http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2007/06/dangers-overblown-for-teens-using-social-media155.html
In this article, Goodstein discusses how parents tend to freak out by seeing shows like NBC"S To catch a Predator, or news stories about creepers on Xanga, Myspace or Facebook or tons of similar stories, always causing the parents to panic.
Too often parents respond by, making strict rules about computer use, paranoid monitoring them, or scaring the kids into taking down photos or anything that might lead to them being stalked down. Goodstein points out that the problem with the message these parents are sending is that "it's both fear-based and divorced from reality."
While online social media does pose the threats of "cyber-bullying, hooking up, pornography, and blogrings that are pro-anorexia and bulimia", the reality is that most teens are not talking to strangers online, rather they're "just socializing with the same friends they see in person at school or met at summer camp."
The article concludes that ultimately teens are "using technology to express themselves creatively." Today's teenagers use technology to share interests or play games or stay in touch. The internet simply reflects and magnifies what teens have always done offline.
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Despite our many conversations about the dangers of the internet and other current technologies, I tend to side with reports like this one.
ReplyDeleteThere is no denying that certain children or teens are negatively effected by exposure to different facets of our online culture, but it seems that the vast majority of young people are developing normally despite the opportunity to become lost in technology.
What one may find is a tendency to be jaded by technology and a propensity to be over-engaged at times by cell phones, facebook, and television, but, in general, most teens are not so different than their parents were at their age.
I also agree that many bad things can come from the internet and technology. the fact of the matter is that many good things also come from the internet and technology. many kids have been able to strive and use their personality on the internet and even myself has been able to learn more from the internet and use technology to my advantage.
ReplyDeleteThere are good and bad variables of the internet. My parents were never extremely strict on my internet use as a child. They monitored the sites I visited to an extent, but I always just knew better than to venture into sites I knew were "dangerous". One thing my parents did was monitor the amount of time I spent online...sometimes they even had to take the keyboard away! :)
ReplyDeleteProper internet usage for children and teens begins with parental monitoring. But, also-- I believe that parents should let their children learn as well. Kids who are raised well know better than to venture into dangerous sites.
It's true that there are good and bad variables of the Internet, as Caroline said. There are good and bad variables to almost everything. Like we learned in the documentary, the first reaction of parents is fear, which leads to rules designed to protect. Children do not respond well. It's true, most sexual preditor cases are preventable; they occur because both parties involved are willing, even the "prey." My parents tried to play the fear card with me and they scared me out of doing normal everyday things because someone could "get" me.
ReplyDeleteYes, parents do need to monitor their children's actions on the internet and their use of the internet. It can be abused, but there needs to be a happy medium for everyone. Children need to use the internet wisely and parents need to be aware of all activity, but there is no initial need for fear and strict rules unless something happens in each individual case that calls for that kind of action
Teenagers are always in the mind-state of rebellion, from parents to trends. They are attempting to seperate themselves as quickly and radically as possible from their parents and childhood restrictions. In that effort they are extending out into the community for avenues of expression. The Internet doesn't simply offer an avenue, it offers a multitude of highways, side roads, back-alleys; Whatever an individual's mind could dream. It is because the Internets options are so vast that it does tend to actually have an insidious effect on teenagers, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThe media blows everything out of proportion but that is because we desire to have it that way. Teenagers are no different, in fact they most likely enjoy an even higher level of bombastic rhetoric that is also more influential on their insecure developing minds and identity. This, in my opinion, is why teenagers are more suceptible to the advertising and feedback of mass media, internet, abd lack of parents
I have seen studies similar where the actually "dangerous dangers" of the Internet are, like you said, overblown. When I say "dangerous dangers," I am referring to predators, bullying, etc. These dangers are sadly prevalent in our world today--meaning the couple of incidents on the Internet in correlation to how many children use the Internet are so slim, as are the incidents that occur in Nashville, or any other place in the world.
ReplyDeleteWhen I question the benefits of the Internet it is not for these fear appeals the media uses to scare parents, but for the human interaction, educational aspect of things.