The Young and the Digital was shaped by several years of research and observation, countless formal and informal conversations, and my desire to understand some of the most intriguing social changes and behaviors happening today.

One of my earliest and most important conversations took place with a high school principal one hot summer day. Talking about the state of schools today, the educator said, “When it comes to technology, we cannot be afraid to learn from our students.” She was referring to herself and the teachers she supervised but I took the comments to heart. Her words are a core principal in my work.

Throughout researching and writing The Young and the Digital I learned a great deal from children, tweens, teens, and young twenty-somethings. In fact, just about every step of the way on my journey toward completing this book, young people have been centrally involved as either participants in our research or in the design and execution of the research.

From the start of research we decided to bring many of the issues addressed in the book into the classroom. While I was writing The Young and The Digital I taught three undergraduate research courses that worked with students to refine our questions and approach to studying digital media. Another set of classes worked with students to probe the social aspects of games and social network sites. From these classes we collected several hundred interviews, countless stories, and revelations about a world that was forming and changing right before our very eyes. When MySpace began to decline as a preferred social site our fieldwork told us why.

We also worked with students to build, test, and distribute a massive (101-questions) survey. The book draws from more than 500 surveys.

Our research reached beyond the classroom. In The Young and the Digital I introduce readers to a group of enthusiastic gamers I call the “four-pack.” Over the course of about six months we got to know these young men up close and personal. During our time with them they maintained media journals and sat down for instructive one-on-one interviews. I learned a lot from the four-pack–their thoughts on Net addiction, virtual worlds, interactive media and also witnessed up close the phenomenon of “social gaming,” a reference to how games have become integral to the social lives and social networks of many gamers.

Moreover, we spent endless hours in the online spaces young people inhabit, looking at MySpace and Facebook profiles, YouTube videos and comments, and blogs. We captured some “visual data” too, pictures from some of the places and people I write about in the book.

This book was greatly enhanced by the generosity of teachers, principals, parents, students, and others who welcomed us into their world. My involvement with the MacArthur Foundation’s project on digital media, youth, and learning was a great source of knowledge. Some of the ideas for the book have been cultivated in talks and presentations at universities and organizations interested in exploring the social benefits and social costs of social media. My involvement with the UT|Portugal Digital Media Collaboration has helped me to develop a global perspective on digital media behaviors.

We look forward to sharing our work with you.