Becoming a Millennial

80. You May Find This Disturbing

You've finally figured out how to open & send attachments, create distribution lists, file your messages, protect yourself (sort of) from spam, and now this ...

The Associated Press, July 19, 2006 --

"Email is so last-Millenium. Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder -- a parent, teacher or a boss -- or to receive an attached file. But increasingly, the former darling of high-tech communication is losing favor to instant and text messaging, and to the chatter generated on blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. The shift is starting to creep into workplace communication, too. "In this world of instant gratification, e-mail has become the new snail mail," says 25-year-old Rachel Quizon from Norwalk, Calif. She became addicted to instant messaging in college, where many students are logged on 24/7..." -- Martha Irvine  Read the entire story.

This view of email may be one of the reasons so much campus communication never gets read by students.  I'm trying to come up with a reason for the faculty :)  -- ouch! --

53. The Dark Side of Technology

I have to admit that I love technology, am fascinated by it, and have learned to harness a good deal of its power.  I can make a PowerPoint presentation in no time flat; if I need a bar graph (see entry 46) I go into Excel and get it done in minutes; I can manipulate images to make documents more engaging; I can publish flyers and brochieres; I can do a mailmerge to send out a personalized form letter.  I do love technology.

Yet there is the dark side.  I woke up this morning and Janet showed me this article from the June 5 issue of People Magazine.  I was hoping I could link you to the entire article but it's not available online. 

The article talks about predators, pedophiles, pornography, drinking, drugs, explicit videos, and raunchy memoirs. Here lies the dilemna -- how does one take advantage of all the wonderful benefits of technology and navigate around the pitfalls?  How do we help our kids use technology without getting destroyed in the process?

I guess the first step is for us to be aware of what is out there.  I'm glad you're partnering with me in my journey.  Feel free to jump in with a comment or two. (It's a little annoying that you have to register with Xanga before your comment will be posted, but I've learned this is pretty standard with most blog sites).

51. Don't Let Anyone Tell You You're Too Old

*Don't allow yourself to believe that you're too old to deal with today's technologies.  Read a fascinating article on the vision of this 75-year-old who is going after His Space

*If we're going to remain relevant we cannot afford not to.

41. I Signed Up For Myspace

Tonight I went to Myspace and created a profile.  I'm doing this more as a "requirement" for my summer goal of becoming a Millennial than because I'm really wanting to create a whole network of new friends. 

When my profile opened up I already had one "friend", named Tom.  I didn't know where he came from but I began to look through his friends.  He had 89,415,827 friends.  I'm not kidding.  And everyone had a picture.  I think Tom is some default guy who is programmed to be everybody's friend.  The number makes sense because I mentioned earlier (entry 18) that Myspace reportedly has 80 million users.

I clicked around for about thirty minutes and more or less lost interest.  There is an amazing amount of stuff in Myspace -- videos, music, classifieds, comedy, groups, forums, blogs, mail, and events. Although it didn't engage me I could see how a young person could get lost in Myspace for hours.  Days.  At 10:30 pm in a residence hall I'm wondering how an essay assignment for Expos can compete with this?

35. It's a Wild Fire

My colleague who directs our Career Development center shared this story.  Last week a group of high school kids attending a conference at Taylor came by the center and saw all the nice computers.  They asked if they could use them.  "Sure!", he said.  Out of interest he watched what they were doing.  All eight of them jumped onto the computers and immediately went to myspace.com to check their accounts, make connections with their new friends, and see what everyone was posting. 

The alarming thing was the amount of questionable content that appeared on the kids' computer screens.  One kid had gotten into content from a well-known pornographic site that our campus filter would normally block, but apparently it came through in myspace.

I have never been a big internet surfer.  Over the past weeks as I have begun playing with these "youth culture" web tools I have been struck by the barrage of seductions that are only a click away, if not staring you in the face.  This presents a huge challenge to us as parents and educators.  How can we help our young people realize the benefits of the internet and not get destroyed by its evils?

34. I Now Have 6 Friends

Two are my children, one is on my staff, one is a Taylor faculty friend, two are colleagues from another CCCU institution on the West Coast.

I can see how Facebook can become addicting.  There is something about getting that email that asks if it is OK if someone can be your "friend".  It warms your heart when it is a family member or co-worker; but it is equally heart-warming when it is someone you can't quite place and you try to figure out how they know you.  I guess we all have that need to be liked and to belong.

31. A Big Milestone!

I gave Janet a little "press" in my blog yesterday, but she wasn't satisfied :)  So here it is.  Last week was our 25th wedding anniversary!   We celebrated by driving down to a Japanese restaurant in Indy and feasting on sushi, tempura, udon ... (I was born and raised in Japan and Janet was born and raised in Taiwan, so Asian food is high on our list of loves.)

Proverbs 31:10 asks the question, "An excellent wife, who can find?"  Well, I did find one and have enjoyed the benefits for 25 years. The passage goes on to say, "For her worth is far above jewels.  The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain."  I truly am a fortunate guy. 

By the way, the cake was made by our two wonderful daughters.

Another little footnote here:  I had an email message waiting for me this morning. Carla was inviting me to be her "friend" in Facebook.  So I now have one friend in Facebook.  When your teenage daughter wants to be your friend that makes your day!

30. I'm in Facebook

This evening I went to Facebook and registered.  After answering a few opening questions it sent me an email to confirm that it was actually me setting up the profile.  I spent 30 minutes entering some information about myself, then another 30 minutes poking around checking out the profiles of my kids and their friends.

Facebook is a social network primarily for college students.  I know one of our professors at Taylor has an account and finds it is useful in connecting with his students.

A lot has been written about Facebook these days.  I guess the operating principle should be, "Use discretion in what you post because the whole world has access to it."

18. Facebook and Myspace

Yesterday I participated in a timely webcast on the topic of social networks.  Timely, in the sense that I'll be signing up for a Facebook account one of these days. The presenter was Shawn McGuirk, Director of Judicial Affairs at Fitchburg State College.  Some fascinating statistics:

• Myspace has grown from 40 to 80 million users in the last 6 months.
• Facebook (which targets primarily college students) has over 7 million users.
• 85% of students at the 2,600 colleges registered with Facebook (this includes Taylor) are using it. 
• Nationwide, Facebook tallies 250 million hits every day and ranks 7th in overall traffic on the internet.
• 66% of college students who use Facebook log in daily.

Pretty amazing statistics for a couple startups that were not even in existence prior to 2004.  Such is the nature of today's digital world. 

Aside from the issue of young people getting themselves into trouble by posting objectionable material is the question of how these types of activities (addictions?) affect students' academic lives.  Have you taught an 8:00 am class recently?  I don't have any statistics on the average bedtime of today's college student but my sense is that 1:00-3:00 am is pretty typical -- heavy studying, or just a lot of internet gaming, instant messaging, and social networking?