# Digital Youth Research report released

- Author: Joichi Ito
- Date: 2008-11-20T17:26:33Z




I am so proud of my sister Mimi (and her colleagues like danah boyd) today. Her work funded by the MacArthur Foundation was released today and is getting a lot of coverage in the press. It's the result of a three-year study of the the way young people use digital technologies and media and provides rigor in an area that is cluttered with anecdotal and often misguided notions about what kids do and what's good for kids.

The New York Times


Teenagers' Internet Socializing Not a Bad Thing

Good news for worried parents: All those hours their teenagers spend socializing on the Internet are not a bad thing, according to a new study by the MacArthur Foundation.        
   "It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it's on MySpace or sending instant messages," said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, "Living and Learning With New Media." "But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They're learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page." 

You can download the report from the project page. The report is CC licensed of course. ;-)