Part 1
The documentary “Growing Up Online” gives viewers an inside look into the online lives of teens who were born into this age of computers, and have never known anything different. This PBS Frontline video is directed by Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio and aired on January 22nd of 2008. A common theme seemed to keep appearing amongst the parents in this video, which was that they didn’t really understand their teen’s activities online. The documentary addresses many of parent’s fears, such as online predators and overexposure of their children; both what their children are seeing and what their children are showing. However, we also see a different side of the online socializing which seems to be much more prominent, and yet not at the top of most parents’ list of worries, as we hear in the case of Ryan, who was bullied mercilessly both off and online.
Although Ryan’s father taught him how to defend himself physically, his father was unaware of the psychological aspect of Ryan’s bullying problems. Ryan’s father told Frontline: “I allowed the computer to become too much of his life” (PBS). Ryan turned to “suicide help sites” to try and solve his problems, sites which instead of talking you out of committing the act instead encouraged you to do so. Although Ryan’s story is not how most cyber-bullying ends, there are other ways which it can effect teens. At Chatham High School in New Jersey, several girls told Frontline that after being provoked on Myspace by several other girls from the high school, they confronted each other and a mass fight broke out. Ironically, this fight was videotaped and posted online (PBS).
The subject of internet use is present in most households across America, parents who don’t understand their teens use of computers often will either just stay out of it or try their best to protect their children by closely monitoring their every online move; which is no easy task. One mother, Evan Skinner, was especially adamant on keeping close tabs on her children’s internet use, admitted that she remembered having secrets as a teen but that “it’s really hard when it’s on the other side” (PBS).
Danah Boyd of Harvard University’s Berkham Center for Internet and Society told Frontline that it’s not a question of taking online activities away or even trying to make the internet a perfect, innocent place but more a “’question of how we teach ourselves and our children to live in a society where these properties are fundamentally a way of life. This is public life today’" (PBS). Many teens rely on the internet not as a thing separate from their everyday lives, but as an extension of their lives. The online world is their way of keeping in touch with friends, learning about themselves and the rest of the world. Not to mention the increasing amount of school assignments which require the use of the internet (PBS). It isn’t something we can ignore nor can parents take it away; the important thing is teaching children and teens how to be responsible while on and offline.
Part 2
Like most teens in America today I probably don’t realize the impact that the internet and digital media has actually had on my life; it’s always just sort of been there. Although most of my life my access to the internet was very limited (I was allowed to write a couple words at the end of my mom’s emails to family) today I can honestly say that without social networking sites I probably never would have went to high school or college for that matter. As an ex-homeschooler I know what’s like to live way out in the hills and not see anyone except my parents for days or weeks on end. It wasn’t until middle school that I had any friends that weren’t also homeschooled. After being persuaded to make a Myspace account (and hating it) I thought that talking to more people in person would be a good change for me. Now even though I don’t use those social networking sites very often, I still appreciate them as making a huge impact on my life. My current boyfriend of 3 years even asked me out via Myspace, so without it who knows where I would be today?
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