Teens Online
Tanya Arnold
Many adults consider technology something that
they have to work into their lives. For young adults, technology
is their lives. Social networking is a daily activity for most
teens. According to data collected by Hinduja and Patchin (2010)
from over 4000 students between the ages of 12 -18, 82.9% of the
students surveyed admit to using cell phones weekly and 78.3% to
sending text messages. In addition, 49.8% of these teens spend
time on Facebook each week and another 39.6% on MySpace. As
Peowski (2010) claims, students are not just using social networking
for entertainment, they are “learning, creating, collaborating and
effecting social change.” Richardson (2008) also advocates that
educators should be helping students create digital footprints that
will not come back to haunt them by helping children and teens identify
what they are passionate about, assisting them to make connections with
others who share their passions and modeling how to communicate,
collaborate and work collectively in these social networks. In
this way, social networking can be a powerful tool for connecting
students and YA literature.
Finding the appropriate connections between
online teens and YA literature is the key. While most libraries
and teachers are currently using technology aimed at students who are
within their walls, Mahoney (2009) indicates that the 2008 YALSA Teen
Tech Week Survey indicates that 82% of all youth use technology at home
compared to 7.39% at school and 3.41% at the public library. Many
libraries and librarians have Facebook pages and Twitter feeds aimed at
the teens they provide services for, but they have few followers
because their target audience is not aware that the library has an
online presence. Creating that awareness is the first step to
creating those relationships with online teen readers.
Daley (2010) suggests starting out by making
use of the tools available online to survey your students or library
patrons. She recommends using GoogleDocs to create a survey to
ask teens what they would most like to see from your online services to
help you focus your next step. She also recommends creating a web
page that includes a blog with an RSS feed so that students can sign up
for the feed and get automatic updates into their email or RSS
reader. This blog can be used to advertise activities, share book
reviews or provide a forum for discussion as well as a way to share
photos, book trailers and other online content that can be used to
further connect students with authors and books. Peowski (2010)
also advocates student participation in online YA literature
forums. She recommends creating online book communities that
allow multiple students who may not necessarily interact in the real
world to connect through literature in the cyber world. These
communities can be open or closed. Facebook will allow you to
create closed pages that only invited members are able to access and
wikis and blogs can be protected as well.
There are also many more hands on ways to
incorporate technology into the discussion of YA literature.
Students can use online resources such as Animoto (www.animoto.com) or
PhotoStory (www.microsoft.com/photostory) to create their own book
trailers. Author visits can be set up using Skype – a way to
bring authors to your classroom at a fraction of the cost of a physical
“author visit”. Encourage students to create a “theme song” for a
book using music software such as Jamstudio (www.jamstudio.com).
Most of these resources are free and may provide a way to bring an
otherwise reluctant reader more willingly to the table.
When working with Young Adults, there can no
longer be a line drawn between books and technology. The two can
and must be used together to seamlessly create a generation of readers
who are able to think, make connections and collaborate effectively as
global citizens.
Works Cited
Daley, M. (2010). Free Online Tools for Serving Teens Four Verbs to Live By and
Great Technologies to Try. Young Adult Library Services, 8(2), 23-25.
Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database.
Hinduja, S. and Patchin, J. (2010). Cyberbullying Research Center. Retrieved
June 21, 2010 from http://www.cyberbullying.us
Mahoney, K., & Laszczak, K. (2009). Teen Tech Week Survey Results. Young
Adult Library Services, 7(2), 10-12. Retrieved from Academic Search
Complete database.
Peowski, L. (2010). Where Are All the Teens? Engaging and Empowering Them
Online. Young Adult Library Services, 8(2), 26-28. Retrieved from Academic
Search Complete database.
Richardson, W. (2008). Footprints in the Digital Age. Educational Leadership,
66(3), 16. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.
Additional Reading Material for Teens Pertaining to the Topic
Goetchius, Alex. (2008) Career building through social networking. New York:
Rosen Pub. Group, Inc.
The reader can learn how to use the Internet to reach thousands of people with their skills to launch a career.
Sherman, Josepha. (2001) Jerry Yang and David Filo : chief yahoos of Yahoo!.
Brookfield, Conn.: Twenty-First Century Books.
This book tells the story of the development of Yahoo! and the two college men who created the Internet search engine.
White, Casey. (2007) Sergey Brin and Larry Page : the founders of Google. New
York: Rosen Publishing Group.
This is a biography of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the two developers
of the Internet search engine Google, a company whose revenue increased
by more than 400,000 percent in its first five years, and includes
background on the business climate in which Google was created.
Willard, Nancy E. (2007) Cyber-safe kids, cyber-savvy teens : helping young
people learn to use the Internet safely and responsibly. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
This title provides guidance for staying safe on the Internet;
addresses parenting strategies, influences on online decision making,
specific risks and concerns, and beneficial activities.