Journal 2: How Teenagers Consume Media: the report that shook the city.

Robson, M. (2009, July 13). How Teenagers Consume Media: the Study that Shook the City. Retrieved 7/27/09, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/13/teenage-media-habits-morgan-stanley

Not much in this report surprised me. A few things did though. The fact that a 15 year old had an internship Morgan Stanley and wrote a report at this level surprised me. When I was 15 I was sitting in a shopping cart being pushed into bushes imitating the guys from Jackass, not working at a serious fortune 500 hundred company writing reports that shook a city. Wow. Also I found it interesting that the most popular video game system in the U.K. was the Nintendo Wii, I figured it would have either been the Xbox 360 or PS3. Growing up in the technology age and still being heavily involved with technology use (I'm tuned into some sort of technology for just about every minute of my day, from video games, to even when I'm working out I have my i-pod on me) this article backed up a lot of my assumptions, such as most teenagers illegally download their music, they use pay as you go phones because its less expensive, they don't use things like Jamster because they lock you into lame contracts costing you a bunch of money, etc. I give a hand to Matthew Robson for his hard work and outstanding achievement for a person of such a young age.

Where are all the statistics comming from?

Though impressed by the information provided by Mr. Robson, there were no citations in his report which leaves me a little skeptical of the results (even though I personally believe much of what he reported from my own assumptions). Morgan Stanley is a serious company so I'm guessing that all of his sources were legit, but it would have been insightful to know what institutions and studies the statistics were taken from to compose this report.

How does this information effect teachers?

I feel that being aware of your students technological knowledge level is very important for a teacher. Understanding that a wealthy student who owns his own computer, video game system, and i-pod is most likely going to be much more technologically capable than a poorer student who doesn't own a video game system or i-pod and only is able to use a computer at school or a library is going to be a key component in providing educational equity in the classroom, especially with the ever growing integration of technology into our daily lives.