“It’s Mine: Kids Carrying Their Culture Wherever They Go”

A year ago, I was asked to contribute a chapter to a new book edited by Allison Druin, director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland. I was eager to do some ethnographic reporting on children and technology, and this felt like the perfect opportunity. The book has now been published and I'm honored to be part of it. The title is Mobile Technology and Children (Morgan Kaufmann, 2009), and if you're interested in interactive educational technology, it's well worth a read.

The chapter I wrote is titled: “It’s Mine: Kids Carrying Their Culture Wherever They Go.” Here’s an excerpt:

You might recognize this snapshot of today’s “ zoned-out” children: They hold an electronic device with a screen as small as a playing card. They sit next to their parents at an airport gate. Or maybe they are at a restaurant, or on the school bus, or in the bleachers at a sporting event. Their eyes are focused on the screen, their ears are jammed with ear buds, and their thumbs and fingers wildly push buttons. They could be playing a video game, texting a friend, or listening to music. Maybe they are doing all three. For these moments, it is as though the world around them doesn’t exist. They are somewhere else, inside this inscrutable and infuriating little black box.

To many, it’s a disconcerting picture. But try to understand it through a child’s eyes and you might see something different. Clearly, the technology is powerful. But why? What does it mean to children? It’s a safe guess that they are drawn to their gadgets for different reasons than many adults have for loving their own gadgets. After all, we’re talking about the (hopefully) carefree days of childhood, absent of obligations to stay current with the latest news, keep up with developments in the workplace, or be accessible to the boss. So, aside from the too-easy retort that mobile devices are “fun,” why do so many children treasurethem?

In the summer of 2008 I resolved to find out. I conducted 22 in-depth interviews in three jurisdictions of Northern Virginia with children ages five to 12 who used portable gaming devices, video players, music players, and cell phones. I let them speak for themselves as much as possible. I wanted to document not only the allure of the devices but how the children used them and why.

What I discovered was children’s strong sense of ownership and control over the technology. They stored their devices in areas dedicated to their most important belongings, even under their pillows. They took the time to decorate and personalize them. And when they used them, they felt empowered. By having a device in their hands, where adults were less apt to insert themselves, children could make independent choices about what to do with their time — what games were worth playing, which characters deserved a laugh, what songs were allowed to play over and over in their heads....