Many people think the new media and television are analogous because they both involve screens. For years now both Net surfers and young TV viewers, referred to as "screenagers", have also been considered couch potatoes.

Those who say that the Net is all about a bigger crop of couch potatoes not only have a cynical view of humanity, they also ignore the budding experience with interactive technologies. Unfortunately for these commentators (and fortunately for kids) the similarities between the two technologies end with the screen.

TV is controlled by adults. Kids are passive observers. In contrast, children control much of their world on the Net. They do not just observe, they participate.

This makes the Internet fundamentally different from previous communications innovations such as the development of the printing press or the introduction of radio and television. These are hierarchical technologies - inflexible and centralized. By contrast, the new media is interactive, malleable, and distributed in control. The new media will do what we command of them. And tens of millions of N-Geners around the world are taking over the steering wheel.

:: http://www.growingupdigital.com