Quotation (with page number or parag number or time stamp if video/audio)

“Knowing how to blog, tweet, wiki, search, innovate, program, and/or organize online can lead to political, cultural, and economic value. I emphasize the youth of most of these exemplars to highlight the unprecedented empowerment that digital know-how can grant-but participation in networked publishing is not limited to the young.” Page 1, Paragraph 2.

Comment (250-500 words)

I picked this quote to comment on because I think it’s interesting to think about just how recently digital storytelling has come about, yet it is such a big part of our lives. Social media has only really existed in the last fifteen years, starting with Facebook in 2004. Yet, almost every person you meet has some sort of social media. Older people, who obviously did not grow up with digital media, are often made fun of for not knowing how to use it, but it is relatively young. But then young people, who are usually much well versed in social media are not taken seriously for what they post or learn on digital platforms. I have personally found this to be even more of a problem recently with TikTok, which has a lot of good (mixed with a lot of bad) information. Through TikTok and various other digital platforms, youth have become more politically, culturally, and economically aware and involved. But when we take these issues to adults, they say we don’t know anything because we learned it on social media so it “doesn’t count”. I have found a wealth of information on a number of topics on social media, most of which have been verified by either research or a professional. Just because something or someone is young, doesn’t mean they don’t have valuable and relevant knowledge. 

Question

Why has the idea that the older someone is, the more knowledge they have persisted when young people have proven time and again that they are just as smart, or even smarter?