becoming elders

as i've written already, my premise is that youtube is creating a culture of 13-17 year-olds who create, process, and use information in a very different way than even slightly older people (based on a talk with a couple of 25 year-olds, i'm guessing anyone over 22 is out of the loop). so, in effect we are dealing with a culture that lacks any elders. i have "preached" that responsible educators and other adults need to understand what's happening so that they can become the elders of the culture even if they live outside of it. but how do we do that?

i'm thinking part of the answer is that we don't focus only on kids in our own houses and classrooms, but actively engage kids online through comments. here's an example.

a couple of days ago, i received a comment on "his noodly appendage" that read, "your retarded". no joke! upon viewing the commenter's channel page i discovered i was dealing with a 16 year-old named brandon.
how to handle this like an elder?

i commented back, "no, actually i'm not. i take it you're not into satire." i didn't receive a reply, so i sent an email and an invitation to be friends. in the email i said that i didn't understand why brandon would say something so hurtful without first asking some questions or finding out what was in my mind. i told him that i had watched his video response to dan brown (noodly appendage was also a response to the same dan brown video) and i understood his feelings.

while brandon hasn't accepted my friend invitation or responded to my email, he did comment again asking, "do you really believe this stuff". you can read my reply at the video if that's important to you. what's important to me is that a calm rational, friendly invitation may have taught a young person to think before making intolerant comments.

it's a small step, but it's in the right direction.