5TH ARTEFACT EVALUATION:

My 5th artefact was to discover the reaction of the modern youth generation to its role in community and effects of the internet. I met a group of 15-16 year olds from Nottingham at a youth club. I decided to interview a boy called Tutu. I chose Tutu because he had recently moved to the UK from Africa, where his father still lives. It interested me how Tutu found the British youth culture and its role in community compared to that in Africa and how he uses the Internet differently here etc. I first asked him about his Internet use. I got the impression that he was a lot more excited about the Internet since coming to the UK. He told me that every night after school he would spend around 3 hours on the internet playing music and games but mostly chatting on msn. He found this the best thing about the internet because he was still able to chat regularly to his father and friends back in Africa. He told me that in Africa the internet is not so widely available so he has started to use it more; whereas in Africa he spend a lot more time outside playing. I found from Tutu that in his home town in Africa it was a lot safer playing outside than in England which contributes, but he also said that he did prefer to stay on the Internet in doors. From this I gathered that Tutu may have been finding it hard to make new friends and the internet offered a sanctuary to his old life. This is arguably good. I would argue that it could be destructive as people need to be forced into challenging situations socially to find their feet. We began to discuss the effects of the internet on young people and Tutu straight away commented on its negatives. He told me that he thought young people good now access any information they wanted and this has lead to them knowing more about the wrong things. I was surprised by this reaction; but maybe a young person from an outside community where internet is not as ripe can see the effects that his had on his peers. It was interesting because not many teens would tend to agree – most probably defending the internet. He then went on to tell me that in a short space of time he has now become dependant on the internet – feeling the need to access it everyday and sure that he could not live without it. This again is something I have experienced through my study. I will discuss more in my conclusion but I think there is a similar correlation between mobile phones. Finally I wanted Tutu to tell me about the cultural differences between community’s here and in Africa. He told me that community was a big thing back home – every body still relies on each other and they regularly have meetings; mainly based around the church. It appears that religious organisations that span right through a community have a big impact in creating community spirit. He noticed there was not as much of that here, with his mother seeking a new church etc. He also commented on the amount of different cultures in England. He thought that there was a lot more separation between groups of teens in his school compared to where he lived in Africa and also between young people and adults. This interests me to discover if the divide between the young and old generations is greater than previous times, if this has any relation to modern technologies like the internet and if this could be reason for negative effects on community. The 6th artefact will address this.