Growing up Online

Part 1.) In the video "Growing up Online" by the directors Rachel Dritzen and John Maggio which aired on Frontline brings up into considerations a lot of main points about the internet and the effects it has on our youth. The main in this video is the fact that parents are unaware of what their children are doing on their computers or phones and not really knowing these technologies as well as their children they cant understand what their children are engaging in. Parry Aftab the executive producer of WiredSafety.org states "Everyone is panicking about sexual predators online. That's what parents are afraid of; that's what parents are paying attention to"(PBS Par 10). It has been brought to our attention also "My parents don't understand that I've spent pretty much since second grade online, I know what to avoid" states one ninth-grader (Par. 9). We as adults are blindsided by all this information that there are such thing as online predators that we stress upon this fact that we need to know every little thing the kids do and who they talk to. What we don't understand is that the internet also has so many other fears on it from chat rooms to talking about how to starve yourself and how to get through that grueling experience. At the same time though some students and or kids engage in behavior that isn't quite excepted and then post these things on sites such as Youtube so everyone else can see what they have done. A mother herself, Evan Skinner, knows these things are happening and tries to stay involved in her kids lives as much as she can. But at the same time we learn from her son Cam that going to far into this can in turn lead to less of a relationship. Cam a high school student was participating in going to a concert and they were traveling on the train. They were being rude and were partaking in drinking alcohol and just not doing smart things. They had posted the videos on an internet source and it didn't take long for Evan Skinner, Cams mother, to find it. She then wrote a letter to the whole student bodies parents and it really compromised the two of theirs relationship. Cams friends didn't trust him after this and lost a lot of them due to this action his mother took. Evan Skinner says "I remember being 11; I remember being 13; I remember being 16, and I remember having secrets, but it's really hard when it's the other side"(Par. 6) I will admit there is much bad on the internet and it can really persuade people to do for lack of better words stupid things. There is a lot of good that comes along with the internet and I just think the best thing we can do as a Nation is to educate the children better on what is good and bad on the internet and try to keep close to what they are doing but at the same time not to close. It sounds so easy but it really takes a lot to find that medium ground and its really what is needed to make sure our children are truly staying safe on the internet.
Part 2.) The internet has changed the view of my life completely. Some good and some bad but at the end of the day they have all changed my life in a positive way. I know me personally had a strong addiction to a computer game throughout high school called World of Warcraft and made me practically waste two years of my life. I would log onto this fantasy world and play with online friends and would just not care about the actual real world. All I saw was this virtual world with millions of people and I became indulged in what it could offer for me. On the other side of the spectrum I overcame one of the biggest obstacles I have experienced in my life. I wasn't just fighting to get out of this addiction of playing upwards of 14-18 hours a day, I was fighting for my family and the friends I had lost through this experience. I became a stronger person through this and now understand something more about me about how easily it is to get addicted to something of this stature. Then I look at things like Facebook which I may spend a half an hour on a day and I look at how many people this site has reconnected me with. I now am going out and having a good time with these friends that I haven't seen in years and just having a good time and I couldn't even imagine how hard that would be if I didn't have one of these sites such as Facebook or Myspace to help me. All in all there is a lot of bad in the internet its all about the way the person uses this media and what they do with the internet sites they visit.