Tired of Facebook mania dominating the news? ">Blame it on the girls, at least http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/10121931.stm">according to a study undertaken for the U.K.’s National Family Week, which found that the social networking site has become one of the most important things in their lives.
We’re talking about fairly young girls, ages 8 to 15. Forty percent of these precious lasses listed Facebook among the "most important things" in their lives, according to BBC News' report on the study. Only 6 percent of boys said that. And technology in general was cited by 41 percent of girls as a major influence in life, compared with 17 percent of boys. So much for stereotypes about tech being male-oriented.
Another stereotype-twister: Boys were more likely than girls to name family as one of the most important things in their lives (73 percent to 53 percent).
The top three influences for girls: parents, teachers and technology. For boys: parents, friends and school. The study polled 1,000 kids.
But the BBC News story doesn't cast social networking sites as isolating or as destructive to relationships; rather, it suggests Facebook and its kind might be more like family complements, indistinguishable from girls' real-world interactions with parents and friends — "central to their social and family life."
One thing, at least, remains the same: Parents just don't understand (in the immortal words of Will Smith). The survey suggested that parents tend to underestimate how important tech is to their kids — and overestimate how important they themselves are to their kids.
Get off the computer, Mom!
— Christopher Null is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.
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This was expected.
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