Matt's Times :Growing up online

Growing Up Online directed by Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio is a TV publication created by Frontline and aired on PBC details how technology is both helping and degrading our society. What I got out of this video was that in the words of C.J. Pasco “The internet and the digital world was something that belonged to adults, and now it’s something that really is the province of teenagers” . I think this statement is pure, it is true and honest. I believe, and this video really backs me up, that technology is used in schools to help teach, it is used to communicate with family and friends, and in general it is used to better the world. Yet as this video shows technology today comes with a price. Not money, but time and a little bit of “ourselves”. Just about every teen uses the internet and the amount of interaction or other browsings are amazing . Millions of people subscribe to Facebook or Myspace and in my experience many “have” to check their profiles daily. And whats even more amazing is that anyone can post just about anything to your profile. This is were cyber-bullying can happen and like in the case of John Halligan whose son had died because he was cyber bullied, john figured that if someone see something or read it enough times they could start to believe it. And that is why bullying is so terrible. Another issue addressed by this video was that of Autum Edows. Real name of Jessica Hunter, Edows at age fourteen reinvented herself online as a more mysterious person, she acted as a goth and took provocative pictures of herself and posted them. She acted as a different person and she liked it. This goes to show that technology helps people to be who they truly are or who they want to be.
My personal thoughts on this video are that they help to show how addictive the internet is. I do not subscribe to Facebook, Myspace, or any other such sites for the very reason that their addictive and that “everyone” uses them. Although technology is used in classrooms to teach I must say that technology is not going away and that there is a proper way to use it and an improper way. Although I disagree with Autum Edowsm, I think the should have been herself anstead of making up a whole new identity but oh well that’s her issue .