My research began with watching a quick video about learning in the 21st century. In the video, the term "gamer" was used, a term that I have been hearing quite a bit lately. It prompted me to do some research into the various "labels" the kids are using in middle and highschool to "organize" themselves socially and stratify their population. I recall a conversation I had with my cousin over the summer about her middle school daughter. Her daughter had been expressing concern about how kids were labelled at school by their peers.
I read a few articles on this topic and found a Newsweek article called "The Legacy of High School Cliques: How the labels we get as teenagers shape the rest of our lives, and why social networking and the economy are changing the way a generation deals with those early stereotypes." This article discussed how these labels shape who we become, especially in an age when social networking make these labels and social implications so ever-present and difficult to escape. This is an interesting, and concerning notion. The article also claimed that kids of this generation are "taking longer to grow up and establish themselves as adults." The author suggests that this "extended adolescence" could give kids more time to shed their labels and define who they truly are and what their goals are in life. An interesting angle...
I have definitely noticed the "extended adolescence" you read about in the article. It is definitely intriguing to think that the pervasive use of social media may have a role in that. Personally, I have enjoyed seeing how my middle/high school peers have grown into their adult lives through the use of social media, but we also had the benefit of years of space (before social media became so huge) to be able to find ourselves without carrying the labels we had in our teenage years.
ReplyDeleteKaren, I have enjoyed your "Response to Research" posts. As a parent I can imagine you are relating to what the labeling described in this article may mean as your girls approach adolescence. The social media and connected options are out there to stay, but parents will be very important in helping their children navigate those waters safely.
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