Code Literacy: A 21st-Century RequirementNovember 13, 2012 |
Douglas Rushkoff Ask kids what Facebook is for, and they'll tell
you it's there to help them make friends. And, on the surface
anyway, that's what it looks like. Of course, anyone who has
poked a bit deeper or thought a bit longer about it understands
that people programming Facebook aren't sitting around wondering
how to foster more enduring relationships for little Johnny,
Janey and their friends, but rather how to monetize their social
graphs -- the trail of data the site is busy accumulating about
Johnny and Janey every second of the day and night. After all,
our kids aren't Facebook's customers; they're the product. The
real customers are the advertisers and market researchers paying
for their attention and user data. But it's difficult for them
or us to see any of this and respond appropriately if we don’t
know anything about the digital environment in which all this is
taking place. That’s why -- as an educator, media theorist and
parent -- I