Savvy Web 2.0 Teens Forge Critical Thinking Skills

This article by Lauren Barack on 15 June 2010 in School Library Journal tells of a study by Natalia Ronda, a PhD candidate at York University, Toronto. She is discovering that 14 year olds are using critical thinking skills independently online.For example, "One teenager used YouTube as a social networking tool, viewing videos of potential friends in order to make a judgment whether this person would be interesting as a friend." Another interesting finding was related to privacy. Those in the study had a good idea of what their privacy options were, and all put some time into researching their privacy settings, says Ronda, explaining that teens made decisions on who they connected to and what they shared, after exploring options and reflecting on how these decisions would affect their online experience.