Average Age of Internet Users…

Posted on | September 12, 2008 | 6 Comments

This morning I will be working for the ThinkQuest International Partner, the College of Continuing Education, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, delivering a keynote for the ThinkQuest awards event. If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know what an honor this is for me. The box to the right is an RSS listing of 2¢ Worth blog posts that mention ThinkQuest. I suspect that no other single experience has impacted so much on my philosopies about education today.

When preparing for my AV-free presentation (scary), I was reminded of a Nicolas Negroponte quote that I often used in my ThinkQuest presentations in the middle nineties. I had it printed on a small piece of paper, and stacks of them planted with people throughout the audience. They were instructed to hand out the sheets when they heard me say “Negroponte.” The quote, from a 1994 WIRED column, said:

…the average age of an Internet user today is 26… I expect that number to drop to 15 by the year 2000.¹

I would ask the audience to fold the piece of paper, slip it into their pocket book or walet, so that they would run across it at some point after the presentation. Then I asked that they take a minute, upon running across the paper, and reflect on the implications to teaching and learning.

It seemed outrageous at that time, it’s ligitimacy coming only from the reputation of the MIT Media Lab’s director and chief evangelist. I don’t know what the numbers ended out being by 2000, but the impact of that quote and teachers’ reflection on the prediction have certainly born out.

Anyway, wish me luck on the speech. I think I also have to stay behind the lecturn. Yikes!

Twitter This

Negroponte, Nicolas. “Learning by Doing: Don’t Dissect the Frog, Build it.” WIRED Magazine 2.07Jul 1994 12 Sep 2008 <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.07/negroponte.html>. [↩]

The Average Age of Internet Users… by 2¢ Worth, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Category: blogging

Comments

taylor posted the following on September 13, 2008 at 5:06 am.
In my opinion youngster use internet maximum for many reasons sometimes for fun and sometime for work.
———–
taylor

Ah Info Source
Reply to taylor
Vicki Davis posted the following on September 13, 2008 at 9:55 am.
Congratulations! Couldn’t happen to a greater guy! Don’t know how you’ll stay behind the lectern but I’m sure you’ll figure out a way!
Reply to Vicki Davis
1. Dave posted the following on September 13, 2008 at 5:26 pm.
  Easy! While I drew the audiences attention to a hover ship out the back window of the room, I undid my belt and then wrapped it around the post of the lectern. Bowing did become quote difficult, however… ;-)
  Reply to Dave

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[...] Gen X is small compared to the “millenials”, correct? In 1994 Wired predicted that by the year 2000 the average age of internet users would be 15. Then I wonder why, in 2008, the average age of internet users in the UK is 37.9? As of right now, [...]
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[...] Gen X is small compared to the “millenials”, correct? In 1994 Wired predicted that by the year 2000 the average age of internet users would be 15. Then I wonder why, in 2008, the average age of internet users in the UK is 37.9? As of right now, [...]