I printed it off for digestion after reading this bit:
"The second factor has to do with the increasing role that the media has played in conveying enticing images of affluent lifestyles to a popular audience. During the '80s and '90s, there was a noticeable shift in the commercial media - in television in particular, but also in magazines, movies, and so on - towards portraying very upscale lifestyles as the cultural norm to which all people could or should aspire. The effect of this was only magnified by the fact that, in the same period, U.S. society also saw a marked increase in the amount of time that people were actually spending with electronic media on a daily basis. Consequently, as our levels of direct face-to-face interaction with real people have declined, our consumer desires and aspirations have increasingly become susceptible to the ubiquitous influence of celebrities and fictional characters on TV. To put it another way, our consumer desires have perhaps come to be determined less by our real-life friends than by the characters on "Friends" on TV."
And online. Pinker mentioned (I know many people don't care for Pinker) peer influence as as strong and influecer of self actualization as environment (ie family) and that bit strong a chord for me in what I see in non-virtual life. What I see happening is a shift to online in addition to or in some cases instead of real life. With my sixteen year old, I would say that a good 60-70% of his friends are primarily or solely online, and although he does watch TV shows (and I'm not disparaging media impact in a way) they seem to be as self reinforcement more than causal, and the peer influence is definitely stronger.
The other strong trend I noticed amongst his age group in addition to the obvious privileging of text, is the multi focus. A typical online session is comprised of four or five IM windows and one game or website running; that's the norm.
no subject
"The second factor has to do with the increasing role that the media has played in conveying enticing images of affluent lifestyles to a popular audience. During the '80s and '90s, there was a noticeable shift in the commercial media - in television in particular, but also in magazines, movies, and so on - towards portraying very upscale lifestyles as the cultural norm to which all people could or should aspire. The effect of this was only magnified by the fact that, in the same period, U.S. society also saw a marked increase in the amount of time that people were actually spending with electronic media on a daily basis. Consequently, as our levels of direct face-to-face interaction with real people have declined, our consumer desires and aspirations have increasingly become susceptible to the ubiquitous influence of celebrities and fictional characters on TV. To put it another way, our consumer desires have perhaps come to be determined less by our real-life friends than by the characters on "Friends" on TV."
And online. Pinker mentioned (I know many people don't care for Pinker) peer influence as as strong and influecer of self actualization as environment (ie family) and that bit strong a chord for me in what I see in non-virtual life. What I see happening is a shift to online in addition to or in some cases instead of real life. With my sixteen year old, I would say that a good 60-70% of his friends are primarily or solely online, and although he does watch TV shows (and I'm not disparaging media impact in a way) they seem to be as self reinforcement more than causal, and the peer influence is definitely stronger.
The other strong trend I noticed amongst his age group in addition to the obvious privileging of text, is the multi focus. A typical online session is comprised of four or five IM windows and one game or website running; that's the norm.
Looking forward to the rest of the article.