I would say, generally speaking, I’m quick to find things on the internet. I would also say when I find something that I like I’m fairly quick to share.
Do you ever feel three steps behind? Get used to it.
My new high school friends see me as a novelty, I’m just old enough to “get it” but not old enough to be ironic. I have to walk that, “Are you creepy?” line very carefully. It seems I cannot keep up with their consumption of online media. I’ll show them a funny youtube video and they’ll say, boredly, “Seen it.” Here are some things they’re really into right now:
◦ Facebook Check-In’s
◦ Facebook Chat
◦ Tweet Tagging/Replying...also “Twitter Crushes” which was trending last night.
◦ Skype
◦ FourSquare
I did let them know that there are applications to link Facebook chat and other various “chatting” applications...they thought I was cool for a mili-second and moved on. Are you wondering how they are constantly on top of it? ...Me. Too.
My new friend Ali spends most of her time on the Internet. She’s extremely busy too; she has 2 part time jobs and is in high school full-time. She’ll go to bed at 1am and get up at 6am. (Remember when you could do that for weeks at a time?!) If she isn’t working she is either sitting at her computer or on her iPhone4. “I love [FB] Check-in’s, [FB] Chat, 4Square, and Grooveshark,” Ali said one night on Facebook chat.
Ali is a different type of 17-year-old, she is busy and outwardly social. She spends a great deal of time online but it is primarily on her iPhone4 while she has “down time.” It does not necessarily consume her, however the majority of her “down time” is connected. Ali’s lines between online reality and “real life” are blurred because she openly posts her geographic location and her privacy settings are tightly monitored. She is the exception in this respect.
She is, however, extremely normal in her relationship to online chatting. She openly talks about how much she adores Facebook chat but refuses to use software the verbally connects her to her friends, i.e. Skype calling. "I don't see the point in talking on the phone [.] just message me, or text me. I don't have time to talk." While myself, and other Swing-Millennials, would argue that a call is quicker and easier, Ali doesn't see it that way. "If I'm on the phone I'll get trapped on the phone for hours," she said, "but if I'm chatting I can just close the application, or turn off my computer."
Let me translate that: "If I'm on the phone, I am on the phone and cannot multi-task." That is how they do it. They communicate online while they surf the web, listen to music, read blogs, stream videos and do whatever else. They use messaging as a means to kill two birds; they message munch and consume, consume, consume.
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