the zeitgeist report

Wired has a handy little guide to what is really happening on MySpace. It's another cooler heads prevailing article:

This FAQ relies heavily on an interview with UC Berkeley researcher Danah Boyd, who studied teens' ways during a two-year ethnographic study of the MySpace phenomenon. Boyd speaks on her findings in a recent lecture .

The ideas have been popping up with a little more frequency:

Youth are not creating digital publics to scare parents - they are doing so because they need youth space, a place to gather and see and be seen by peers. Publics are critical to the coming-of-age narrative because they provide the framework for building cultural knowledge. Restricting youth to controlled spaces typically results in rebellion and the destruction of trust. Of course, for a parent, letting go and allowing youth to navigate risks is terrifying. Unfortunately, it's necessary for youth to mature.

What we're seeing right now is a cultural shift due to the introduction of a new medium and the emergence of greater restrictions on youth mobility and access. The long-term implications of this are unclear. Regardless of what will come, youth are doing what they've always done - repurposing new mediums in order to learn about social culture.

Technology will have an effect because the underlying architecture and the opportunities afforded are fundamentally different. But youth will continue to work out identity issues, hang out, and create spaces that are their own, regardless of what technologies are available.