Net Generation and Degeneration of Online Forums
A while ago I wrote a column describing what I felt was a Lord of the Flies situation
in cyberspace, because young people (early teens) were spending a lot of time
online interacting in venues where there was not only very little adult presence,
but little or no established culture, and no mature role models.
Now I read about what's been happening in MySpace and other online venues,
and it seems as though there now is a developing culture coming out of that,
but--surprise--it's not the kind of culture most of us older folks are very comfortable
with. Well, whenever was there any youth culture that was comfortable for adults?
Actually, the mere existence of a youth culture may be relatively scarce in
human history, since it d'es require a certain degree of affluence.
I will admit that I only last week registered at MySpace
and have not spent a lot of time there yet, partly because I am too busy (Not
a good excuse!) and partly because it seems so voyeuristic to spend time there.
So when I refer to MySpace, I am mostly referring to articles I have read about
it; not from much personal experience.
I was finally moved to visit MySpace, not because of news stories, but because
of a debate going on in the DISCussion forum of the Professional
Disc Golf Association(PDGA). What's happening there? Well, the
PDGA recently limited posting privileges to dues-paid members only, because
a number of nonmembers were using terribly inappropriate language and engaging
in personal attacks on others. The PDGA figured that if it limited access to
members, at least it would know who each poster was and have the ability to
take some disciplinary action.
Unfortunately, even limited to members-only, a huge debate ensued about vulgar
language. Quite a few, mostly younger, posters are unable to understand that
the forum of a sport, which requires sportsmanlike conduct on the disc golf
course, also requires it online. After one very long debate, recently, parsing
out the meaning of certain words (I thought for a while I was channeling William
Safire.) my statement that "in the forums I am mostly on, no one writes
like that" I was told by some of the younger members that in the forums
they are in, everyone talks like that.
Then I remembered the one or two times I have ventured to post, rather than
just read, on some of the very right-wing, conservative forums online. I discovered
very quickly, that expressing my opinions on those forums is met at once with
disgust and vile language and accusations, no matter how nicely I write, followed
in a remarkably short time, uniformly, with veiled and unveiled death threats.
And those are adults.
So, I thought to myself that maybe I was arguing values--on the PDGA forum--with
someone whose values about this were not only diametrically opposed to mine,
but also based on his real world experiences. From what I have seen on MySpace,
online behavior of young adults nowadays d'es not at all preclude regular and
vulgar use of language.
Now, this presents a real dilemma for the PDGA. We have rules of play that
are similar to what we call "ball and stick" golf, and they are quite
strict on courteous behavior. On the course, an amazing number of players actually
follow those rules. Acting as a marshal, officiating at those events, I make
calls about discourteous behavior only occasionally and the players are nearly
always contrite and apologetic. Really, without the courtesy rules, the game
would become quite uncomfortable to play.
So, the PDGA says to members that it expects the same level of courtesy and
demeanor online as it d'es on the course. But a growing number of our members
don't get it. So the PDGA DISCussion forum may well end up being closed, because
the adult leaders of the organization are worried about the sport's public image,
both with potential players and parks owners, as well as with potential sponsors.
As many critics of MySpace and similar venues have pointed out, "sponsors"
for the young people who post all sorts of (I think inappropriate) information
about themselves and their lives, might some day be potential employers who
have searched cyberspace about the job applicant. (The first thing I do when
I review a job application is Google the person intensely. In the future, I
will also try to find them on MySpace.)
I expect to spend a lot more time, especially after July, reading and exploring
young people's networked behavior as I am co-editing a special issue of Innovate
(peer-reviewed online journal about online education) that will focus on the
'Net Generation's expectations of and challenges presented to higher education
institutions as they move on through our campuses. (The call deadline for manuscripts
is July 30.) I'll share tidbits of what I see and learn here.
Meanwhile, as a former anthropologist, I am not at all sure yet that the behaviors
we see are all that different from the behaviors (or desires) young human beings
have always displayed or secreted. No matter what the history books want us
to believe, I am convinced that humans have always been crude, vulgar, and outrageous--or
wanted to be. Now we live in a world that includes space for us to act out as
we wish.
Is that good or is it bad? Well, I definitely prefer vulgar language and outrageous
sexual innuendo to killing people and burning embassies due to cartoons.
Or, for that matter, I prefer it above wealthy people paying large amounts
of money to shoot (Excuse me, I meant to say "spray with bird shot.")
domestically-raised young birds who are released from a cage only so that they
can be followed through terrain they are not familiar with and "hunted."
Neither the burnings nor the fake hunting are, to me, anywhere within the realm
of reasonable or sportsmanlike conduct. But, we are humans after all, not more
highly evolved than other species but just differently evolved-we manipulate
and create environments. And some of those are places where people can act like,
well, animals.