Not Their Parents Web

Not Their Parents' Web

We need to understand that the Web, as our teenagers use it, is not just a productivity tool or a more convenient way to find informationnot even a way to share photos with distant relatives. It's not a tool as we adults see it. It's an extension of teenagers themselves.

Fast Company magazine recently interviewed Evan Rifkin, co-founder of TagWorld.com, a rapidly up-and-coming "social networking plus media hosting" site. Rifkin said in that interview, published in the June 2006 issue, "People want to live their lives online." This is, in fact, what's happening with our kids, for whom the distinction between online and offline is blurring rapidly, as we mentioned earlier.

Because of its flexibility and all the different forms of interaction and self-expression MySpace allows, young people are able to move their lives online too. Just as water finds outlets and cracks that we never knew about, teenagers found MySpace.