The changing library

Last week in class we had a group of teens come in to talk about their experiences at the library.

They were excited, rambunctious, enthusiastic. They talked about playing video games and making friends, often in very moving ways.

I admit, it warmed my cold heart.

Later, though, I had to ask myself, where were the 'nerds' in the group? There was one girl who could qualify as the prototypical teen nerd who heads to the library, but most of these kids--not a chance.

As the library is expanding its image to draw in the kids like the ones who visited the classroom--which is great--does it also risk losing the kids it has always had?

Talking to Teens

I am a member of an online community that has many teens as members, so I interviewed a few of them as well as a teenaged cousin for a recent assignment in getting to know teens. The most interesting thing I learned about this is that teens from around the world are basically the same. They have similar interests and hobbies and concerns. I suppose this should not be surprising given that the internet has basically made the world one small town. Even my cousin, who is not part of this online community, had similar experiences to share.

The teens range from 15 to 18 years old. Some are still in high school, some are in college, and one has left school. They come from the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the U.K., and from cities and small towns. I asked them if the adults in their lives could relate to them, and the teens who said they could also portrayed having the highest self-confidence. Those teens who said adults were unable to understand them described themselves as different or ‘alternative’, and there was evident frustration in their circumstances, as if they thought adults were hopeless. They said they often felt out of place or like the adults were accusing them of something.

My favorite questions were the ones asking the teens to give advice to adults about what they should know about teens and the one asking the teens to describe themselves in their twenties. This is where their insight, idealism, and cleverness came out the strongest.

After talking to these teens, I realized that things have not changed much since I was a teen. For many of these answers, I could have easily provided them myself when I was a teenager. It made me think that maybe I was unnecessarily throwing a wall up between myself and teenagers by thinking that they were totally different from what they had been when I was a teen. Now I’m thinking that although the world has changed, and the things teens are exposed to has changed, the process and mindset of being a teen has remained the same, and that is the part that an adult needs to connect to in order to relate.