Kids are finding ways to experiment with self-presentation … The Internet is becoming a way to play with identity, where adolescents can develop a sense of themselves.
Predictor: Turkle, Sherry
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Newsweek magazine, Katie Hafner and Steven Levy write about parents’ concerns over materials their children may access on the Internet. They quote MIT professor Sherry Turkle, the author of “Life on the Screen.” Hafner and Levy write: ”All the publicity about predators [on the Internet] has tarnished the image of chat rooms. But the talk areas may have value. ‘Kids are finding ways to experiment with self-presentation,’ says Turkle. She’s talked with kids about “Net sex,” where kids dabble in interactive erotica … Sometimes there is conscious gender-swapping. Sometimes things go no farther than the kids intended. Still, Turkle thinks that there may be benefits in all this; after all, no one gets pregnant in cyberspace. ‘Adolescence used to be a timeout, sexually speaking,’ she says. ‘But in the age of AIDS, sexual experimentation is a deadly game. The Internet is becoming a way to play with identity, where adolescents can develop a sense of themselves.'”
Biography:Sherry Turkle was the author of “Life on the Screen: Computers and the Human Spirit.” and a professor of the psychology of science at MIT. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Community/Culture
Subtopic: Ethics/Values
Name of publication: Newsweek
Title, headline, chapter name: No Place for Kids? A Parents’ Guide to Sex on the Net
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Vol. 126, Issue 1, Page 46 ISSN: 00289604
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney