Amazing Insight

Emma Batchelor, Associate Director

I have been enthralled by the first insights from Amaze’s five-year study into the impact technology has on the lives of 10-15 year olds (http://www.amaze.com/amazegeneration/).

Dubbed by Amaze as ‘digital natives’, it is fascinating to see how casually this group uses technology for finding and communicating with friends.

In a similar way that our parents seemed to constantly guard against us spending too much time watching television, it appears that almost a third of the sample group have their online time limited by their parents.

But is this a battle that parents are bound to lose – and does it stem purely from a lack of understanding of how their children view and use technology and social media sites?

Having young relatives of this same generation, and even smaller children myself, I do worry about the online safety of this and younger generations, which are so technologically savvy in many ways, yet scarily naïve in others.

I was surprised to see the dominance of Facebook for this age group, and even more shocked to discover that over 75% have searched for and found friends online. But having added acquaintances as friends on my own Facebook page, I am probably not really in a position to judge.

I was heartened, however, to read that a seemingly casual attitude towards friendship does not preclude a strong sense of morality; with the vast majority of the study group saying they felt that terminating a relationship via Facebook was unacceptable, favouring the face-to-face approach.

And the fact that pets are still at the top of their list of priorities, leads me to believe that this generation may be less materialistic than many would have us believe (although mobile phones do come a close second).

As a great fan of series such as Seven Up and Child of our times, I can’t wait for the next insights to be published.

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