"What's going on is an entire generation is growing up on the web. They are defining their own cultural rules," according to Ludescher, who said his 16-year-old son can at the same time, play a video game, listen to music and watch television while instant messaging his friends.
"We have 24/7 instant access to so much information," said Nancy Kranich, a librarian at the School of Communication Information. "The ethics of using that information is as important as knowing about that technology."
The use of technology has apparently had deadly consequences at Rutgers, connected with the suicide of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, a first-year student who was allegedly videotaped by his roommate while having gay sex in their dorm room.
Clementi's body was recovered in the Hudson River Wednesday after he apparently jumped from the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 22.
Ironically, on Wednesday the university began Project Civility, a two-year program that will have forums and "fireside chats" on promoting civility and manners.
On Oct. 19, Ludescher will moderate a session on "Technology and the Generation Gap: Multi-tasking, Misbehavior and Misunderstanding."
On Nov. 3, Kranich will be on a panel discussing "Uncivil Gadgets? Changing Technologies and Civil Behavior."
"The tragedy that happened last week is a real modern tragedy," said Ludescher.
He suggested that the students who put the images on the Internet probably did so as "a lark."
"They were completely incapable of understanding the consequences," said Ludescher.
"How troubled this man must have been. His whole reputation was stolen from him. His identity was used and abused," said Kranich, referring to Clementi.
John Halligan of Essex Junction, Vt. knows the consequences of cyberbullying.
His son 13-year-old son Ryan committed suicide in 2003, after he was ridiculed on the Internet. Halligan calls cyberbullying "a totally different experience than a generation ago when these hurts and humiliation are now witnessed by a far larger online adolescent audience."
"The meanness has always been around. The new gadgets make it different today," said Halligan, who speaks at scores of schools annually. On Oct. 14, he will speak to students at the Franklin Middle School in Somerset County.
When news of Clementi's death spread around campus, the university made counselors available to student groups.
Mary E. Kelly, a university psychologist and suicide-prevention specialist, spoke to groups at Clementi's dorm and at the Mason Gross School of the Performing Arts, where Clementi, an accomplished violinist, studied.
"It is clear to us the Internet plays an important part of the students' lives," said Kelly. "The boundaries between real life and virtual life are blurry."
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