Week 11 Blog Post
Adolescent Interview
This
week I conducted an interview with four adolescents, each of whom was comprised
of differing characteristics in regard to class, age, and gender. It is
staggering how different opinions and concerns can be when you compare such a
differing set of interviewees. I have always believed that in order to
understand the effects of social media, we need to analyze how such media affects
individual whose personal lives differ.
The adolescents I interviewed were of the
following ages: 12, 13, and 16. The interviewee who was 12-years old, George,
was male and came from a working-class family. The remaining adolescents were
each female and came from rather middle-class families: Tessa (13), Baileigh
(13) , and Aiyanna (16). These children were asked the same group of questions
in regard to their personal experience as Internet users.
I was baffled at the responses I
received. Tessa, who was barely a year older than George, spoke with the
eloquence of a college graduate. The verbiage she used was astounding to say
the least. I started the survey off by asking subjects, “When did you first
began using websites and/or social media as a way of locating information.”
Tessa responded by saying she first started in 6th grade, but has
not used it for two years. When asked, “What are you looking for in regard to
the ‘ideal’ website?”, Tessa responded, “Anonymous information, sharing things
that only include usernames that aren’t going to reveal names.” It was
mesmerizing that a child so young could already recognize the ramifications of
putting too much personal information on the Internet. When I asked Tessa the
question, “Is cyberbullying a big problem you see when you go online to social
media sites?”, she replied by saying, “Cyberbullying, I see it a lot. It’s
terrible. My school never does anything about it. I think it should be
stopped.” Tessa’s response may seem “expected” to the everyday listener, but
let us dissect the way in which she declared it was an “issue”. She had stated
earlier that she only uses the Internet for about 45 minutes a week, and that
she only used “Vines” of all social media sites, but still showed the empathy
and concern for the rampant problem affecting many teens in today’s society.
George, the 12-year-old boy I
interviewed, actually expressed he had a non-existent relationship with social
media. I asked George, “Do you find it hard to ingest all the information
people post online? When people comment on posts, what topics cause the most responses?”
Though he was only one year younger than Tessa, and he first used social media
when he was 9, he answered by saying, “I don’t use social media websites, only
kid friendly.” Once again I was held aback. I have approached this class
feeling that every teenager is obsessed with their phone and spends every
waking hour commenting on their friends’ posts. But in actuality, the first two
I interviewed do not even enjoy social media. I also asked George, “Do a lot of
people you see in school choose to text rather than call? Do you feel it is
easier to talk online or via texting rather than in-person or on the phone?” He
responded by saying, “I do not have my own phone. However, I do see a lot kids
using their phones at school.” The answer made me curious, can George’s
disengagement from social media be simply because he is not in a position to
own a phone, or is he another example of potential teens straying away from the
“social scene”.
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