Labor Queer and Youth Online, Thoughts on my Mind

There are two major avenues of thought that are going on in my life currently.

The first is an investigation of queer notions of family and how we fight for them. By this I mean a definition of family that moves beyond the two adults, monogamous, kid oriented definition. I was really excited to hear that the SEIU just embraced a more queer friendly understanding of family and has committed to fighting for it. (PS. the article is from BEYOND (STRAIGHT AND GAY) MARRIAGE written Nancy Polikoff, a really excellent blog about these issues [I haven't read the book yet, but really want to])

Laws and policies that narrowly define “family” as limited to two legally-married adults of the opposite sex raising their biological children are often used against immigrants, people of color and the working poor who are more likely to live in family structures that differ from this model.

Narrow definitions of family exclude many relationships that our members call family, including relationships with individuals for whom we have primary care-taking responsibility and relationships with individuals with whom we share economic and emotional interdependence.

Government and employer-provided benefits should support individuals with day-to-day responsibilities to care for and financially support minor children and dependent adults in all family forms, and should protect interdependent adult relationships.

The second thought going around my mind is an interrogation of the norms for youth-adult contact within the youth services non-profit world. This is especially tricky in the context of social network site like Facebook and Myspace. I've been fallowing danah boyd for awhile now because of her really insightful work around youth use of social networking. Today she posted an article about when, why, and how teachers should interact with their youth online.

All too often, there is an assumption that when teachers interact with students out of the classroom, they have bad intentions. This breaks my heart because, for all of the fear, most of the teachers that I've met in my line of work have really meant well by their students and their engagement with their students has helped their students tremendously. I've heard so many stories of teachers intervening and helping kids who really need it. Stupid things like giving them lunch money or being there to listen to their woes or helping a first generation kid learn about college.

Some Links I've Been Holding on to

I just started a new job and it has been keeping me pretty busy. As such, I have not been able to post some of the interesting things I've found lately. So, here is a list of some interesting articles I've run across.

Mobile Phone Credits as Currency in Kenya points out that due to the recent violence in Kenya and the dependence of the population on mobile phones for their communication needs, mobile phone credits have become a better currency than the government issue money. It goes on to discuss communcation needs in times of disruption.

Reaching Out to Muslim Victims of Domestic Violence talks about what efforts are being made to address issues of domestice violence in the Muslim-American Community and some of the challenges that are being faced.

let's define our terms: what is a "social networking technology"? does just that.

PEW Study of Youth and SNS (Social Netwoking Sights)

Pew put out another great report: Teens and Social Media. This report fleshes out what I noticed earlier - teens are much more protective of the content they post online than adults are. Yet, this report is sooo much more than that. Here are some of the new findings to whet your appetite:

• Digital images - stills and videos - have a big role in teen life. Posting them often starts a virtual conversation. Most teens receive some feedback on the content they post online.
• Email continues to lose its luster among teens as texting, instant messaging, and social networking sites facilitate more frequent contact with friends.
• More older girls than boys create and contribute to websites.
• Girls have fueled the growth of the teen blogosphere.
• Teens from lower-income and single-parent households are more likely to blog.
• Teens who are most active online, including bloggers, are also highly active offline.
• Most teens restrict access to their posted photos - at least some of the time. Girls are more restrictive photo posters.
• Content creators are not devoting their lives exclusively to virtual participation. They are just as likely as other teens to engage in most offline activities and more likely to have jobs.
• African American teens are more likely to look for college information online.
• Girls are more likely than boys to look up health, dieting, or fitness information on the Web.
• The number of teens who report instant message use has dropped since 2004.
• Visiting a chatroom has declined significantly in popularity since 2000.
• Fewer teens are buying products online.
• Wealthy teens are more likely to engage in multimedia Web activities.

This from apophenia a really interesting blog by Danah Boyd, who studies youth's interactions over the internet. She talks more about the study here.