hanging out

danah boyd has often argued that children and youth in the US go online to socialise because they are no longer allowed to walk the streets and meet friends in public spaces. Here is an article from the Daily Mail, claiming the same is true in UK: How children lost the right to roam in four generations.

The article addresses the situation for children. Children and youth in Norway are still allowed to get around by themselves, meeting friends and hanging out. Embarassingly, I did feel slightly uncomfortable leaving my 14-year old niese and her bestfriend alone at Friday's teen-favourite happening in Oslo, a three hour long live hit-show at Rådhusplassen. Silly me, they are 14! And, the concert-arena was heavily supervised by the police and guards.

happily ever after

150 000 Norwegians (a crude estimate) are browsing Facebook friends-lists, groups and networks, looking for people they know and people they once knew. I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to people I used to know 10 or 20 years ago but no longer do, they kind of scare me. Who are they now? Do they even recognize me? Do they care? I therefore find the popularity of Facebook in Norway these days challenging and exciting. How do I relate to people I no longer know? I accept friends requests from friends of the past, and I'm happy when people add me (oh, she remembers me). I've been searching for old friends, but I don't know whether I'll add them unless they add me first. Facebook challenges my conception of my social life as constantly evolving; loosing some friends and meeting others. Are we all supposed to be friends for ever after in the future?