A blog post from Weblogg-ed brought my attention to a New York Magazine article entitled “Say Everything“. The article examines the issue of adolescent online openness through a series of personal accounts. The article concludes the behavior we witness online is a function of the following factors:
- THEY THINK OF THEMSELVES AS HAVING AN AUDIENCE
- THEY HAVE ARCHIVED THEIR ADOLESCENCE
- THEIR SKIN IS THICKER THAN YOURS
New ideas?
The concept of audience (imaginary audience and personal fable) is not new as a way of thinking about adolescent behavior. I remember this topic from my early days teaching Adolescent Psych – a kind of egocentricism in which one makes the assumption that others are watching leading to a personal preoccupation with the story being played out. Of course, the Internet as a stage is not imaginary, but as in the FTF imaginary stage, the individual is possible the one paying the most attention.
The notion that we are purposefully creating a personal archive is possibly akin to a personal diary.
So assumed audience and archiving are not new, but the intent to distribute and the actual access of others may be different.
They are tougher. I am not sure I agree – perhaps it is important to act like “you just don’t care.”
