Six teenagers from a local sci/tech high school give presentations on how they’re using their computers socially in the course of a day. Random tidbits (kidbits?):

One got a gift certificate for iTunes, but otherwise she uses Limewire (a gnutella shell).

Text messaging costs too much to use.

One wishes there were upgrades for cellphones since hers can’t receive photos from others.

It’s rude to call up a friend just to ask about a homework question. So she uses IM.

One does a lot of Photoshopping and enjoys Audacity for remixing.

One doesn’t do much with IM but spends a lot of time on online forums about games.

One has a gmail address, a school address, and a “hotmail address for my junk mail.”

Q: Do you listen to podcasts? A: To what???

A few have blogs. One uses deadjournal instead of livejournal because it’s simpler and easier to figure out.

Q: Do you use Typepad? A: Never heard of it.

Blogging was big last year, but now it’s not. People got tired of commenting on their lives and sharing their lives.

One keeps a secret blog to put the feelings she doesn’t want to share.

One has blacked out all the names of her friends and all of their content in the screen captures she shows us in order to protect their privacy.

Some of the banner ads are fun to play especially since the popup blockers block the popups that result from, say, swatting the fly.

One’s phone broke, and even though she only talks on it maybe once a day, she “freaked out,” feeling completely disconnected.

“My attention span is just too short for email. I need a rapid response.”

They tend to use a handful of away messages. They do not use different screennames for different groups of friends.

They think the remixing they’re doing is within the law because they’re not redistributing the results. They think people will always invent new ways to get around any legal limitations on filesharing. They have no idea that “trusted computing” is going to lock down content.

They only buy music when it’s so new that they can’t find it on filesharing.

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