But, wait! There’s more! Mr. Bauerlein somehow decided it prudent to beef-up his already lengthy sub-line with the following–very revealing–parenthetical statement: (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30).

Wow! Mr. Bauerlein’s got some balls, aint he?!

If it wasn’t already clear from my dismissive tone, I fall (just barely) within this maligned age demographic. Subsequently, I am having a hard time taking Mr. Bauerlein, and his polemic text, seriously. That old adage passed down to me from my parents is only half right, it seems. For my generation at least, we’d better not judge a book by its cover, for the cover’s just gonna judge us right back!

In any case, I actually agree with some of what Mr. Bauerlein appears to be suggesting about the so-called ‘digital age.’ In an interview with YouthWorker Journal, he says of internet alienation:

“The Internet allows people to create their own little universe. They only make contact with things that interest them. They enclose themselves in the music they like, the politics they like—and what we see is an isolation of young people who really get into this world. This is spiritually withering.”

From personal experience I can attest to the validity of this claim. Maybe I’m wrong here, but the cosmopolitan promise of digital technology hasn’t necessarily been realized in the way that it is sometimes envisioned. Isolated cliques are forming online (in CCD we describe it in slightly less damning terms as ‘communities of interest’), and in much the same way they form in the real world–by language, nationality, race, gender, political persuasion, etc. ‘Social networking,’ in this sense, is anything but; it’s more like ‘ghetto networking’ with fancy electronics. Needless to say, this doesn’t bode well for engaging public policy, much less real socio-political transformation.

That being said, I have to ask… what is it with baby-boomers and their relentless deconstruction of today’s youth culture?! I’m getting a little tired of all these elite, me-generation pundits deflecting their own mistakes onto other people. I mean, really, y’all, who’s running the show here?! Who’s leading academia, the government, the corporate giants that fund and mold the online (and offline) media environments in their own self-interest? Is it the Xers? The Millennials? Forty years ago we weren’t supposed to trust anyone over thirty, and now we’ve flipped the script?! Make up your damn mind already, will ya?!!

It is the height of arrogance and hypocrisy for Mr. Bauerlein to belittle young folk with such ridiculous, postmodern rhetoric. Perhaps I should redirect my ire at the pissy little editors at the publishing house who thought they were being clever with this title. After all, seems like the boomer thing to do–pass the buck.

UPDATE:

There’s a fairly interesting interview, by the way, over at NPR. It eventually develops into an ironic, Broadway-inspired send-up of Bauerlein’s curmudgeonly position.

Take that, boomers!

My hesitancy stems form the fact that OLPC News (among others–TechCrunch, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Engadget), has been reporting on what appears to be a major shift in OLPC values. It seems that Nicholas Negroponte–the co-founder of the MIT Media Lab and the proverbial grandfather of the OLPC project–has agreed to align himself and the initiative with Microsoft. The new generation of OLPC laptops will all include simplified versions of Windows XP.

The problem here, of course, is that this will happen at the expense of Sugar Labs, the newly-formed company that created the educational, open-source, GNU/Linux-based operating system that currently lives, albeit temporarily, on the OLPC XO 1. Moreover, this is a relatively clear departure from the stated constructionist mission of the whole OLPC project in that the use of proprietary software (Windows XP) subjects children, it is sometimes said, to “a regime of social control.” Windows, which makes up over 90% of all operating systems in use worldwide, represents a more hierarchical, capitalistic, top-down instructionism. Or at least that’s what the OLPC fans are saying online. 

Honestly, I’m on the fence about all this. The idealism behind Sugar, etc., is certainly admirable, but it may be a little foolish in the face of global poverty. There’s a tendency in the privileged world (ie, the United States) to confuse techy, middle-class intellectual discussions with reality. I would venture to suggest, however, that the heated debates taking place online now have very little to do with the impoverishment experienced everyday in the ‘developing’ world. Trying to choose between constructionism and instructionism, for instance, is a radically different bargain than choosing between your child’s education and food for the family.

My understanding here, also, is that the OLPC project moved towards XP precisely because poor countries were demanding it. Whether correct or not, government and community leaders in the ‘developing’ world felt that independent, open-source software like Sugar’s wouldn’t be as useful as XP. They wanted their youth to learn on an operating system that was considered ’standard’ around the globe, and common to practices within business, government, education, NGO, etc., of wealthier countries.

Despite the fact that it emboldens Microsoft’s monopoly, and contradicts the premise of the open-source OLPC project, I can’t blame the disenfranchized and impoverished for wanting XP. They are making pragmatic decisions that reflect difficult, real-world circumstances. In this regard, I suppose I would rather protect and promote the rights of marginalized people to make (potentially) bad decisions, than force-feed them an idea that may not be useful. I mean, the technology isn’t as important as the people.

However this conflict is resolved within the OLPC community, I do think it behooves social justice activists to educate themselves simultaneously about technological alternatives and real-world contexts. Not every good idea is a workable one. Were it so, we’d have discarded with neoliberalism a long damn time ago.

One of my favorites is TRAX, a youth media organization that is currently working on a “Market Value” project in the Preston Market, a series of inexpensive stalls in an open-air bazaar located just north of Melbourne. The goal is to create a multimedia exhibit featuring the work of local youth and others that addresses the changes happening at the markets themselves. It’s especially impressive given the challenges youth-made media projects face in the context of ‘economic development’.

I encourage folks to check it out. Bring your kid to the market or something! Download this flier and tell your friends. I think we really need to support these kinds of grass-roots, DIY media initiatives. A true community-led arts program!

Hopefully, someday soon, I can post an interview or two with the organizers of TRAX. It’ll inevitably show-up on the vlog half of the site. Be looking out for those in the future.

This week’s episode had an interesting interview with musician and filmmaker, Vincent Lamberti (no website available), a former Melbournian who now lives and work in Alice Springs, which is way out in the desert lands of the iconic Northern Territories. Among other things, Lamberti works with InCite, a youth arts organization, and he is somehow affiliated with an Aboriginal Media group called CAAMA.

Acording to the interview, Lamberti is directly involved in a film program specifically designed for indigenous youth (also no website available). I don’t know much more about this program, naturally, as I neither live in Alice Springs nor am I familiar with the organizations metioned in the show. Actually, I don’t know much of anything about the Australian youth media environment as a whole. A fact I hope to remedy soon enough.

But from what I can garner from the Jumpcut interview, Lamberti and his colleagues are particularly concerned about the economic realities surrounding their media initiatives in Aboriginal communities. At one point, Lamberti said:

“The whole idea of economic, sort of, empowerment is paramount, I believe, in trying to solve some of the social problems that are present in Alice Springs. Particularly in the town camps. Because people are basically struggling for survival…And so money and where your next meal is going to come from is paramount.” 

This unfortunate sentiment I can appreciate whole-heartedly. On top of the everyday burdens of the program participants, I am especially mindful of the economics of creating media itself. It is what I refer to as a ‘multi-tiered’ barrier. For media programs among marginal individuals, there are many constraints. Even if one is able to overcome the great obstacles of covering rent, bills, transportation, food, education, etc., then he/she is met with the challenge of obtaining technology and training. All of this costs money.   

I will be following InCite and CAAMA from afar, and hopefully someday I can keep up with the professional endeavors of Mr. Vincent Lamberti (assuming he gets a web presence). I’m even considering trying to contact the Alice Springs folks to see if they need a Winter (american Summer) volunteer or something. It would undoubtedly be informative to see life as it’s really lived in the famous Australian Outback, and even more so if I could get involved, maybe engage with a progressive youth media program.