Interview - Stephanie

For my “Growing Up Digital” interview, I spoke to the nineteen year old sister of my boyfriend. Stephanie [as I will call her] is homeschooled, and so I thought that she would be an interesting adolescent to talk to for this reason, as she’s already “missing out” on a large part of the social atmosphere that most adolescents experience [high school]. I thought that I would bring up some of the topics discussed in Sherry Turkle’s NPR interview, because some of the points she touched upon were extremely interesting to me, and I wanted to see how Stephanie felt about then, and whether or not she agreed with the points that Sherry was making; and if so, why.

First, I started our discussion by asking Stephanie about her digital media use. She is an avid texter [and had her phone out during the time that we spoke; and, yes, she was sending messages]. She also has a Facebook account, a YouTube channel, and a Tumblr. She uses her Facebook account to keep in touch with friends that she’s held on to since leaving public school over six years ago, as well as using it to keep up to date on what her family is up to, as many of them live out of State. She says that if she had to guess, she spends about two to three hours a day on Facebook, browsing posts and occasionally playing the games that are offered when she’s bored, as well as using the chat feature. Her YouTube channel hosts a plethora of fan videos which she has made for her favorite movies, and her Tumblr account is used for reblogging pictures of actors she likes and other areas of interest. Stephanie agrees that a large portion of her day is spent online doing any of the above mentioned activities. She also agrees that she spends more time using digital media for personal enjoyment than she does for school, and that she spends more time online than she does outside with her friends. When it comes to texting, this is an all-day event; she doesn’t set aside times to partake in it, and she rarely uses her phone for actually conversation. In this instance, I had to confess that I am very similar, as that is typically how I use my phone as well.

I spoke with her briefly about the NPR interview, and how Sherry Turkle mentioned how in her experience, she’s learned that people no longer know how to hold a conversation – that they don’t like how they can’t control what they are going to say, and that they don’t know how long the conversation is going to take place or where the conversation might go. Sherry mentions that texting eliminates that uncertainty as it gives the people involved in the conversation some semblance of control over those variables. Stephanie tended to agree with this statement, saying that there was less pressure to respond to a conversation when conducting it via text; that she didn’t feel as though she had to agree with anything on the spot because she was allowed an undetermined amount of time to get back to the discussion. When asked if she wanted to start having conversations with actually speaking as opposed to texting, she said “Not really.”

I also wanted to speak with her about Sherry’s discussion about how people feel the need to create an online persona that is “pretty”. She said that she agreed with this, because online, that’s all people have to go on; that they judge you based on presentation, and so when she puts a picture of herself up online, it’s only if she’s pleased with the angle, the style of her hair, and how her makeup has been put on. I asked her if she thought there was more pressure to present herself a certain way online than there is when going out in public, and she said yes. She said that people are meaner online, because they can say whatever they might like under anonymity.

Overall, I thought my interview was eye opening in that adolescents are willing to admit that they would rather hide behind screens and an online profile than they would participate in the actual public. I can understand that to some extent, as I also have an online personality in some forums, but I still make a point to participate in life outside of digital media. I think a lot of the dependency on digital media has to do with the fact that people can be whoever they want, whenever they want, online; whereas in “real life” it isn’t that easy. That was the impression I got from Stephanie, at least; who would rather participate in life online, than outdoors.