A differently moral-ed generation

Update 12/24/07: As several alert readers pointed out, Ian's post was a quote from David Pogue's article in the New York Times. Sorry for the confusion. Good read regardless.

If you haven't done so already, jump over and read Ian Jukes fascinating post, "The Generational Divide of Copyright Morality," on his Committed Sardine blog. He describes an exercise he conducts with younger audiences saying, "I'm going to describe some scenarios to you. Raise your hand if you think what I'm describing is wrong." His scenarios range from:

"I borrow a CD from the library. Who thinks that's wrong?" (No hands go up.)

 to

"O.K., let's try one that's a little less complicated: You want a movie or an album. You don't want to pay for it. So you download it. ... Who thinks that might be wrong?" Two hands out of 500.

And interesting and informative experiment - one that is probably replicable among "net gen" kids everywhere.

I am not sure that these kids are less moral - only differently moral. A small example:

A few years ago I found the hard drive of my home PC was full. On investigation, I discovered that my teen-age son had downloaded a complete, illegal copy of one of the Lord of the Rings movies.

When I asked him if he didn't feel it was wrong to deprive someone of his/her livelihood by denying them payment for their creative property, he replied:

"But Dad, I paid to see the movie in the theater - twice. I will buy the DVD as soon as it comes out. And I will probably buy a deluxe edition when that comes out in a year or so. Just HOW am I not paying for this?"

I am not sure I agreed with his argument, but it was nice to know he was thinking about the ethical implications of his act.

While I have no ethical problems with DRM techniques (to the chagrin of at least a few of my readers, I'm aware), I agree with Ian that copy-protection will not be a long-term viable solution. But I still don't understand any economic model in which creators are compensated for their work when all their songs, books, software, etc., are easily attainable without payment (stolen). 

Boys Adrift - audio cast on MPR

Family physician and psychologist Leonard Sax, author of Boys Adrift, was interviewed on a recent Mid-Morning show on Minnesota Public radio. The audio is worth a listen.

One comment he made was that when asked about being a "gentleman," today's boys will respond with "that's who goes to gentlemen's clubs (strip clubs)."

Neil Postman predicted this in his One Big Room theory! 

Some of the callers - game addicts - were pretty scary. Maybe my daughter's veto of getting the grandson a handheld video game at age 6 was a very good move. 

Home media ecology

A friend whose blog I read sometimes titles her entries "Imponderables." I suspect this might fit under that category.

Every time I visit with a telecommunications provider, I hear a sad litany of just how tough it is to make a profit in today's marketplace. I don't get it.

In 1988, this was, as I remember it, my telecommunications outlay:

• Basic telephone service including handset rental: $25 a month
  
• Long distance service, $10-20 a month
• One television and one radio (receiver built into a stereo amplifier) = $500 with a life span of 36 months = $15
  

Total about $55 a month.

In 2008, this is my telco outlay:

• Basic telephone service, no handset, $25 a month
  
• Long distance service, $10-20 a month
• Cell service for 3 lines, text messaging, data service: $120 a month
• Satellite TV, no movie or sports channels, $50 a month
  
• Home broadband Internet access, $50 a month
• Webhosting, two sites, $40 a month
• Various wireless charges at hotels, airports, etc. $30 a month
• Three televisions, three computers, printer, scanner, 2 cell phones, 1 cell phone/PDA, 5 telephone handsets (now portable with base stations), 2 iPods, GPS system, wireless home router, DVD player, VCR, stereo receiver/amp (No TiVo - yet.) All devices which need to be replaced now and then. Maybe around $9000 worth of electronics with an estimated life span of 36 months = $250
  

 Total about $580 a month!

And telco providers aren't making money? I don't get it.

I thought of this while playing with a chart that Lee Rainie from the Pew's Internet & American Life uses in this The New Media Ecology presentation. (He credits Tom Wolzien, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., but I can't seem to locate his work.) Here is my adaptation:

Then:

Now:

 

There's been some fuss lately about whether Prensky's Digital Immigrant/Digital Native analogy is accurate or useful. I'm not sure. But I do feel that while I may not have immigrated to a new digital country, I have moved from an information desert to an information jungle over the past 10 years or so. (And I have the bills to prove it.)

I am pretty sure that our kids don't inhabit this jungle any more skillfully than us geezers. They've just never known the desert.