Erin,+age+8



Danielle and I had the pleasure of interviewing Erin, an energetic 8 ½ year old girl with a bubbly personality, photographic memory, and wisdom beyond her years. While there were typical qualities that Erin possessed for a girl her age (ie. her interest in Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber), some responses that we evoked from Erin were far from typical.
 * Wise Beyond Her Years**

One thing we noticed about Erin right away was that she was incredibly computer literate and tech-savvy. While we started at the iCarly website, Erin quickly navigated her way to YouTube to show us her favorite Internet past time. She explained that she enjoys YouTube so that she can listen to music and find clips from her favorite shows, specifically //So Little Time// featuring the Olsen twins. What I was impressed with was her ability to take the helm and find subsequent videos she might be interested in by searching the “Related Videos” section.

In terms of iCarly, Erin pointed out intricacies of the show that I wouldn’t necessarily expect from a child her age. For example, she pointed out that Sam is not the ideal role model for young girls because she is “mean” and “not always a good person.”

She also indirectly touched upon the topic of Internet safety, a subject that isn’t commonplace among elementary-aged children. When asked if she would like to have her own web show, she responded that she would but that she’d “only want [her] friends to see it.” When probed further as to why, Erin explained that “some bad people that might you might not want to see your show would see it” and that they could possibly “find out things about you.”

While Erin couldn’t always necessarily articulate //exactly// how she felt about certain topics regarding the media, she was extremely self-aware. Her knowledge about television, the Internet, and the media world in general is such that all children her age could stand to take a lesson or two.

--Steph Hudson

**Enthusiastic Erin** Erin is eight and super enthusiastic, especially when talking about things she likes. She is the middle child and has a lot to say about everything. When she is around, her younger sister tends to get quiet, maybe because Erin has so much to say. She said she loves Nickelodeon and also loved describing episodes that made her laugh. Erin was interesting to interview because she had a lot of knowledge behind what she was watching. She talked about iCarly and the characters on the show almost like we do in class. She described Sam’s character as a bad role model because she is violent. My breakthrough moment with Erin was when the deserted island question was proposed to her, “If you were stranded on an island and could only have television, internet, or video games...what would it be?” “That’s easy”, she said, “the internet because you can watch TV and play video games on it and send an e-mail to someone for them to come save you!” I thought her response was very intelligent for an 8 year old especially when her older brother answered differently. The fact that she was thinking about ways to get off the island and thought about sending an e-mail was extremely interesting to me and the rest of the class as well.  -Anjelica Orloff

**Erin the Great! Danielle Townsend** Stephanie and I interviewed 8 ½ year old Erin from Springford, PA. Erin is spunky, outspoken and articulate and loves technology. Her favorite media activities are Erin loves playing games on the internet, watching old episodes of “So Little Time” and listening to Selena Gomez’s music on YouTube, and watching TV on OnDemand. Although Erin received minimal assistance with using the computer, overall she was very familiar with hoe to navigate the internet and type.

When we began to ask Erin questions about iCarly it was quite clear that she was familiar with the show. She knows all the characters, episodes, and visits the iCarly website. We also asked her about if she had a web-show just like Carly and she said it would be cool but she would only want her friends and family to see it because there are predators out there and “regular people don’t have the same protection as celebrities and people can track you down.”

Interviewing Erin was a delight. I was fascinated by how computer savvy she was, how knowledgeable she was on the dangers of internet surfing, and monetary costs of digital entertainment i.e. opting to play a free game instead of playing a game that costs to play. Although this experience doesn’t directly add any insight to my iCarly research project, it opened my eyes to see how much digital media audiences are broadening more and more to younger audiences.

I would put Erin in the 8-10 category. She spoke very intelligently about media however the tone in which she spoke in told me that media and media technologies are an everyday aspect of her life. Initially, she didn’t sound excited to talk about the media technologies. She spoke of it as if these were daily tools she used and they were normal for people to have.

This process of interviewing children was incredible because I was able to take myself out of my everyday realm that is all too familiar. I realized that in order to get children to open up to you, you kind of have to speak with them on a child-like level. That could mean softening your voice, using simpler language, or being funny. But at the same time you must establish yourself as the adult in order to take control of the situation. If one finds a balance between the two then this technique will be affective.