Richard Nantel

Last week, I wrote about a teen panel I attended that suggested that, except for a few small differences, today’s teens seem pretty similar to their boomer parents. Considering how differently these generations were raised, this is surprising.

When I was young, my favorite game was called stretch. My opponent and I would face each other, inches apart, and would throw pocket knives into the ground. My opponent would need to stretch one leg and place his foot where the blade entered the ground. Holding that position, it was his turn to throw a knife and make me stretch. Every once in a while, a knife would inadvertently pierce a foot, adding a significant element of danger to the game.

When were weren’t playing stretch, we were burning things using sunlight and magnifying glasses.

When we weren’t lighting fires with magnifying glasses, we were making guns out of clothespins and elastic bands that ignited and shot wooden matches 20 feet or more.

When we weren’t making clothespin guns to shoot matches, we were mixing our own dynamite and blowing things up.

When we weren’t blowing things up, we were making rafts out of non-buoyant materials to navigate rivers (even though none of us could swim).

Looking back, it’s a miracle any kid in the 1960s and 70s survived long enough to attain adulthood. Although those days were filled with danger, I think most boomers reflect on those experiences as among the happiest in their lives.

News stories of abductions and pedophiles turned boomers, who grew up enjoying unbridled freedom, into overprotective parents. “Go out and play” was quickly replaced with “shall I call your friend Sammy and arrange a play date?”

Consequently, the children in my neighborhood are experiencing a very different childhood than the one I enjoyed. I never see them running free like coyotes. They never ring my doorbell and run away, leaving a bag of burning dog droppings at my door. I suspect most have never seen a shooting star.

Gever Tulley is attempting to change all that. He’s writing a book called “50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do.” He’s also the founder of The Tinkering School, a summer program where kids are provided with the opportunity to explore, build things, and learn about danger.

At the Tinkering School, kids as young as seven use power tools. In fact, they get to bring home their own power drill upon finishing the program.

According to Mr. Tulley, “if you send your kids to the Tinkering School, they’ll come back bruised, scraped, and bloody.” They’ll also be more creative, self assured, and will know how to interact safely with the environment around them.

The Tinkering School is all about discovery and exploration. It sounds like the best possible environment for learning.

Check out this presentation of Gever Tulley on the TED Web site.

The Tinkering School Web site is located here.

My last post described an excellent panel discussion that ended last week’s O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in New York city. The facilitator, Stephen Abrams, asked seven teenage girls and one 22 year-old young man questions about their lives.

Mr. Abrams ended the session by showing a short film by a sociologist named Michael Wesch. Mr. Wesch is an Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. The video describes creatively the lives of students today. Enjoy.

For the last couple of days, I’ve been attending the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in NY city. Yesterday’s closing session ended with a “Teen Panel.” Eight young people, seven girls in their teens and one boy aged 22, were seated up on stage and answered questions from the moderator and the audience.

The aim of this session was to illustrate the differences between conference attendees, who were overwhelmingly members of the boomer generation, and young people. The questions touched a wide range of issues. Here are a few:

How do you listen to music? Everyone answered that they listen to music on their computers and their iPods. Hi-fi stereo systems don’t exist for this generation.

Do you ever use e-mail? Most answered rarely or never. One young woman said “e-mail is so 90s.”

Do you ever sign up for e-newsletters? No. Mostly, they hate these things and think of them as spam.

Do you use your cell phone for anything other than text messaging and calling people? All eight had cell phones. A couple occasionally play built-in games such as Tetris to kill time. None surf the Web with their phones. Most had many ringtones.

Facebook or MySpace? Overwhelmingly Facebook. Two use neither. None use MySpace anymore but had in the past. By the way, if you want to stop sounding square, stop calling it “my Facebook profile.” These young people say “My Facebook” as in “I’m adding photos to my Facebook.” (This explains the smirks my daughters give me at the dinner table.)

How many friends do you have? Most have hundreds but identified a half dozen that were close friends. Close friends were defined as those to which you confide.

Do you care about the brand of clothing you buy? All said no. As long as the clothes were attractive, comfortable, and low-cost, they didn’t care who made them.

Mac or PC? They may not care about the brand of clothing they wear, but they were passionate about computer platforms. The majority were using Macs.

Democrat or republican? Overwhelmingly democrat. Only one republican. (The outcome would likely have been different in other parts of the country.)

For or against gay marriage? All approve of gay marriage, including the young woman who identified herself as republican and conservative.

Which do you use most, text messaging or instant messaging? They use both but lean more towards instant messaging. One young woman said the problem with text messaging is that “it takes forever just to say Hi.” Most said they often use Facebook to contact friends.

When do you make your plans for Saturday night? Most said Saturday morning. A couple said they would text friends around dinner time to get together. One likes to make plans a week in advance.

How do you assess if the information you find on the Web is accurate? When doing research for school, they’ll check multiple sites to see if they all say the same thing.

How much TV do watch? Most report watching about one hour per day.

What television shows do you like to watch? Overwhelmingly, these people watch and enjoy reality shows. The young man was the exception, saying he loved one of my favorite shows, 30 Rock.

Do you exercise? All but one exercise three times or more per week. And this was real exercise, not walking to the fridge to get a snack. Most were part of sports teams, including basketball, swimming, etc. One did yoga; a couple took dance lessons. They were all slim and fit looking.

Do you volunteer? All but one had volunteered regularly; many on a weekly basis. These were either personal projects or volunteer projects organized by their schools.

Do you think your future will be better than your parents’ future? A couple said yes, but most seemed worried about this. One young woman with dreams of being an artist said “I hope I never have to abandon my dream to pay the bills.”

How do you like to study? I was expecting them to say they study while watching TV, IM-ing friends, and listening to music. But, this wasn’t the case. Most report they needed quiet to study.

Do you use your school textbooks? Most reported they have textbooks but rarely, if ever, used them.

When was the last time you went to a public library? For most, it’s been a long time, but they did all visit their school libraries recently.

When was the last time you went to a bookstore? Nearly all have been to a bookstore in the last few days. They were all there to browse and kill time. Bookstores appear to be a very popular hangouts for teens.

§ § §

So, how different are young people today? Not so much. Sure, they’ve abandoned e-mail and hi-fi stereo systems, but this generation is significantly closer to the values and habits of their parents than we were growing up in the 60s and 70s. Back then, our pretty square parents (sorry mom, sorry dad) had to deal with kids exploring free love, drugs, rock and roll, and more.

Think of young people today as like us, only better. They’re more in touch with the world around them. More committed to their communities. More health conscious. Sheesh. They like to hang out in bookstores. What’s not to love about these people?

What’s amazing is that these young people don’t seem bitter. They’re inheriting significant environmental, economic, and social problems. Thank goodness a better generation will be around to tackle these challenges.