Link to article
This article, on a site called YPulse: Youth Marketing to Teens, Tweens & Generation Y, outlines some reasons why teens might not use Twitter as avidly as twenty- and thirty-somethings. The author, simply identified as "anastasia," writes, "As long as teens can update their status via MySpace and Facebook for their friends as well as IM and text, Twitter doesn't really add to the existing technology."
She has a valid point. Twitter's social networking capabilities are rather limited, when compared to Facebook. Users can follow others, create lists of followers, privately message other users (as long as it is 160 characters or fewer), and retweet what other people have written. They cannot take quizzes through Twitter (although there are external sites that can connect to Twitter), post galleries of images, or join groups and causes. When Facebook can do all of these (and quite a bit more), why would teenagers expend extra energy and time on something they will use very infrequently?
Because, "anastasia" notes, with Twitter, they can follow celebrities, musicians, and entertainment brands. This gives the Twitter user an inside look at favorite bands, actors, singers, and commerce. For example, I personally follow Dita Von Teese (@ditavonteese) (a famous burlesque performer), Diablo Cody (@diablocody) (screenwriter), and Adam Savage (@donttrythis) (host of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel). I get to read their musings on life (Dita Von Teese recently moved to Paris), work (Adam Savage recently met the President at a science event), and humor (Diablo Cody is generally hysterical). For a teen who wants up-to-the-second news on the people they care about, Twitter is the social networking tool to use.
Twitter also allows teens to @ reply to their favorite celebrities and personalities. For example, I tweeted to Nat Standiford, author of How to say goodbye in robot, that I loved her book. She tweeted back almost instantaneously thanking me. It feels fantastic to have that kind of accountability for the people whose books I like to read!
This article made me think about the best ways librarians can use this tool.
1) Librarians who decide to make Twitter part of their website need to be aware that teens often scan tweets instead of carefully reading them. Therefore, tweets should be brief. Adding a link and a mysterious caption makes your tweet more compelling.
2) Tweet often! I am following some people on Twitter who I forget exist because they tweet so infrequently.
3) Don't make all your tweets about library events or books. Even saying something like, "Have you seen New Moon yet?? I'm on Team Jacob ;)" can pique interest.
4) Have interesting followers yourself. Take a stand on something. Don't be that librarian who only follows libraries, authors, and publishers (although these are important, too).
Try following: @ActuallyNPH (Neil Patrick Harris)
@GLEEonFOX
@mental_floss (Mental Floss magazine)
@adammshankman (judge on So You Think You Can Dance?)
@amberbenson (actress from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, author)
@realjohngreen (ok, I said don't just follow authors) (author of Paper Towns)
ETC.!
5) Know what you are doing. Don't make spelling errors, don't tweet things to all your followers that could just be tweeted to an individual, and remember the Golden Internet Rule: YOUR CLEVER SARCASM SOUNDS LIKE MEAN JERKINESS ON THE INTERNET.
In short: to get teens to use Twitter, librarians have to be Twitter users themselves, not just librarians who are trying to stay "hip."
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Review 6: "Teens all a Twitter" by Lauren Barack
Barack, Lauren. "Teens all a Twitter." School Library Journal 53 (2007).
This article covers Library Camp NYC, a participation-driven event that took place in New York City in August of 2007. Attendees included librarians and other information specialists. The participants discussed Facebook, MySpace, and other social media as useful tools in a school library setting.
However, Barack did not do her background research on Twitter. She refers to it as a "free, Web-based text messaging service" and writes that tweeting is "basically, posting text messages online." This makes it sound like I can punch in anyone's cell phone number and Tweet messages at them. Not true.
This article is extremely short, and just touches on several new types of social media that librarians can use. However, in describing social media tools to others who are not converse in that particular technology (yet), one must be extremely careful to choose words wisely and explore the technology as much as possible.
This article covers Library Camp NYC, a participation-driven event that took place in New York City in August of 2007. Attendees included librarians and other information specialists. The participants discussed Facebook, MySpace, and other social media as useful tools in a school library setting.
However, Barack did not do her background research on Twitter. She refers to it as a "free, Web-based text messaging service" and writes that tweeting is "basically, posting text messages online." This makes it sound like I can punch in anyone's cell phone number and Tweet messages at them. Not true.
This article is extremely short, and just touches on several new types of social media that librarians can use. However, in describing social media tools to others who are not converse in that particular technology (yet), one must be extremely careful to choose words wisely and explore the technology as much as possible.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Review 5: YouthNoise.com
I found out about YouthNoise through the Denver Public Library's Teen Activism page. DPL's Teen site is fantastic, and I encourage future teen librarians (and future web designers) to check it out. DPL describes YouthNoise as "A social networking site created to motivate young people ages 13-26, to improve their lives and the lives of children and youth, worldwide, through volunteering, fundraising and speaking out." YouthNoise describes themself as "YouthNoise empowers young leaders to act for the causes they care about locally, nationally and globally."
YouthNoise is a rich site, with tons of activities for teens to explore. The "About YouthNoise" page recommends teens do these five things: join Play City (a community of athlete-activists), click for the Just 1 Click campaign, join a discussion board, blog about important issues, and "hook up with YN" using Facebook and Twitter. I decided to create a YN account so I could further investigate what seems to be an active site for teens.
One amusing thing about signing up for YN: right after you complete the sign-up process, you are directed to a page of things you might like to do on the site. One of them is, "Search for hot YN members. It's like eHarmony for, like, smart people."
YN members are also called NOISEmakers. I really like this term. I am a firm believer that a lot of the angry energy teenagers contain can be channeled into social activism in a positive way. (That's what I did!) YN is not just for liberal teens, either. There are dozens of causes that teens can add to their profiles, then discuss in various forums (I know the plural is really "fora," but it sounds weird) around the site. Some causes include, "Consumer rights," "Save conservative talk radio," "End abortion," and "Born again radicals." Although YN might lean a touch more to the left, there are certainly conservative youth who are active on the site.
Teens have lots to do on this site, and all of it is based on causes they are interested in. Most teenagers have something they feel passionate about, and most of them have passion because it's something that affects them personally. (I would also say this is true for adults.) Again, channeling teen energy into something productive can make great things happen.
The good things about YN outweigh the bad; however, there are some negative things about the site.
1) There might be too much going on. Not only are there discussion boards, blogs, and cause pages, but there are also debates, where teens can have a meatier discussion about specific topics. One recent conversation on the debate page is "Honoring veterans: are we doing enough?" Maybe this is just my old, feeble brain talking, but I am kind of overwhelmed by the number of ways I can participate on YN. This why I like Twitter.
2) The site is not designed with user ease in mind. There are very few pages with links on them that direct the user to the page they were just on. The plethora of activities contributes to this confusing layout.
3) There is very little moderation of the boards and forums. I don't think teens taking an issue too far is the problem: it's them not taking it far enough. I think with just a little bit of prodding, these boards could be much busier and more active.
I think YouthNoise could be a great part of a Links page for a public library (as Denver has shown), and I think librarians could talk it up to their teen patrons who have a political or social activism bent. However, there's just too much stuff crammed into this one platform for it to be highly popular.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Review 4: CommonsenseMedia.org
Link to site
CommonsenseMedia.org is a site dedicated to finding the most age-appropriate media resources for children and teens. The creators of the site write,
Their beliefs include "media sanity, not censorship," and "we can't cover their eyes, but we can teach them to see." In order to access most of the information available on CommonsenseMedia, the user is prompted to create a profile. The short questionnaire asks your email address, a password you want to use, and the names and ages and birth months of your offspring. This was a problem for me, since I don't have kids. I quickly invented "Ruby," my ten-year-old fake daughter who turns 11 in August (I expect presents). Once this process was complete, I could explore the site and write my own media reviews.
The types of media reviewed are books, movies, web sites, television shows, games, and music. I am particularly interested in teenage social media use, so I clicked on "Web site reviews," "Social networking," then "Show reviews for 15-17." The header of the page that comes up is "Safe social networking web sites for teenagers." Here, parents (of both real and fake children) can read reviews that professional and amateur reviewers have written about the sites their teens might frequent. The CommonsenseMedia.org reviewers include information like "Why We Rated This Site for This Age Group," "What Parents Need to Know," and "Families Can Talk About." The reviews are also color-coded green [safe], yellow [iffy], red [no go], and gray [no kid should go to this site, ever.]
In addition to just browsing the site aimlessly, users can search for specific titles or keywords, and view compiled lists of things, like "Teen music with a message."
This site is attractively designed and extremely easy to use. I can imagine that parents who want to know more about the music their kids are listening to, or the movie their kid wants to rent, or the video game that just came out would find this information useful and comforting.
However (and this is sort of a big however), I wish they didn't ask for child information. Alright, they'll suggest sites for your kids to go to (apparently Ruby would like FreeRice.org, a charitable quiz game), but it's sort of presumptuous. This would be a great resource for librarians to have at their fingertips, especially in a public library working with teens. Have a weird feeling about the site a teen patron is on? Want to suggest a family-friendly video game for a grandmother who is having her grandkids over for the weekend? Well then you'd better either have a kid yourself or not feel guilty about making one up. It's interesting to see what parents of teens think about social media sites (they rated Twitter as "iffy"), and I hope that the people behind CommonsenseMedia.org open up the gates to us non-parents sometime soon.
To clarify: I am not anti-kid! I'm the opposite of anti-kid. What I am is peeved about being forced to make up a child just so I can access a web site.
CommonsenseMedia.org is a site dedicated to finding the most age-appropriate media resources for children and teens. The creators of the site write,
Media is fun and our kids love it. We also know that kids now spend so much time absorbing its messages and images that it has become "the other parent" in their lives. We started this organization because we know families need trustworthy information to help manage their kids' media lives. We're posting our beliefs here so that all our users can know the underlying principles that guide our philosophy and mission.
Their beliefs include "media sanity, not censorship," and "we can't cover their eyes, but we can teach them to see." In order to access most of the information available on CommonsenseMedia, the user is prompted to create a profile. The short questionnaire asks your email address, a password you want to use, and the names and ages and birth months of your offspring. This was a problem for me, since I don't have kids. I quickly invented "Ruby," my ten-year-old fake daughter who turns 11 in August (I expect presents). Once this process was complete, I could explore the site and write my own media reviews.
The types of media reviewed are books, movies, web sites, television shows, games, and music. I am particularly interested in teenage social media use, so I clicked on "Web site reviews," "Social networking," then "Show reviews for 15-17." The header of the page that comes up is "Safe social networking web sites for teenagers." Here, parents (of both real and fake children) can read reviews that professional and amateur reviewers have written about the sites their teens might frequent. The CommonsenseMedia.org reviewers include information like "Why We Rated This Site for This Age Group," "What Parents Need to Know," and "Families Can Talk About." The reviews are also color-coded green [safe], yellow [iffy], red [no go], and gray [no kid should go to this site, ever.]
In addition to just browsing the site aimlessly, users can search for specific titles or keywords, and view compiled lists of things, like "Teen music with a message."
This site is attractively designed and extremely easy to use. I can imagine that parents who want to know more about the music their kids are listening to, or the movie their kid wants to rent, or the video game that just came out would find this information useful and comforting.
However (and this is sort of a big however), I wish they didn't ask for child information. Alright, they'll suggest sites for your kids to go to (apparently Ruby would like FreeRice.org, a charitable quiz game), but it's sort of presumptuous. This would be a great resource for librarians to have at their fingertips, especially in a public library working with teens. Have a weird feeling about the site a teen patron is on? Want to suggest a family-friendly video game for a grandmother who is having her grandkids over for the weekend? Well then you'd better either have a kid yourself or not feel guilty about making one up. It's interesting to see what parents of teens think about social media sites (they rated Twitter as "iffy"), and I hope that the people behind CommonsenseMedia.org open up the gates to us non-parents sometime soon.
To clarify: I am not anti-kid! I'm the opposite of anti-kid. What I am is peeved about being forced to make up a child just so I can access a web site.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Review 3: "Social networks and kids: how young is too young?"
Link to article
Goss, Doug. “Social networks and kids: how young is too young?” CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/02/kids.social.networks/index.html (accessed November 5, 2009).
Facebook and Myspace technically don't allow users younger than 13 years old... but they have no real way of verifying this information. Young users who are quick on the uptake can easily fudge their birthdate. This can create issues for parents, children, and librarians.
Firstly, scientists have concerns that early Internet use can have negative effects on brain development, and can lead to Internet addiction in adults. However, early adolescents (also known as "tweens") have not really been studied as much as teenagers. One researcher notes, "Children today have spent their whole lives on computers, and their brains are better adapted than those of adults to integrate online activities with their offline lives."
Secondly, the Internet is not the safest place for young teenagers to poke around by themselves. Social networking inevitably means contacting strangers and talking to people who aren't familiar. Many parents are opposed to the idea of their kids talking to strangers (click here for more about stranger danger).
Thirdly, librarians and library staff do not have in loco parentis responsibilities. This means that they do not act in the place of a parent, unlike school teachers. Therefore, librarians do not have to necessarily act in the best interest of the child. It might sound cruel, but it protects librarians from violating intellectual freedom. If a five-year-old comes up to the circulation desk with The Joy of Sex, a (good) librarian will check it out to them. A school teacher would not be able to do this in good faith because of their in loco parentis responsibilities.
Because librarians cannot restrict access to materials (within reason), it is important to have a social networking policy that is amended to a library's Internet policy. (Click here for more information about social media policies.) With a strong policy behind them, librarians and library staff can defend themselves against challenges, and protect younger library users from harm.
Younger social media users don't really do anything different online than they do in real life. They talk to their school friends, perhaps make some new ones, and generally poke around. As the Pew Internet study found (a review of that resource is upcoming), teenagers don't use social networking (particularly Twitter) as much as people think.
Goss's article is an interesting perspective on social networking; younger teens and "tweens" are often neglected in Internet studies. They are an important user group to consider.
Goss, Doug. “Social networks and kids: how young is too young?” CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/02/kids.social.networks/index.html (accessed November 5, 2009).
Facebook and Myspace technically don't allow users younger than 13 years old... but they have no real way of verifying this information. Young users who are quick on the uptake can easily fudge their birthdate. This can create issues for parents, children, and librarians.
Firstly, scientists have concerns that early Internet use can have negative effects on brain development, and can lead to Internet addiction in adults. However, early adolescents (also known as "tweens") have not really been studied as much as teenagers. One researcher notes, "Children today have spent their whole lives on computers, and their brains are better adapted than those of adults to integrate online activities with their offline lives."
Secondly, the Internet is not the safest place for young teenagers to poke around by themselves. Social networking inevitably means contacting strangers and talking to people who aren't familiar. Many parents are opposed to the idea of their kids talking to strangers (click here for more about stranger danger).
Thirdly, librarians and library staff do not have in loco parentis responsibilities. This means that they do not act in the place of a parent, unlike school teachers. Therefore, librarians do not have to necessarily act in the best interest of the child. It might sound cruel, but it protects librarians from violating intellectual freedom. If a five-year-old comes up to the circulation desk with The Joy of Sex, a (good) librarian will check it out to them. A school teacher would not be able to do this in good faith because of their in loco parentis responsibilities.
Because librarians cannot restrict access to materials (within reason), it is important to have a social networking policy that is amended to a library's Internet policy. (Click here for more information about social media policies.) With a strong policy behind them, librarians and library staff can defend themselves against challenges, and protect younger library users from harm.
Younger social media users don't really do anything different online than they do in real life. They talk to their school friends, perhaps make some new ones, and generally poke around. As the Pew Internet study found (a review of that resource is upcoming), teenagers don't use social networking (particularly Twitter) as much as people think.
Goss's article is an interesting perspective on social networking; younger teens and "tweens" are often neglected in Internet studies. They are an important user group to consider.
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