What's your teenage e-Society subculture?

(Fanboy 2008)

Teenage e-society has divided itself into distinctive subcultures due to the continued embrace of the Internet and World Wide Web in their every day lives. Results taken from a study of a residential school using findings from observations, surveys and interactions with students discusses how teenagers dominate online environments (Brown et al). The realm for teenagers in cyberspace forms a virtual subculture around them and resonates to the offline 'real world'.

The five main subculture fragmentations of teenage e-society include explorers, socialisers, gamers, transporters and publishers (Brown et al). If you're an explorer (37.6%), you primarily use the Internet to gather information. A socialiser (35.4%) is an individual who uses it to interact socially with family and peers. The gamer (14.9%) involve themselves in online gaming by playing solo or interacting in group play with other peers. Transporters (10.7%) are individuals who use the Internet to download files including movies, audio files and programs. Publishers (1.4%) upload and create content on the Internet for their own purposes or for the benefit of other peers.

Our economy is currently in an Information Age, which refers to the global economy's shift in focus away from the Industrial Age of the production of goods towards the manipulation of information. The majority of teenage e-Society utilises the Internet for exploring (37.6%). Kavanaugh (2005) suggests high Internet usage combined with geographical proximity results in increased communication among existing subculture groups. The close interaction online by teenagers increases subculture stability and it is typical to find gamers discussing gaming online and offline in the 'real world'. Information technology and the Internet relates to the use of electronic mediums to store, process, transmit and retrieve information. These technological advances have drastically changed the lifestyles of teenagers around the world and enabled the introduction of new niche industries around controlling and providing information to users. Since the invention of the World Wide Web (WWW) in 1989, the Internet has transformed into a global network for its users and teenagers of e-Society. It is currently the best place to speed up the flow of relevant information.

Teenagers are emotionally and socially linked to their use of the Internet and WWW, using the medium to break into cyberspace subcultures which are further integrated into their daily lives. The research article by Brown et al. (2005) is a successful research article because the findings are continued on from a previous study at the school and can be resonated back into the 'real world'. It was observed in the study that teenagers at school settle into one of the five subcultures within approximately thirty days of arriving at a school. It is interpersonal experiences which are the pivotal point of subcultures and computer usage since the early days of the Internet. It is particularly useful as an example of data for future research on the residential school and will also enable future researchers an opportunity to understand how the interests, behaviours, patterns and personality types reflect each individual teenage e-society subculture.

We are in a digital world where teenagers across continents unite to share ideas, compete interactively, download files, and work together to build projects and ideas. The development of wireless Internet increased the possibilities of personalising social networking and e-Society subcultures to a broader range of situations. Occasionally, teenagers use information for their own purposes to create and redistribute ideas for other peers and users on the Internet. John Gage (2002) states the Internet is not a thing, a place, a single technology, or a mode of governance. It is an agreement and in the language of those who build it contains a protocol or a specific way of behaving. The dramatic speed of the agreement is startling the world and sweeping across all industry areas including communications, media, governance and commerce.


References

Brown et al. 2006. Subculture Fragmentation of Teenage e-Society. From Iadis Virtual Multi Conference 2006. http://www.iadis.org/Multi2006/Papers/17/S019_WAR.pdf (accessed 3 April 2008).

Fanboy. 2008. Fandom Archives. http://www.fanboy.com/ (accessed 10 May 2008).

Gage, J. 2002. "Decentering Society" available from http://www.civmag.com/articles/C9910E03.html (accessed 1 April 2008).

Kavanaugh, A., Carroll, J.M., Rosson, M.B., Zin, T.T., Reese, D.D. 2005. Community Networks: Where offline communities meet online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Available from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/kavanaugh/html (accessed 24 March 2008).

How do you successfully establish a Creative Class community in your city?

(United States Department of Agriculture 2007)

The Creative Class is an encouraging, dynamic and open professional and personal milieu. In order to go beyond cultural uniformity and establish a successful Creative Class community in your city, regions should endeavour to effectively and efficiently use their capital for long-term success (Florida, 2002). Instead of injecting funds and scarce resources into new infrastructure development projects, such as shopping centres, roads and buildings, cities need to start attracting and retaining creative talent. By establishing a supportive, creative and dynamic environment it will draw other creative people, businesses and resources to regions (Florida, 2002).

Traditionally, communities formed geographically on a global, national, local and hyperlocal level. Communities have existed on multiple levels, with global culture highlighting the similarities and local culture highlighting our diversity. These days, in order to successfully find communities of interest, individuals generally have to pack up their belongings and relocate to cities with larger populations. Another way is to form online communities of interests.

The chapter extract ‘The Rise of the Creative Class’ taken from Florida’s book The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (2002) examines the shift away from the traditional industry-based economy to a more intricate economic hierarchy. It is a very informative and influential chapter, as the author is one of the best known theorists and researchers for his work of the Creative Class and its consequences on urban regeneration.

If you are motivated to establish a successful Creative Class in your region, Florida suggests attracting a high concentration of musicians, artists, writers, gay men, high-tech workers and bohemians, because these creative professionals correlate positively with higher economic development (2002). An interesting point to note is cultural memberships often overlap, but eventually resolve themselves to one primary culture. The work by the American urban studies theorist and professor has received both praise and criticism over the years from various academic figures. One example of this is Terry Nicholas Clarke, an individual who used his own research data to test and question whether Florida’s data was valid or void (Wikipedia, 2008).

How can we transform cities like Brisbane in Australia into a Creative Class? What additional measures need to be taken in order to successfully establish a city as a renowned Creative Class region? Can we act alone or do we need to work as a group towards the collective goal?

References

Florida, R. (2002). The Rise of the Creative Class. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0205.florida.html (accessed 25 March 2008).

United States Department of Agriculture. 2007. Creative Class County Codes. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/CreativeClassCodes/creativemap.gif (accessed 5 April 2008).

Wikipedia. (2008). Richard Florida. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Florida (accessed 1 April 2008).