The new internet community

The Internet is a valuable tool. It has allowed the entire world to access information previously unreachable. It allows for more personal communication when the people are on opposite ends of the world. Most interesting however is how the Internet has allowed people to connect to each other, even when they may only be a mile apart. There are communities of people that exist within the same city but may never actually come into physical contact with any of the members. The Internet in a way has chipped away at the old conventions of human interaction and at the same time provided a new type or option of human connection. With this new connection are advantages and disadvantages, sides to be taken, and arguments to be made. In particular is the one that concerns the youth that have been raised in this new culture, how it has effected them and their lives.
MySpace, Facebook, blogging, vlogging, skype, twitter, flickr, all of these are websites where people exist in profiles and pictures, quotes and applications, and an assumed sense of anonymity. This is where they are wrong, everyone (as long as your don't privatize your profile) has access to what you deem necessary to put out on the Internet about yourself or others. Following, the fact that you have sole control over your sites means your can be absolutely whoever you want because no one will have any ability or reason to doubt you or your profile. With this type of ability to actively become a different person at any given time the ability for one to find and harness their own identity becomes increasingly more difficult. The identities that are promulgated on the Internet are not tangible nor are they identities that the person would be seemingly comfortable with expressing outside of the Internet world. This in a sense teaches people to not strive to become a more whole and complete person but rather compartmentalize the different aspects of their personality into online characters, relationships, and socialization. In essence, if you don't think you can be who you want in the real world, then just become that person in the Internet world, problem solved. This type of escapism is not all around bad, but the level at which more and more people are using the Internet as a mechanism of escape is alarming. The removal of responsibility through the medium of the computer is a point of contention for many people in the argument over the Internet as it applies to children and adolescents. They are already naturally cruel and insecure, when you give them a computer and take away personal action you take away the ability of other people to stand up for the person that might be bullied, and secondly you take away the emotions that actual human interaction can display. These two things actually leave kids isolated when they are bullied by other kids online. The child bullied then has no one to console them and simply has to deal with this cyberbullying as effectively as they might know how. It is not as if they are going to tell their parents or friends, what would they say? "I got emotionally beat up by this guy online, help." No that is very unlikely, for the most part just like all other things it is intangible therefore not something you can change or stop, just either avoid the computer. Which has now become impossible because the majority of the social interaction is now done through the computer.
Truthfully, the Internet is a tool and the person using it is responsible for either it's benefit or boon to people. However, the thing that has been made clear is that we are leaving our youth to their own devices on the Internet and the outcome has not been great so far. They are functioning in an alternate reality that is never static and always changing. Hence, so are these kids, but the problem lies in the inability to form a solid foundation. Both in themselves as people, their friends and relationships, even their family. They have begun to live more in the Internet world than the real world.