life stages

by: David Armano

A funny thing happened on the way back from my guest lecture at Parson's Design At The Edge class. While the students (approximately 80 of them) were busy Facebooking their lives away—they could not fathom the idea of leading a public life or using social networks like Facebook for anything but pure social activity.

by: Dick Stroud 

Creston (a marketing agency) has published an interesting report about the way young people use communications channels and its impact on marketing.

by: danah boyd

When discussing the plight of teenagers with adults, i'm often chastised for viewing teens as mature humans capable of making reasonable decisions. All too often, people point to all that psychological research that indicates that teens are experiencing extensive hormonal rushes that impair their judgment.

by: danah boyd

People often ask me why designing for teens or older folks is different, why age matters. There are many different ways to slice up age and life stage. Mooshing together various theories, i have my own hypothesis about three critical life stages in Western culture that affect a lot of our social technologies. The first is identity formation; the second is contributive participation in society; the third is reflection and storytelling.

Identity formation