Lessons We Can Learn From How Teens Manage Technology

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Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

  • Teens are much smarter with technology than most of us are willing to acknowledge. The other month, there were a lot of stories in the mainstream media about apps that enabled kids to take pictures and share media that could be hidden from parents. Apps that looked like calculators, but were really password protected storage areas. Now, teenagers are going public with how they handle social media. For “everyone else” they have the traditional Instagram and Facebook accounts, but for their close friends, they have Finstas – or, “Fake Instagram.” These accounts are their “real accounts.” The ones that are private for just their friends. This may be a smart move for adults who want to separate real family and friends from the rest? 
  • In 2005, Alex Tew came up with a brilliant idea. He decided make a million dollars by building a webpage that was based on a 1000 x 1000 pixel grid… and he sold each pixel for a dollar = one million dollars. It worked. In fact, it did so well that he sold the final 1000 pixels on eBay, and it pushed the total well passed the $1 million mark. Well, last week Andre Alberto from Lisbon, Portugal begun an  attempt to be the world’s first crowdfunded millionaire through a campaign he recently launched on Kickstarter. It involves backers pledging amounts between €1 and €7,000 to get rewards such as a signed book, a meet up in Portugal, and the chance to marry him. So far… not so good. While he’s getting a lot of media attention, only €1,170 has been pledged. So, what do you think? Gimmick or smart move? 
  • App of the week: Laundry Day

Listen here…