Seven Tips for a Teen Power User

(obviously all of these should suggestions should be done with guidance from a parent)

1. Be Mark Zuckerberg: learn to program. Start with (my personal fave) Scratch, Alice, and Gamestar Mechanic. From there move on to CodeAcademy, Codea, and Game Salad.

2. Be a gamer, but with a purpose. Create a Minecraft server with your buddies. Start a clan/guild for a multiplayer game. Play quality multiplayer PC games (Blizzard, Valve).

3. Read biographies of interesting Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Start with Steve Jobs, The Facebook Effect, and The Google Story

4. Start a Youtube channel. If you need ideas, make a screencast featuring a play-through of your favorite video game, or make a tutorial about anything you are good at. Promote it on Twitter to get views.

5. Go to summer tech camp like ID Tech and TIC

6. Read the best tech blogs, start with The Verge and MacRumors 

7. Follow the best tech writers, start with David Pogue, Walt Mossberg and TED.