New Additions

Thinking Theologically about Using Social Media - Verity Jones
(Faith and Leadership, Duke Divinity School)

VIrtually Religious: Technology and Internet Use in American Congregations - Scott Thumma
(American Congregations 2010, Faith Communities Today, www.FaithCommunitiesToday.org)
This report from American Congregations 2010 research describes the technological use by religious groups, identifies the factors that either aid or hinder its use, and highlight the positive outcomes for the congregation  that embraces the use of technology in all its forms. The report also speculates beyond the Faith Communities Today data to suggest several reasons why all congregations should intentionally develop their technological ministry capabilities, no matter how large or small, technologically adept or unsophisticated.

Trends

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction - Matt Richtel (New York Times, November 21, 2010)
The constant stream of stimuli offered by new technology poses a profound new challenge to focusing and learning. 

• See the video, "Fast Times at Woodside High" that accompanies the article. 
• See "Teachers' Views on Technology in the Classroom" 

Research

10 Things You Must Know about the State of Social Media in 2011 - Jeff Bullas 
(JeffBullas.com)
Social media has evolved rapidly and we have seen the emergence of social networks that 12 months ago did not exist. Some surprises this year included the launch of Google+ (which acquired 25 million users in less than 30 days), Pinterest which grew at more than 512% and Tumblr (the microblogging platform) which is now approaching 50 million unique users a month. Mobile social networking and geo-location services such as Foursquare continue to make their impact felt and have not gone away despite the threat of Facebook “places” Today 1.2 billion people worldwide access social networks and it is redefining the web.

2010 Kids & Family Reading Report - Turning the Page in a Digital Age - Scholastic
(Source: Scholastic, http://mediaroom.scholastic.com/kfrr)

Boomers and Technology: An Extended Conversation (2009) - AARP and Microsoft
Baby boomers have a unique relationship to technology—different than any generation before or since—and they are actively shaping the devices, software and services of tomorrow by the choices they are making today, according to this new research report about baby boomers and technology from AARP and Microsoft.
(Source: AARP, http://assets.aarp.org/www.aarp.org_/articles/computers/2009_boomers_and_technology_final_report.pdf)

Change in Internet Access by Age Group: 2004-2009 - Pew Research
(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Research Center, http://www.pewinternet.org)

The Digital Future Project 2010 - The Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg School
Surveying the Digital Future reports on nine years of longitudinal research that captures broadband at home, the wireless Internet, on-line media, user-generated content, and social networking. The report continues to track off-line media use, purchasing both off-line and through e-commerce, social and political activity, and a wealth of other data. Download the summary of the findings. 
(Source: http://www.digitalcenter.org/pages/current_report.asp?intGlobalId=19)

Generations Online in 2009 - Pew Research
(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Research Center, http://www.pewinternet.org)

Generations 2010 - Kathryn Zickuhr 
There are still notable differences by generation in online activities, but the dominance of the Millennial generation that we documented in the first “Generations” report in 2009 has slipped in many activities. The biggest online trend: While the youngest and oldest cohorts may differ, certain key internet activities are becoming more uniformly popular across all age groups. 
(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Generations-2010.aspx)

Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds (2010)- Kaiser Family Foundation Study
Over the past five years, young people have increased the amount of time they spend consuming media by an hour and seventeen minutes daily, from 6:21 to 7:38—almost the amount of time most adults spend at work each day, except that young people use media seven days a week instead of five. Moreover, given the amount of time they spend using more than one medium at a time, today’s youth pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content into those daily 71/2 hours—an increase of almost 21/4 hours of media exposure per day over the past five years. The Kaiser Family Foundation study is one of the largest and most comprehensive publicly available sources of information on the amount and nature of media use among American youth
(Source: Kaiser Family Foundation, www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfm)

Five Social Media Trends that are Reshaping Religion- Elizabeth Drescher
(Religion Dispatches, December 15, 2011)
Over the past couple years, religionistas of all sorts have attempted to navigate a new media landscape in which old constructions of religious authority, identity, and practice are changing almost by the minute. This surely marks the beginning something of a Second Coming of religion in digitally-integrated form. As we wait and watch this holiday season for, among other things, news of the much-anticipated Facebook IPO—perhaps the only miracle story compelling enough to capture our attention in these economic dark times—it seems worthwhile to take a look at some trends in social media (ordered pretty much as they came into my head) that are reshaping religion and spirituality:

Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media -  Mizuko Ito, et al. 
Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth's social and recreational use of digital media. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings—at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces. By focusing on media practices in the everyday contexts of family and peer interaction, the book views the relationship of youth and new media not simply in terms of technology trends but situated within the broader structural conditions of childhood and the negotiations with adults that frame the experience of youth in the United States. Integrating twenty-three different case studies—which include Harry Potter podcasting, video-game playing, music-sharing, and online romantic breakups. This book was written as a collaborative effort by members of the Digital Youth Project, a three-year research effort funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.(Source: MIT Press, http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/hanging_out.pdf)

• MIT Press, 2010; available as a free e-book and hardcover book
  
• Free e-book: http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/hanging_out.pdf
  

How Teens Use Media: A Nielsen Report on the Myths and Realities of Teen Media Trends (2009) - Nielsen Company 
(Source Nielsen, http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/reports/nielsen_howteensusemedia_june09.pdf)

Latinos & Digital Technology - Gretchen Livingston 
This new Pew Report analyzes digital technology use patterns among Latinos, whites and blacks in 2010. Among its findings, almost two-thirds (65%) of Hispanics were online, a rate comparable to that of blacks (66%) and significantly lower than the rate for whites (77%). More than eight-in-ten (81%) native-born Latinos are online, compared with 54% of foreign-born Latinos. While the overall internet usage rate among Spanish-dominant Latinos remains low, the share using the internet has increased rapidly—from 36% in 2009 to 47% in 2010. 
(Source: Pew Hispanic Center, http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=134)

Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. (November 2008) Mizuko Ito, et al. (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)
Social network sites, online games, video-sharing sites, and gadgets such as iPods and mobile phones are now fixtures of youth culture. They have so permeated young lives that it is hard to believe that less than a decade ago these technologies barely existed. Today’s youth may be coming of age and struggling for autonomy and identity as did their predecessors, but they are doing so amid new worlds for communication, friendship, play, and self-expression. This white paper summarizes the results of a three-year ethnographic study, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, examining young people’s participation in the new media ecology. It represents a condensed version of a longer treatment of the project findings.i The study was motivated by two primary research questions: How are new media being integrated into youth practices and agendas? How do these practices change the dynamics of youth-adult negotiations over literacy, learning, and authoritative knowledge?
(Source: http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/report) 

Networked Families (October 2008) - Pew Research
(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Research Center, http://www.pewinternet.org)

Social Media and Mobile Internet Use among Teens and Young Adults (2010) – Pew Research
(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Research Center, http://www.pewinternet.org)

Social Isolation and New Technology (2009) – Pew Research
(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Research Center, http://www.pewinternet.org)

State of the Media: The Social Media Report - Nielsen
Social networks and blogs continue to domination America's time online, now accounting for nearly a quarter of total time spent on the internet. Social media has grown rapidly - today nearly 4 in 5 active Internet users visits social networks and blogs. Nielsen's "State of the Media: The Social Media Report" presents a snapshot of the current social media landscape and audiences in the U.S.

• Download the report at: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/social.
  
• Read the FastCompany.com report on "The State of Social Media 2011."

Social Networking Sites and Our Lives - Pew Internet and America Life ProjectQuestions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites (SNS) like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project examined SNS in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement. The findings presented here paint a rich and complex picture of the role that digital technology plays in people’s social worlds.(Source: www.pewinternet.org)

The Social Side of the Internet - Lee Rainee, Kristen Purcell, & Aaron Smith
The internet is now deeply embedded in group and organizational life in America. A new national survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has found that 75% of all American adults are active in some kind of voluntary group or organization and internet users are more likely than others to be active: 80% of internet users participate in groups, compared with 56% of non‐internet users. And social media users are even more likely to be active: 82% of social network users and 85% of Twitter users are group participants.
(Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project, http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1861/impact-internet-social-media-facebook-twitter-group-activities-participation)

Zero to Eight: Children's Media Usage in America  (Fall 2011) - Common Sense Media
Today — 20 years after the birth of the World Wide Web, 13 years after the launch of Google Search, eight years after the start of the first social networking site, six years after the first YouTube video, four years after the introduction of the first touch-screen smartphone, three years after the opening of the first “app” store, and a little over a year after the first iPad sale — the media world that children are growing up in is changing at lightning speed. Nine-month-olds spend nearly an hour a day watching television or DVDs, 5-year-olds are begging to play with their parents’ iPhones, and 7-year-olds are sitting down in front of a computer several times a week to play games, do homework, or check out how their avatars are doing in their favorite virtual worlds. Television is still as popular as ever, but reading may be beginning to trend downward. This report continues and expands upon a series of studies originated by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2003 and conducted again in 2005. 
(Source: www.commonsense.org/research)