Comparing

According to Bennett, "digital natives largely do not participate in civic affairs out of a sense of duty or obligation but a sense of personal fulfillment." Bennett claims that society has changed dramatically from dutiful citizens to self-actualizing citizens. Therefore, the way of reaching these citizens must be different. "Schools should help students to develop their own public voices by using various digital media, allowing students to find their own means of engaging with and learning about issues, and forming peer-learning communities." If society no longer treats these new self-actualizing citizens "as if they are their grandparents" then society can break new grounds in getting this generation to become active citizens. Bennet thinks that if the mode of communication among citizens and their sense of duty has changed, then society must accept and work with that. There are still ways to get this generation to be active citizens even though there has been a "civi identity shift." "Schools should help students to develop their own public voices by using various digital media, allowing students to find their own means of engaging with and learning about issues, and forming peer-learning communities." Bennett thinks that we need to create or identify existing, informal learning environments within which this new generation can learn civic skills and practice citizenship.

Boyd's ideas are extremely opposite those of Bennett. Boyd claims that "typical SNS participants are more invested in adding glitter to pages and SuperPoking their “friends” than engaging in any form of civic-minded collective action." Boyd says that the scope of scale is what attracts "dreamers" like Bennett to the idea of using the internet for political action. However, people will only pay attention to what interests them, and so "gossiping is far more common and interesting to people than voting." Boyd thinks that SNSs have been the downfall of true networking- chats and bulletin boards used by strangers to connect about certain topics, which has been replaced by networks of "my and my friends" and created "cavernous echo chambers." "Rather than fantasizing about how social network sites will be a cultural and democratic panacea, perhaps we need to focus on the causes of alienation and disillusionment that stop people from partici- pating in communal and civic life."

These two articles stand in stark contrast to one another. In my opinion, Boyd is afraid of change and stuck in his ways. Society has changed, and it would be much more productive to accept that change than to try and stop or reverse it. I feel that Boyd is the kind of person Bennett addresses who is treating the new generation like they are their grandparents. Bennett has some revolutionary ideas, and Boyd simply refuses to acknowledge the fact that changing with society could accomplish the goals he so strongly desires.