11-year-olds networking

Remember when networking was a new concept, something we grownups were told to embrace in order to be successful? Well now, the Los Angeles Times points out, "if a typical 11-year-old heard such advice presented as innovative strategy, he or she would collapse laughing." Today's middle-schoolers are networking-proficient - online and off. And their social circles are huge compared to ours, when we were kids. "Now kids' ability to reach out to those they've just met, hold onto those they know, and bring disparate parts of their lives together with the touch of a key has changed the boundaries and definition of social life," according to the Times, and they are enabled by IM, email, cellphones, and online games - even "new kids." For example, "a 7th-grader hands the new kid in school a dozen IM screen names, and within a week, she's 'talking' to all her new classmates, even the ones she's too timid to approach in person." Check out the article for other fascinating examples. But the New York Times reports that some parents are concerned that all this online socializing might be "interfering with growing up." And the Richmond.com in Virginia zooms in on kids' preference for IM and phone texting over email.