Digital Youth Project: If you care about kids and want to understand how they use technology and why, this is a must-read

The above link is to a post at Boing Boing about a recent 3-year research study on how kids today are engrossing themselves in digital media.

The Digital Youth Project, a MacArthur-funded three year, 22 case study, $3.3 million ethnographic study of what kids are doing online, has wound up and published its results. The project was undertaken by the eminent sociologist Mimi Ito and her talented colleagues (including the incomparable danah boyd) and is the largest and most comprehensive study of young peoples’ internet use ever undertaken in the US.

The conclusions are sane, compassionate, and compelling: in a nutshell, the “serious” stuff we all hope kids will do online (researching papers and so on) are only possible within a framework of “hanging out, messing around and geeking out.” That is to say, all the “time-wasting” social stuff kids do online are key to their explorations and education online.

I haven’t read the actual study results yet, but I did have a few minutes to scan through them.  There is obviously some amazing stuff here.  Anyone who wonders what their kids are doing online, or why they are so “addicted” to the Internet should take some time and read this.  Mom, Dad…this means you. :)

Here’s the full report in pdf format:
http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/files/report/digitalyouth-WhitePaper.pdf