> Assessing technology’s impact on teens

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Contacts:

Jane Fee: 778.782.7544 (o), 604 908-040 (c), jfee@sfu.ca
Terry Lavender: 778.782.7408 (o), 604.961.6350 (c), tjlavend@sfu.ca

Should parents worry about what their teenage children are doing online? That’s a question Simon Fraser University Interactive Arts and Technology professor Jane Fee hopes to answer during an upcoming talk, Technologies in our Everyday Lives, at the Surrey campus on Wednesday, June 27 at 6:30 p.m.

Fee says marketers know that teenagers are more comfortable than many adults with online and mobile technologies than adults and they have begun targeting young people through those technologies.

“Facebook, YouTube, Second Life, Flickr, MySpace—they’re very popular, and parents understandably are concerned about their effects," says Fee. "What are their positive and negative impacts? How are advertisers using technology to drive sales? What should parents know about the culture of technology and the risks and the benefits associated with it?"

Fee and her students will demonstrate some of these technologies in the Westminster Savings Credit Union Theatre at SFU's Surrey campus, 13450-102 Avenue, adjacent to the Surrey Central SkyTrain station. Tickets are $30 and are available at the door.

The talk is the first in SFU's Small Business Consulting Group summer lecture series. Future talks include The Power of Story on July 26, and Re-Visioning Retirement on August 22.

SFU's Small Business Consulting Group gives small businesses in the Fraser Valley access a pool of skilled SFU business students for short- and medium-term business projects. Students are paid for their efforts with monies raised from the Speaker Series.

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