Teenage kicks in digital ages

"OK, take a step back and try to recall your own generational transgressions. Youth culture, superficially dominated by musical tastes, slang, fashion and objectionable hairstyles, is nothing but an artefact of growing up."

"Psychologically, "youth culture" is the outcome of the process that kids, navigating the tortured period of adolescence, go through as they seek a community that's distinct from that which has come before. It is a period rich in self-expression, catalysed by the negotiation of social boundaries."

"We are at a period in which our societies are coming to grips with the new technology. In many ways, we are experiencing a technological adolescence ourselves. Part of the process is watching how people who have never experienced anything else push the boundaries. The kids and their youth culture, constrained by our fundamental social and psychological processes, are our canaries in the digital coalmine."
(Aleks Krotoski, Guardian.co.uk)

Il titolo speravo citasse in maniera velata Teenage Kicks degli Undertones, la canzone perfetta secondo John Peel che la elesse a sua preferita di sempre. In realtà l'unico riferimento musicale nell'articolo è al look piratesco di Adam Ant, il padre di tutti i Johnny Depp. Tuttavia l'analisi sul ruolo cruciale che gli adolescenti avrebbero nell'"era digitale" è interessante e si potrebbe riassumere in una immagine: gli strumenti per accendere la scintilla cambiano con lo scorrere delle generazioni di teenagers, le dinamiche sociali da questa innescate rimangono le stesse. Altri spunti, come il film basato sull'opera di Jon Savage Teenage,  si trovano sviluppati sul blog della giornalista Aleks Krotoski.