Young People and the New Media: On learning lessons from TV to apply to the PC

Summary: With the current proliferation of personal media in the home and particularly in children's bedrooms, analogies between early television and today's new screen-based media are taken as a basis for applying to the personal computer lessons learned from television. A parallel can be drawn in terms of usage and effects on domestic time and space, on social and family relations and on lifestyles, for young people are generally at the cutting edge of these developments. The two main tendencies of our societies, towards 'privatization' and individualization, constitute the historical backdrop to these processes. Apart from social and cultural changes and the proliferation of currently available media, it is relevant to study the cycle of usage - from the elite to the general public to specialists - of these media seem as their status evolves from 'new' to 'familiar'.