Technology And Youth

This volume of examines the role of technology in the lives of children and adolescents. Topics addressed include: cyberbullying, video games and aggressive behavior, online gaming and the development of social skills, sexuality, child pornography, virtual communities for children, social networking and peer relations, and other related issues.

This book examines the influence of mobile media technology on the lives of young people in East and North Asia, South East Asia and Australia. It discusses the impact information communication technologies have today on social identity, well-being, participation and exclusion. It explores current media practices and their innovative, transformative and disruptive uses at the local, the regional, the national, and the global level. In particular, it analyses mobile media not as a discrete object, but rather as part of a dynamic communication and information environment in which human-object relations are constantly reconfigured. It covers key theoretical and conceptual themes in youth mobile media research focusing on social, cultural and political aspects, including coverage of key themes such as regulation and technology, practices, pedagogies, aesthetics, social change, and representations of mobile youth. The book includes new accounts of recent research into the uses of mobile media by young people, and how these are situated in a broader socio-political context. Case studies include mobile panics in Australia (the notorious Kings of Wirrabee sexual assault case) and Japan (the scandals of high school girls as teenage prostitutes) in which mobile media use has had significant impact. This book offers an up-to-date examination of the influence of information communication technologies on young people’s lives in the region.

Technology and Adolescent Health: In Schools and Beyond discusses how today's adolescents are digital natives, using technology at home and in school to access information, for entertainment, to socialize and do schoolwork. This book summarizes research on how technology use impacts adolescent mental health, sleep, physical activity and eating habits. In addition, it identifies monitoring and screening technology-based tools for use with adolescents.

The integration of digital technologies into practice presents opportunities and challenges for the field of youth work. Digitalization procedures transform interactions with users, in addition to their needs. These also transform the organizations where youth workers are involved in professional practice. Adapting digital technological tools is a crucial challenge for the youth work profession. Youth Work in a Digital Society is an essential scholarly publication that explores how to overcome any challenges and issues facing youth development work in the digital age and to what extent modern digital technologies can contribute to empowering youth work practice. Featuring a wide range of topics such as digital inclusion, mobile technologies, and social media, this book is ideal for executives, managers, researchers, professionals, academicians, policymakers, practitioners, and students.

This issue ... explores the many positive ways in which children and youth, in both the United States and abroad, in urban and rural settings, are taking advantage of new technologies to create projects with their own content. In the process, they are embarking on personal and community journeys that engage them in many facets of positive development.

Youth around the world are fittingly described as digital natives because of their comfort and skill with technological hardware and content. Recent studies indicate that an overwhelming majority of children and teenagers use the Internet, cell phones, and other mobile devices. Equipped with familiarity and unprecedented access, it is no wonder that adolescents consume, create, and share copious amounts of content. But is there a cost? Digital Youth: The Role of Media in Development recognizes the important role of digital tools in the lives of teenagers and presents both the risks and benefits of these new interactive technologies. From social networking to instant messaging to text messaging, the authors create an informative and relevant guidebook that goes beyond description to include developmental theory and implications. Also woven throughout the book is an international sensitivity and understanding that clarifies how, despite the widespread popularity of digital communication, technology use varies between groups globally. Other specific topics addressed include: Sexuality on the Internet. Online identity and self-presentation. Morality, ethics, and civic engagement. Technology and health. Violence, cyberbullying, and victimization. Excessive Internet use and addictive behavior. This comprehensive volume is a must-have reference for researchers, clinicians, and graduate students across such disciplines as developmental/clinical child/school psychology, social psychology, media psychology, medical and allied health professions, education, and social work.

Digital Diversity: Youth, Equity, and Information Technology is about youth, schools, and the use of technology. Youth are instrumental in finding novel ways to access and use technology. They are directly affected by changes such as the proliferation of computers in schools and elsewhere, and the increasingly heavy use of the Internet for both information sharing and for communication. The contributors to this volume investigate how the resources provided by information and communication technology (ICT) are made available to different groups of young people (as defined by gender, race, rural location, Aboriginal status, street youth status) and how they do (or do not) develop facility and competence with this technology. How does access vary for these different groups of youth? Which young people develop facility with ICT? What impact has this technology had on their learning and their lives? These are among the issues examined. Youth from a wide variety of settings are included in the study, including Inuit youth in the high arctic. Rather than mandate how youth should/could better use technology (as much of the existing literature does) the contributors focus on how youth and educators are actually using technology. By paying attention to the routine use and understandings of ICTs by youth and those teaching youth, the book highlights the current gaps in policy and practice. It challenges assumptions around the often taken-for-granted links between technology, pedagogy, and educational outcomes for youth in order to highlight a range of important equity issues.

An examination of media and technology use by school-aged youth with disabilities, with an emphasis on media use at home. Most research on media use by young people with disabilities focuses on the therapeutic and rehabilitative uses of technology; less attention has been paid to their day-to-day encounters with media and technology—the mundane, sometimes pleasurable and sometimes frustrating experiences of “hanging out, messing around, and geeking out.” In this report, Meryl Alper attempts to repair this omission, examining how school-aged children with disabilities use media for social and recreational purposes, with a focus on media use at home. In doing so, she reframes common assumptions about the relationship between young people with disabilities and technology, and she points to areas for further study into the role of new media in the lives of these young people, their parents, and their caregivers. Alper considers the notion of “screen time” and its inapplicability in certain cases—when, for example, an iPad is a child's primary mode of communication. She looks at how young people with various disabilities use media to socialize with caregivers, siblings, and friends, looking more closely at the stereotype of the socially isolated young person with disabilities. And she examines issues encountered by parents in selecting, purchasing, and managing media for youth with such specific disabilities as ADHD and autism. She considers not only children's individual preferences and needs but also external factors, including the limits of existing platforms, content, and age standards.