Addressing the needs of teens
On Tue, Nov 28, 2000 at 04:02:46PM +0000, Jimmy O'Regan wrote:
> Being not long out of my teens, myself, I can say that the things teens
> want are the same as non-technical adults - office-type software (for
> school projects etc), e-mail and games/emulators.
> Plus, most teens I know would avoid things aimed at "teens".
Then perhaps we can come at it from two different angles.
First, we impart something of our values to our user community, including
teens, which awakens a spirit of giving. For those who are inclined to
help out, I would like Debian to think carefully about how we can
encourage and give guidance without condescension. Teens can have
tremendous energy and enthusiasm about helping out, but may not yet have
focus, or an awareness of their limitations. (Of course, the same could
be said of some adults as well.) I would just like to ensure that Debian
continues to be open to accepting help from teens, and develops the
collective wisdom to know how to channel their energies.
Second, teens are living at home for at least part of their teenaged
years, and within the home, sharing and use of computer resources has its
own set of problems and rewards. Providing households with some guidance
from those who have "gone before" and used Debian creatively to address
these issues would, I suspect, be of value. We should take care to not
just assume our audience here is parents of teens. Speak to the teens
themselves, as they will often be the instigators, bringing Debian into
their homes and encouraging their parents and siblings to share this
wonderful thing that they have found.
Ben
--
nSLUG http://www.nslug.ns.ca synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca
Debian http://www.debian.org synrg@debian.org
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