Get your free education online, it will only cost you a computer. It is no surprise anymore that the majority of teens use social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook to express their emotions and feeling of being young. Though, being such a new online phenomena, some may wonder if this kind of socializing is healthy for adolescence growing up. This is why I chose this topic, because I often wonder what the effects of virtual interaction and socializing can have on the youth of today. What ever happen to good all one on ones? Myspace sites made visible the social awkwardness of adolescents and the basic conflicts of growing up. 55% of all online Americans youths age 12-17 have created profiles at social networking sites, a study found in January 2007 survey by Pew Charitable Trust. Studies now show that more than half of users are over 35 years of age, such as most of the 2008 primary presidential candidates. Safety measures have been taken to prevent any users from any inappropriate behavior, such as users have to be accepted as a friend to share their URL and there are numerous ways to report bad behavior. Some adults agree that middle school classrooms are a great setting to guide teens in understanding online safety practices and engaging in healthy online content. But most schools block these sites with the amounting parental and legal concerns making it difficult to teach teens important online safety issues. Parents encouraging online social networking are looking towards other options such as Whyville and Ning, sites that are monitored and censored daily. Most parents believe that creating meaningful content on the web will help move more responsibly into the larger spaces of our digital world.
The rapidly expanding arena of online social networking may be a safe haven for adolescence to ask some serious questions, information they would otherwise never ask in person. “Does anyone know how to cut deep without letting it sting or bleed too much?” this was an excerpt taken from an online study that monitored otherwise unmonitored chat rooms and also took notes of chat rooms that the participants knew was monitored. An answer \sprang up rather quickly, “I use box cutter blades, you have to pull the skin really tight and press the blade down really hard.” This conversation is becoming more and more common on the internet, with people seeking all kinds of advice they would never consult a person for in fear of rejections or embarrassment. The internet offers a place to go online and give your best attempt to be someone your not, but recent studies show that teens are actually confronting their own identities. Surprisingly, bloggers routinely disclose personal information, such as home address, age, sex, about themselves than previously been suggested, almost like online counseling. This leeds into the question if teens are better off with access to computers in schools? Studies have shown that children with access to computers over time show improvements in reading skills. This presents a problem because the children that need it the most, in lower income schools, have less access to those who do not need access to computers.
Both these summaries of two different aspects of online social networking may seem different at first, but actually ask the same very important question. Both articles cover the same general topics, that teens are dominating these social networks and using them as a spring board to get the answers to some tough questions. Studies do show that teens are becoming more honest and facing their own realities when using myspace or facebook. The ultimate question is if the outcome of this is going to be a mess or not? It is too if the first stages to really tell what this may all lead to, but both have seem to express that there is high hope for monitored online social networks and this can help teens grow in a sense. The first article “The Myspace Culture,” I thought covered some interesting points, specially that teens creating meaningful content on the web with advance them in these tech based times, but it did not cover the realty that there are so many options and websites to browse and create content, this trend is not slowing either. How will parents regulate their children from visiting these websites when they are accessing computes elsewhere? The second article was interesting, I had no idea there were so many self help websites available to teens and the issues being discussed were somewhat surprising. Teens need some sort of outlet to express their feelings and emotions, but I think some censoring or monitoring should be in place, after all you would never let your child roam the street at night alone.
Hayes, Sandy. “The Myspace Culture: Voices from the middle.” Urbana (Dec 2007) Vol. 15, Iss 2; pg. 59, 2 pgs
Bower, Bruce. “Growing Up Online: Young people jump headfirst into the interment world.”Science News (2006)
For “the Myspace Culture” article I used Proquest data base.
For “Growing up online,” I used JSTOR database
Nickos 