Kids have a delightful way of reminding us that as technology changes, so do our expectations about how we interact with each other using those technologies. How does early technology exposure root our thinking about things like privacy and permission based contact?
Boris over at The Next Web shared a recent exchange about email vs social networks from the perspective of 8 year olds.
Today they were exchanging email addresses, for the first time, and this is what they said:
Loïs: “So when I come home I will add you to my AddressBook so I can email you”
Friend: “Okay, I will accept you right away”
Loïs: “You won’t have to accept me. I can just add you”
Friend: “Really? That is weird. You can just add anybody?”
Loïs: “Yes you can, it is easy”
Friend: “But then you would end up with maybe 50,000 names in your addressBook of people who haven’t even accepted you as a friend”
Loïs: “Yes, funny isn’t it?”
See the original post in its entirety.
All of those who fear that the evolving social web is an increasing threat to our privacy should look to the baseline attitudes that these kids have. They have a different understanding of the etiquette of social interaction and privacy.
I grew up with every family’s phone number and address published in the phone book which was regularly updated and delivered to everyone. This shaped our view of communications. When email came along, we expected that we could just email anyone we wanted and were frustrated that it was harder to discover people’s email addresses.
These kids are growing up with social media as the primary communications tool and they have an inherent expectation that permission based exchanges of personal information is normal. As they grow up and our tools evolve this permission based bias will no doubt become more and more pervasive not less.
What else can our kids tell us about future technology trends? Let me know what you think.
