Raised online, teenage shooting survivors speak out
They are poised. They are passionate. And they are angry.
With their pointed questions and fiery statements, the teen survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., have inserted themselves into a media cycle usually occupied by people decades older, reinvigorating the debate over gun control in the process. They have spawned a national march on Washington, raised millions of dollars in a matter of days and confronted politicians on national television.
How can teenagers so masterfully capture the public debate?
In some ways, it’s a natural outgrowth of a generation raised on YouTube and Instagram, accustomed to promoting themselves to an outside audience.
“It’s like ‘ The Truman Show,’” said Carl Kurlander, a senior lecturer in the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Film and Media Studies, referring to a 1998 Jim Carrey movie. “These kids spend their whole lives where everyone is filmed.”
Mike Dillon, a Duquesne professor and chair of the school’s media department, has been teaching an introductory class in Media Literacy for 20 years, asking students in the beginning of the year to survey their own consumption of media. Decades ago, students at the upper end would spend seven hours a day consuming information. Today, that’s the low end.
And students today are routinely creating their own content, making videos on SnapChat, musical.ly, Instagram or other platforms.
“Today, every laptop is a television and every phone has a camera,” he said. “There is an inherent lack of shyness and an inherent lack of being intimidated.”
His students throw around phrases like “curated identity,” said Mr. Dillon, acutely aware that they are projecting an image out into the world.
To that end, he said, being media-savvy isn’t that far of a stretch from their ordinary social currency. “We used to say that information is power, but today, attention is power. These kids know how to gain attention, to gain likes and clicks.”
The teenagers in Florida have been the subject of skepticism and conspiracy theories. State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry, drew national attention Wednesday for using “students” in quotation marks in critical Facebook and Twitter posts. Conspiracy theorists have alleged that some of the students are “crisis actors.” Former television host Bill O’Reilly accused the media of exploiting their grief.
For Mr. Kurlander, who produced ‘90s teen television shows such as “Saved by the Bell: The New Class” and currently works with high school film students through the Steeltown Entertainment Project, it’s not surprising that older people may not expect teenagers to be so poised.
“People are underestimating these kids over and over again,” he said. “The older generation that didn’t grow up as digital natives are a little intimidated by it.”
Teenagers, phones and social media often get a bad rap, in terms of cyberbullying, attention span and lack of physical activity. But the teenagers in Florida are harnessing its power, he said.
“People are worried they’re watching too much TV, too much media, phones — this can be used in a very effective way. Without getting ideological about it, this is the upside ofthe digital revolution.”