'Generation We'

CNET writer Stefanie Olsen tells of 7-year-old Gabriel, who's bored with TV because he can't do anything with it. He and the rest of his generation are growing up with the assumption that media is something you create, customize, and share - that media is both a self-expression and a socialization tool. It's not that TV's going away or kids are losing interest in it, it's that they're really losing interest in the way we adults used TV (passively). Here's Stefanie's example of how Generation We uses TV - "what MTV Networks is doing with its teen-targeted digital cable channel, The N. It produces television shows that air on cable, but its audience can stream the shows via the Web through its broadband player, The Click. On the site, kids can use a so-called video mix masher to take a scene from a show, put a comment on it and add other scenes … to create their program. Part of it is what The N calls 'vomenting,' or adding commentary to shows via text blurbs or audio." (note that sound – music - is also commentary to teens).