Social Media Addictions

It was just released this morning that an 18 year old, Terry Gene Starnes, from Hayden, Idaho, was arrested last week for stabbing his own mother. The cause for this stabbing? She would not let her son get on MySpace!

Terry's MySpace page headline reads: "School work sleep!!!!! that's it!!!!".. and MySpace, of course.

Social media addictions amongst young people, Generation Z, are continuing to become more and more apparent. Ask any 13 - 18 year old to live without Internet access or texting for a week and see what would happen. Chances are they would not be happy about it and would not be able to fulfill the challenge. It is somewhat disturbing to think that kids are growing up more and more online instead of being outside with their friends playing, interacting with one another, and enjoying real life.

So what are your thoughts on this story? Do you feel that social media has the potential to turn into a big social problem amongst young people? Would you be able to live a week without Internet access? Without Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter? Without SMS (texting)?

Growing Up Online Discussion Panel Podcast

In class, we recently viewed the PBS Frontline documentary 'Growing Up Online'. Enjoy this panel discussion featuring three classmates (Wiltson, Ceci, and Shannon) and myself discussing the generational differences between the way we use social media (Generation Y) and the way the younger kids (Generation Z/C) are using it. Mind you, this is our first attempt at podcasting ever, so be nice! It was overall a great learning experience. Hope you enjoy the show!

Show notes can be found below.

The Social Media Syndicate - Episode 1 (click to listen to podcast)

:05 – Intro

:26 – Welcome

:41 – Panel Self Introductions

1:23 – The Hot Topic

1:33 – Shannon discusses generation definitions.

1:58 – Shannon asks panel: "What tools do you guys consider to be important in looking at the diferrences between how our generation, Gen Y, and the new generation, Gen Z/C, use the Internet tools?"

2:09 – Ceci discusses YouTube

3:42 – Wiltson discusses Facebook

5:21 – Christine discusses MySpace

6:04 – Shannon weighs in on Facebook and MySpace

6:22 – Wiltson responds

6:46 – Shannon discusses cell phones and SMS (text) messaging

8:16 – Wiltson weighs in on texting

8:49 – Ceci discusses Second Life

10:35 – Shannon responds

11:22 – Wiltson responds

12:09 – Closing

12:20 – Outro