ABSTRACT
In the next few years American public school systems and institutions of higher learning will face an interesting demographic milestone. For the very first time, educators will be instructing a student population that, from kindergartener to college senior, has no conscious memory of a time before the mass availability of the Internet. The influence of Internet-based technologies, though varied in scope due to socioeconomic inequities, has changed the way students interact with each other in a profound way. Their social world no longer remains confined to the family once the sun goes down and the streetlights glow. Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, online console video gaming, and text messaging have made it possible to interact with peers, both familiar and new, regardless of geographic distance and time of day. For these students, the Internet is far more valuable than the passive mediums of radio and television—it is an active tool for understanding that they control. They are learning about themselves, each other, and the world in which they live by using a boundless, increasingly more interactive online component that could only be imagined a generation ago.
