Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development

From the reviews:

"Digital Youth: The Role of Media in Development, by Kaveri Subrahmanyam and David Å mahel, demonstrates how youth use and integrate media into their lives. ... the book's main audience is more than researchers, undergraduates, and graduate students; it is designed to be accessible to parents, teachers and others who serve as caregivers for youth. As such, it serves as a useful and comprehensive introduction to an increasingly important area of adolescent life. ... Digital Youth was easy to read and follow, even for a novice." (Andrea Karle, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 42, 2013)

"Need help understanding the evolving online media landscape of today's youth? Kaveri Subrahmanyam and David Å mahel's Digital Youth: The Role of Media in Development may be just the book to bring you up to speed. The authors provide an overview of research on a variety of issues related to the adolescent online media experience.

As acknowledged by the authors, this landscape changes so rapidly that research is almost outdated as soon as it is conducted. This is an ongoing challenge for those who conduct research on any aspect of popular culture, and for the most part the authors do a fine job of providing the most up-to-date data available at the time of writing. In addition, the book provides a refreshing focus on the positive aspects of the youth online media experience, as well as noting the many potential hazards.

The book is infused with a strong developmental perspective that helps unite such disparate topics as cybersex, civic engagement, and game violence, among many others. The focus on three key developmental tasks of adolescence-sexuality, identity, and establishing intimate relationships-provides an effective organizing framework. The authors further set the stage with their assertion that, as well as being influenced by their digital world, young people affect the construction and impact of these experiences. In other words, the interactive nature of digital environments requires that users be a key part of a dynamic process of use, adaptation, and change.

However, their criticism of media effects theory as one-sided seems to ignore a key development. Anderson and colleagues' general learning model strongly emphasizes interactions among situational and person variables (Anderson & Bushman, 2001; Carnagey & Anderson, 2005). This model has strong and ever-increasing empirical support.

Have you heard the term digital natives? How about digital immigrants? These terms were coined by game designer Marc Prensky (Prensky, 2001). The expressions capture the profound difference between the digital media experience of adults and that of young people. Youths are digital natives who have never known a world without the myriad forms of technology that connect them to each other and to a communication- and information-heavy world. Most are naturally comfortable with the currently available media and easily adapt to the next iteration. Their parents (and most seasoned media researchers) are digital immigrants who must choose to become acculturated to ever-evolving digital technologies. These differences lead to some apprehension on the part of the digital immigrants and perhaps to a focus on negative outcomes.

Take, for example, the widespread belief that time spent on the Internet is socially isolating. The authors cite research that suggests that online time for youths is actually a contemporary medium for enhancing communication and socialization. Digital immigrants may find this difficult to accept.

What are the ways in which communication and socialization may be enhanced in the digital world? Subrahmanyam and Å mahel point out several opportunities, including enhanced access to a diverse peer group and thus to one of the primary arenas for the development of social skills.

Identity development, too, can be fac