Introduction:

This interview was conducted by Deanna, with Kate Baggott, the research analyst and co-writer of Growing Up Digital. I first met Kate through the Internet when she introduced herself to me via e-mail. Growing Up Digital is a book by Don Tapscott that is about how the Internet and its relation to youth.

What is your job title and position?
Youth Media Analyst, specializing in how and why kids and teens use interactive technologies.

Do you enjoy your job, and why?
I love my job. I spend 45% of my time listening to young people talk about their lives and the tools they use to work, entertain themselves, stay in touch and learn. With another 50% of my time, I build media that I think children and teens will find useful, entertaining and occassionally educational. Another 5% of the time I spend telling people about the amazing things I've been learning. Every day is unlike the day before and my entire industry changes every 3 months.

What is your involvement with Growing Up Digital, and what does Growing Up Digital mean?
I was the director of research on "Growing Up Digital" the book and executive producer of the website that was designed by a team of teenagers. I started doing research on kids, teens and technology in July 1996. Gorwing Up Digital was published in November 1997 and, while I still think the book is an important text, a lot has changed since it was published. For starters, over a year ago ICQ and IM changed the interactive landscape for teens and that communicative landscape is changing again as interactive modelling, video and animation become more important online.

Why do you think the Internet is important to our society?
That's not an easy question. Every day I am less certain that I know why the Internet is important. In 1995 the first thing I used the Internet to do was human rights work. Today, I use it primarily for business and entertainment -- which is daily life rather than social idealism.

Everyone knows that the internet put an end to the limitations of geographical distance. We can communicate and collaborate across both geographical boundaries like mountains and across political boundaries like borders. What I am interested in exploring now is how personal distances are created and ended. I don't want to get too complicated, but the idea that drives my work these days is the assumption that we all put up communication barriers all the time.

What I think is important is to look at the communication boundaries we build and to compare how different forms of media (the Net, TV, film) mediate those distances. As an example, let's look at child development theory. Adults talk a lot about how teenagers put up barriers in talking to their parents as part of a developmental process. It comes as a shock to a lot of parents when their chatty 11 year-olds clams up at 15 and won't tell them anything about their lives. At that stage of life teens are defining themselves as individuals and that demands that they intellectually and emotionally separate from their parents, teachers and other adults to a certain extent. Except, the same teenager who can't talk to their parents might send them a long e-mail or want to ICQ their parents during the hours between getting home from school and the parents leaving work.

The contradictions don't begin and end with teenagers. We all say things through email or via ICQ that we would never say in a face-to-face situation. There are tons of reasons why, and none of them are obvious. I suspect these subtleties are the place where art and technology meet. If we were talking about film or tv, we could say that its the content that moves us, that affects our emotional state and how we communicate that emotional state. But in using electronic communicatioo tools, it's not the content that changes how we communicate our emotional states, its the tool itself. Now, I haven't figured out how that works, but it is defintely the start of some interesting research questions and I suspect that answering those questions will help me find out if the Net is really important to society.

How do you think the Net affects our youth and our future?
The Net is part of youth culture. What I love about this generation is that they aren't just consumers of media, they are creators of media. I like the fact that through building and distributing media online, youth have ended the media mystique. Everyone knows how media is created, what the skills are that go into it and the process of persuasion. I am not saying that all youth-generated media is good media, nor am I saying that all youth have superior creative skills. I am saying they know how the media machinery works and that makes them hard to manipulate and impossible to disrespect.

What are two Web-related books and titles do you recommend for reading, and why?
1.) "Playing the Future" by Douglas Rushkoff. It's a good reminder of what interactivity used to mean before web developers started imitating TV and using tons of gratuitous push. It was written while Rushkoff was still talking to young people rather than marketing professionals. Recently, Rushkoff recanted his predictions for the future of the Net. That's what happens when you spend too much time talking to marketers. I think re-reading his book will remind us all that the Internet can still be whatever we want it to be.
2.) "Growing Up Digital" by Don Tapscott. Unlike most books about young people, it actually quotes young people. While both "Playing the Future" and "Growing Up Digital" are out of date now, I think the quotes from "Growing Up Digital" are still very valuable.

What does the Web mean to you, personally?
I work the web. That's important to me because I get to invent my job every day. I get to respond to issues immediately and to embrace changes as they happen. It also means my sites. I just managed the development of a high speed site for kids called Devine Time. It's a history of invention and technology from Leonardo da Vinci to Albert Edison. There's the volunteer work I do with Toronto Webgrrls to introduce other women to the Web. There's the website I use to tell others about my work KateBaggott.Com. I am also preparing for when kids and teens won't tell me what they're thinking any more. I am 27 and it's just a matter of time before kids think I am too much like their mom. So, I am working on another book about adults who want to quit their jobs Kiss My Freckeled Ass Bye.

How do you use the Net to your advantage?
I do research every day, but I limit the amount of information that I take in. To stay productive I read three pieces of information about my field, three pieces of information about the industry in general and then I get to work. I don't miss too much because I talk to people constantly to find out what they have to teach me.

Do you have any additional comments?
I think it's important to keep an open mind and take the time to play with ideas, words and technology. I think play makes possibility evident and keeps curiosity alive, which is what research is all about.

Thank you, Kate.
Personal thanks goes out to Kate Baggot for participating in my survey. You are a very gifted, creative writer.