Thanksgiving is upon us. Time to reconnect over the bird and stuffing with family and friends, old memories, maybe new friends and shared intimacies.

But guess what? A new generation of American teens is doing all that every day, nearly every minute of every day — without the turkey — online.

The Internet is producing the most socially plugged in, caught up, networked and aware generation since — what? Maybe the Mayflower.

Parents worry about all that time online. A big new study says, “chill.” The kids are OK.

This hour, On Point: Gen Web speaks, about the new American youth culture unfolding on the Internet.

You can join the conversation. Is your head spinning from all this social media? How do you keep up with all your friends, and how many of them are behind the computer screen?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Mizuko “Mimi” Ito, a research scientist at the University of California, Irvine, studying new media use, especially among young people in the U.S. and Japan. She’s the lead researcher on a recently completed three-year study of teens and the Internet by the Digital Youth Project, supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

Ebele Anidi, a freshman at Harvard University. He was an intern with On Point last spring.

Anna Huerta, a junior at the University of Southern California, where she studies interactive media.

Sarah Polin, a freshman at Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California.

More links:

You can read a two-page overview of the MacArthur Foundation study, download the 30-page white paper, and examine the full report.