituted a no-social media policy out of fear that team secrets, strategy, and practices could be openly shared. In September the NFL established a formal policy regarding the use social media by players.

Eddie asked me what I thought about the use of social media by pro athletes. We talked about several things but here are six ways in which social media is changing the business and culture of professional sports.

1. Personal branding. A number of athletes use social media as a self-promotional tool, a way to package themselves for fans. With social media platforms like blogs, microblogs, social network sites, photo sharing sites, and video streaming who needs a multi-million dollar marketing campaign from Nike or McDonald’s? Many athletes use social media to announce public appearances—a direct appeal to fans that is social, casual, and personal. In a rising number of instances players even use social media to ask fans to vote for them in all-star balloting campaigns. Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes is using Twitter and Facebook to ask fans to vote him into the Pro Bowl. Think of social media in this instance as “me media.”

2. Lifestreaming. One of the most revolutionary aspects of the digital media landscape is that we are no longer merely consumers of media content but producers of media content, too. Online destinations like YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook tap into the voyeur in all of us. This particular aspect of social media reflects a generational ethos that blurs the line between the private and the public self. Young people today have very different notions of privacy and it is clear that they like watching each other. This is as much environmental as it is cultural. The constant presence of cameras–the ones we own as well as surveillance devices—suggests that we are constantly being watched and constantly performing. This is part of the appeal of reality TV, a genre that has turned watching people in their homes, at work, and elsewhere into a spectator sport. The hour-by-hour status updates posted by some athletes resembles production of their very own celebreality show. On any given day you can follow Lance Armstrong as he bikes, eats, and makes public appearances. Who needs VH-1, MTV, or FOX when you can create and stream your own life through the explosion of social media channels?

3. Intimacy with fans. One of the reoccurring complaints about sports over the last ten to fifteen years is that the gentrification of the sports landscape—the luxurious facilities, food, services, and amenities has made it near impossible for the average family to attend games. As a result, the distance between pro sports and fans has grown wider. Likewise, as their salaries have scaled to unprecedented heights professional athletes have entered a whole new class that creates a great disconnect between them and the fans that cheer for them. Enter social media. A number of athletes are using social media as a way to connect with fans on a more personal level. Baltimore Ravens’ standout linebacker Ray Lewis invites fans to enter the “Meet Ray Lewis” contest via Twitter. Chad Ochocinco posts updates about arriving for the team plane or what its like to prepare for a tough rival. Much to the chagrin of coaches and team owners athletes are inviting fans into places like the locker room, team meetings, and on board chartered flights. Social media in instances like these takes the mantra made famous in the sports biz by legendary television producer Roone Arledge, “up close and personal,” to new heights.

4. Civic engagement. Athletes use social media to promote the various social causes and philanthropic efforts they join. Social media in this arena is a civic tool. Lance Armstrong uses Twitter to update his 2 million-plus followers about cancer related news and medical discoveries. In preparation for the launch of his annual Shaq-A-Clause “Toys-for-Tots “ drive Shaquille O’Neal invited his 2 million plus followers to make donations to their local toy store. We tend to think of social media strictly as “me media” but pro athletes, like many others, embrace these tools as “we media,” too. In efforts like these the power of celebrity and social media converge for some worthwhile results.

5. Empowerment. Throughout most of the 20th century management ruled pro athletes with an iron fist. The control of pro athlete’s—what they say, what they do, what they wear—is still a source of great tension. Starting with the social and political upheaval of the 1960s athletes grew more defiant, outspoken, and empowered as they waged war against a system that treated them like property rather than partners. Not surprisingly some athletes are using social media to express their dissatisfaction with the control culture of sports. This past summer the San Diego Chargers fined Antonio Cromartie $2,500 for a tweet that attributed part of the team’s poor performance to the bad food served at training camp. Cromartie explained later that he was speaking out about health and nutrition. After the fine Cromartie proclaimed that his right to free speech had been violated. Ochocinco is constantly defying NFL executives. After the league fined him a hefty $20,000 for pretending to bribe a game official with a $1 bill Ochocinco used Twitter to fight back. “Wait till you see what I do in Pittsburgh,” the receiver said in a Tweet. “Remember I set aside fine fund before the season started. I’m just starting!!!” For some athletes social media will certainly feel like a source of freedom and empowerment, a means to say what they want and not be muted.

6. Me-Journalism. Pro athletes commonly complain that sports reporters often bend their words, take comments out of context, and practice what they consider unfair press coverage. Today, social media gives them something that they have never had before—a tool to tell their own stories and directly challenge what they perceive as bias reporting. In his book The Breaks of the Game, the late David Halberstam discusses what he calls a cultural and generational clash between pro athletes and the reporters who write about them. Over the years this clash has intensified. Some athletes refuse to talk with reporters, a move that likely contributes to even more unfavorable coverage and animosity. I’ve never understood why athletes like Terrell Owens fight with reporters—the power of the pen is mighty. It was a battle that until now athletes were never fully equipped to fight. But social media gives them a platform to speak without fear of misquote and misrepresentation. When the BALCO scandal began to break Barry Bonds avoided reporters and chose, instead, to use his website for public comment. And though their public images and “Q-scores” (likability) can not be more opposite Tiger’s use of his website to offer a public comment about his personal transgressions parallels Bonds’ decision to avoid the press and make a statement through social media.

The digital world is a busy and constantly changing world. As a new generation of athletes outfitted with all the tech tools available step into the arena the sportsworld promises to be busy and constantly changing, too.

The Young and the Digital in The Austin Chronicle

When I sat down to talk with Belinda Acosta of The Austin Chronicle we chatted about a range of subjects including the importance of story in the digital world. I mentioned that in the digital age we are all story-tellers, archivists, and content producers. She was intrigued by a few things including the title of the book, how anyone would dare to write about what can only be described as rapid and constant social and technological changes, and the consequences of being digital. Her piece is the feature story in the Screens section of the Chronicle. You can read her reporting of a really fun conversation here.

Smart Phones, Dumb Ads: Men, Women, and Social Media

This past Sunday while watching pro football I could not help but notice two television ads introducing two new mobile phones, Verizon’s Wireless Blackberry Storm 2 and Motorola’s much hyped, Droid. Here are links to the spots if you have not seen them.

BlackBerry Storm2

Motorola Droid

What strikes me most is how overwhelmingly masculine both ads are.

The BlackBerry Storm 2 spot is loaded with testosterone. The dark and stormy setting, male voice-over, hard rock soundtrack, and masculine hand seen using the mobile device tilts decisively toward the male consumer. But many of the features boasted in the spot–the apps, texting, responsiveness–are exactly the kinds of things that women are more likely to do with their mobile phones.

Male iconography–ranchers, shots of the open prairie, and a squad of stealth fighter jets—defines the Droid spot, too. Between the two spots only one woman appears. I know it’s pro football and the presumed audience, rightly or wrongly, are millions of adrenaline-filled men rooting for their favorite teams and eagerly awaiting their fantasy football results. But as I thought about the multi-million dollar roll out for these campaigns I could not help but think: are these types of campaigns dated, culturally out of synch, and, ultimately, off-message?

A decade or so ago it was fairly common to associate all things tech with men, call it the “boy toy” syndrome. That was certainly the case with the early marketing and selling of video games, an industry that up until recently all but ignored the fact that girls and women play games, too. A 2006 Active Gamer Benchmark Study by Nielsen Entertainment found that 64% of online gamers are women. Women, according to the study, generally seek out gaming experiences that are casual, recreational, and social. These styles of play represent the next era of gaming.

When you look at the data on who uses social media technologies the BlackBerry and Droid spots are out of touch.

Some of the more interesting gender differences related to technology use begin to form just as teens use of mobile phones and social network sites intensifies. When the Pew Internet & American Life Project produced its first report on teens use of social network sites, Social Networking Websites and Teens, clear gender patterns emerged. Among both young and older teenagers, girls used social network sites more than boys. Seventy percent of older teenage girls, ages 15-17, had used a social network site compared to 54% of older boys. Similarly, older girls were more likely to have created a profile on a social site, 70% to 57%.

Teen girls use of the Web, generally speaking, tends to be more social than boys. In a report titled Teen Content Creators and Consumers, Pew found that a quarter (25%) of online girls age 15-17 blog, compared with 15% of online boys of the same age. Pew’s data suggests that while boys are consumers of online content girls are sharers of online content. In other words, when it comes to participation in the online world boys take, girls give. Pew writes, “just 29% of boys ages 15-17 share their own creative content online, compared with 38% of girls in that age group.” Pew characterizes girls as “power content creators.”

These trends persist as teens grow into young twenty-somethings—an age segment my research focuses on.

At a recent conference in Chicago I spoke about how young people are using social network sites to maintain different types of relationships. When we began surveying college students about their media behaviors three years ago women stood out as the most innovative and intense users of social network sites. With the exception of massively multiplayer online games women are more actively engaged with social media platforms than men. For example, in our survey women were much more likely to use two or more social network sites, suggesting that they were using social sites to manage a diverse sphere of friends, acquaintances, and social contacts. Also, women were significantly more likely in our survey to rank “managing my personal profile” as one of their top three SNS activities. In some other data that we have gained access to we know, for instance, that women are much more likely than men to post and share photos in their online networks. Photo management is a main source of activity and social expression among Facebook’s youngest users.

The idea that women are more social in their use of technology is actually consistent with what we know, more broadly, about men, women, and expressions of intimacy and engagement with others. In his book Bowling Alone political scientist Robert Putnam writes, “women make 10-20 percent more long-distance calls to family and friends than men, are responsible for nearly three times as many greeting cards and gifts, and write two to four times as many personal letters as men. “ Putnam adds that, “ even in adolescence, women are more likely to express a sense of concern and responsibility for the welfare of others.” Women’s engagement with friends, family, and acquaintances compels Putnam to claim that they are “more avid social capitalists than men.”

Of course, platforms like Facebook are ideal tools for practicing many of these expressions of sociability including communicating with friends, sending friendly greetings and personal notes, long distance communication, and expressions of intimacy and caring for others.

Sociologist Claude Fischer came to similar conclusions about men and women after analyzing American’s use of the telephone in the early twentieth century. Women, Fischer found, were much more likely than men to use the phone for casual communication and conversation. This particular use of the phone was actually discouraged by telephone industry executives. They thought it was silly, a waste of time, and an inefficient use of the technology. Needless to say, they were wrong! The use of the phone as a primarily social tool—think AT&T’s old ad campaign “reach out and touch someone”—is one of the most enduring features of the technology.

Though technological innovations are often accused of making us less social, less intimate, and less community-oriented they can have the opposite effect. Today’s social media platforms are being used to expand how we build and cultivate personal and professional connections as well as manage friendships that are close by and far away.

With all of this in mind I can only scratch my head when I see ads like the ones currently in rotation for the BlackBerry Storm 2 and Motorola’s Droid. Both spots overlook the fact that in an age where media use is increasingly social women are crucial in terms of both cultural and consumer trends. It is time to do away with ads and attitudes that assume that social and digital technologies are the primary domain of men. If anything, the data suggests that in terms of social use and innovation these technologies are increasingly the domain of women.

The Young and the Digital on Ypulse

A number of organizations have made studying and understanding young people’s engagement with digital media a full time endeavor. One of the most innovative and interesting outfits studying young people’s use of digital media is Ypulse, a youth insights group operating in San Francisco and New York. In an interview with Ypulse I spoke with them about, among other things, how youth culture and lifestyles have changed since I began doing research for The Young and the Digital; the evolving role of games in our lives; a wired classroom for third graders; and kids, social media, and privacy.

You can read the interview here.

Interview with The Progressive Radio Show

In this radio interview with Matt Rothschild from The Progressive Radio Show we talk about the rise of the digital world. Among other things, we discuss social media’s role in the decline of the pop music and television industries; the cultural impact of anytime, anywhere media; technology in schools; teens and technology; social media and social divisions; and, social media and public health.

You can hear the entire interview here.