I was browsing through Frontline’s Growing up Online and reading through some of inside the revolution. It discusses whether this new form of communication and documentation is “just old teenage culture in a new wrapper” or whether it is a real transformation and danger. I think that both of these theories are correct.
Remembering back to when I was in junior high and high school, girls loved to show off pictures of their exciting trips, parties, dances. Etc. People decorated their lockers with pictures and quotes and anything that could define them. It was “the thing to do” to bring in photo albums full of pictures and pass them around to all your friends. Now this same culture is in the form of internet websites such as facebook and myspace. People can create their own pages to define who they are and form social networks through the computer. Guys and girls can post all kinds of pictures and albums for their friends to view in a quicker and easier fashion than “back in the day.”
This just proves how quickly our society can change and yet still maintain the same basic culture but rather through a form of technology. This has definitely made changes to the way we live and the way we go about our lives and for the most part is a good thing. There are sites dedicated to tragedies and in remembrance of lost lives. Also, this is an easy way to raise awareness to causes for just about any type of event. For example there is a facebook group “Pray for the students of NIU” with 12, 622 members currently. But with the good comes the bad.
Others think this new from of communication is a real danger. Kids are learning to use the internet at a younger age and because of this they are less educated about the dangers behind posting personal information. Because they are growing up in a world revolving around reality television they have a skewed vision of what privacy means. It takes the old saying learn from your mistakes to a new level. Some of these mistakes that are made online for millions to view are hard if at all possible to forget about. If anyone has ever kept and diary and come back and read it ten years down the road, they can understand how some of the things we used to say and talk about should not be spread all over the internet.
There have been several stories on the news and all over the world about internet stalkers and stories about how the internet has helped to aid in suicide. It is these types of stories that credit the growing up online phenomenon to be a dangerous one.
I think we need to be able to find a healthy balance between what is “just old teenage culture in a new wrapper” and what is dangerous. This new form of culture can be exciting and new but we need to know how to keep control of it before it controls us.
Remembering back to when I was in junior high and high school, girls loved to show off pictures of their exciting trips, parties, dances. Etc. People decorated their lockers with pictures and quotes and anything that could define them. It was “the thing to do” to bring in photo albums full of pictures and pass them around to all your friends. Now this same culture is in the form of internet websites such as facebook and myspace. People can create their own pages to define who they are and form social networks through the computer. Guys and girls can post all kinds of pictures and albums for their friends to view in a quicker and easier fashion than “back in the day.”
This just proves how quickly our society can change and yet still maintain the same basic culture but rather through a form of technology. This has definitely made changes to the way we live and the way we go about our lives and for the most part is a good thing. There are sites dedicated to tragedies and in remembrance of lost lives. Also, this is an easy way to raise awareness to causes for just about any type of event. For example there is a facebook group “Pray for the students of NIU” with 12, 622 members currently. But with the good comes the bad.
Others think this new from of communication is a real danger. Kids are learning to use the internet at a younger age and because of this they are less educated about the dangers behind posting personal information. Because they are growing up in a world revolving around reality television they have a skewed vision of what privacy means. It takes the old saying learn from your mistakes to a new level. Some of these mistakes that are made online for millions to view are hard if at all possible to forget about. If anyone has ever kept and diary and come back and read it ten years down the road, they can understand how some of the things we used to say and talk about should not be spread all over the internet.
There have been several stories on the news and all over the world about internet stalkers and stories about how the internet has helped to aid in suicide. It is these types of stories that credit the growing up online phenomenon to be a dangerous one.
I think we need to be able to find a healthy balance between what is “just old teenage culture in a new wrapper” and what is dangerous. This new form of culture can be exciting and new but we need to know how to keep control of it before it controls us.
2 comments:
I think the balance lies in good parenting. I mean, the kids didn't buy the computer themselves. Parents need to monitor their kids computer usage. As long as they are under the parent's roof, they should not have any privacy. My mom would have never let me be playing on the computer that long. She would have put me to work, stuck a book in my hand, or threw me outside to play with the other neighborhood kids (in person).
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