It
seems that today’s youth has become completely dependent on their computers, as
there are many consequences to this problem. Students spend countless hours on
social networking sites, which have replaced much physical contact with their
peers and revolutionized networking in the process. It has both its positive
and negative aspects and since the phenomenon is here to stay, people have to
approach the conflicts it can create carefully. The biggest scare for parents
is that their children are getting involved in a very dangerous world where
they are vulnerable and cannot be protected. Many people are familiar with the
popular show on NBC called “To Catch a Predator”, as this is the worst fear of
a parent. I think that it frightens almost every member of society because many
have friends and family members that are especially at risk to this type of
crime. A family has to be extremely careful when it comes to who they can trust
with their kids because the effects of a young child being sexually abused are
disastrous. The memories of those horrible encounters will always linger with
the victim and likely cause many difficult issues for them. It is probably one
of the worst things that can happen to a person in their lifetimes and
fortunately something that can be prevented with the right safety measures. It
does not merely take making sure the child knows what to do in a certain
situation, such as being approached and lured by a stranger. Adolescents have
to be computer savvy when it comes to communicating with the vast outer world
present while using the internet. From watching the PBS documentary on youth
networking I learned that the truth behind the attempts of sexual predators is
not what most people think.
It
is rare for an underage individual to receive an unsolicited sex offer from a
pedophile as this happens to one in seven children under eighteen while surfing
the internet. Usually if a meeting is set up between a kid and an adult looking
for sex is if the kid is looking for such a situation. A lot of the contact
that one expert on the subject stated was situations where the conversation
taking place is technically wrong legally, but in reality not a concern. For
example it can be a nineteen year old boy talking sexually to a seventeen year
old girl which does go against the statutes, however is something most people
are comfortable with. These laws vary by state and what could be seen as acceptable
in one jurisdiction can have some very serious ramifications in another. I
remember an episode on MTV’s show called “True Life” where a young man was
charged and convicted as a sex offender because his closely aged partner was
not of age for legal consent. He had to register with the authorities wherever
he lived, as he could not be a certain distance next to specific areas which
included schools and parks. He was treated the same as someone who had molested
and sodomized very young children for instance and he was fighting the system
to change this unfairness. In his state there was no distinguishing in between
a low level and high level sex offender as there is in others. Eventually,
after much time and effort he was exonerated of his crime and was no longer a felon
and not restricted as to his location and movement.
In
addition to sex crimes against children is the dilemma of these adolescents
placing racy and seemingly pornographic pictures of themselves on line for all
to see. One girl who was an outcast at her high school as she was labeled a
goth had been modeling pictures with lingerie on her website under a pseudonym.
She received a lot of fame, notoriety, and attention for it as she lived for it
because it gave her an escape from the bullying and the despair it caused at
school. A classmate ended up reporting it to the school’s principal who saw it
as offensive and the girl was forced to take it down by her parents. Her mother
sat in her room while she painfully deleted the pictures one by one. Later on
her parents changed their minds as she was allowed to restart the hobby,
however this is the exception as most parents keep strict tabs on their
children while online. One mother in an upscale suburb of New Jersey called
Chatham where her children attended Chatham High School would supervise them
during their internet sessions. The family’s single computer was placed next to
the kitchen, as while she cooked her son would talk to his friends and
sometimes try to get something by her. She explained that if she would go to
the refrigerator, he would most likely take the opportunity to see material she
disapproved of. It only took a few seconds and once she turned her head back to
see what was going on, the window would quickly be closed. I personally think
that is going too far and is a drain on everyone involved because no one has
their freedom and peace of mind to themselves. The mother couldn’t control
everything because her son along with many of his schoolmates took a booze
filled trip on a train into the city to watch a rock concert.
The
videos of them drinking and partying during the ride there were posted online
as well as the many sick and passed out teenagers who consumed too much
alcohol. They really don’t realize how dangerous what they’re doing is and that
they were very close to risking their lives as many die from acute alcohol
poisoning every year. These kids think that they know everything and really are
just extremely immature and stubborn as they will only learn their lesson the
hard way. My high school years were earlier and different than theirs as they
were the class of 2007 at Chatham High School because my school was highly
academic intensive. At Bronx Science we did have students who partook in some
bad decisions and events, however most were concerned with their studies and
not in questionable actions and behavior. I also don’t get the technology craze
because I would use it to a limit not because I wanted restrict myself for my
own good, but because after a while it is redundant and annoying. Okay I have
spent a long time chatting with friends or watching a series of videos though
doing that each and every day does not seem very appealing to me. I enjoy and
value the physical face to face time I share with my friends and I mostly use
social media to stay connected with them and plan things to do. Also, the
internet can be a death trap for insecure and emotionally unstable teenagers as
seen by the case of one bullied and depressed thirteen year old who committed
suicide. His father went onto his late son’s internet account looking for
answers and found that he was talking with another young boy about his
difficulties and ending them with suicide.
He
ended up calling the boy’s father and telling him that he thought his son like
his was considering and at risk for suicide. The contact ended at that as for
years he hadn’t heard from the family as that shows just how much parents
aren’t in the know about what their children are doing. They really are
powerless to stop it or control it because it is such a powerful and addicting
tool that has deeply intertwined itself with kid’s lives. When some of these
videos go viral such as one of an escalated girl’s fight at a high school with
chairs being thrown, they become sensations viewed by many interested people. Despite
their collective naïve nature as teenagers, one girl did mention the worry that
this reckless public content can hurt their future with college applications
and employment. For others like a sixteen year old girl who had an eating
disorder the information that she is accessing is affecting her health both
physical and mental. The websites are telling her what to do so that she can
become dangerously thin, as other people in the same position are encouraging
and influencing her. They tell her exactly what to do when it comes to binge
eating and purging as well as starving herself which has some harsh health
effects on her body. The parents had no idea about it as she put on a happy act
for her classmates and family, while she led a separate life of struggle at
home on her computer. She ended up coming out to her parents, as in other cases
where the parents find out first their resentful children end up on bad terms
with them. That was what happened with the outrageous behavior of the party
going students who had to face the music when the parents found out and
informed each other.
They
were appropriately punished for what they did and had some of their internet
privileges taken away. The parents were still concerned about the internet and
technology’s future impact on their children, as for example one student would
be attending the Coast Guard Academy. There he would not be allowed to use the
web and other devices for two months and his parents were worried that he would
not make it. This shows just how grave this predicament is for America’s youth
as their vital academic careers are jeopardized for something so unnecessary.
It really is helpful in other areas such as the Obama campaign which won the
2008 election over John McCain because they were better connected with their
supporters. They had more donations in smaller amounts which broke previous
records by a large margin and they had organized thousands of fund raising
events. An example was where at one party, the host was given checks for twenty
dollars by the party goers who were leaving. This may not seem like much
compared to the many big donors John McCain had, but with such huge numbers the
total amount was massive. I was previously made aware of this information from
my political science seminar class on elections. Even then it was a testament
to me of how influential social networking can be where it can affect something
so important. The Obama campaign was also well connected with their followers
on social media sites like Facebook and created their own website, like MYBO. So
social networking goes from the problematic in youth to the essential and
powerful in the presidential campaign to the great beyond of mixing humans with
computers.
Another
article was about chips implanted in a deaf person’s brain where he could
dictate and communicate thoughts to a computer for his peers to understand. It
is in the near future where this technology could be perfected and applied, but
there are some serious privacy issues that go along with this. When you go on a
site like Facebook and many others that are similar where your interests are
extracted and documented, then your private domain is compromised. A lot of
people have stopped using certain sites because of this problem and implanting
such a chip in someone’s brain is going onto a whole new level. I would not
want it as I think many others would feel the same, but if it is a good idea
for people who need it for communication reasons then I am all for it. Also
brought up was the issue that people should have more variety in their types of
contacts and information sites visited because it exposes them to more and
better information. This is a good benefit and is another benefit of using the
internet which makes people better aware of their surroundings and social
environments throughout the world. In conclusion, I really think that how the
internet is used depends on the person and their background as of course when
it is used by groups of people together the outcome changes. It is not right
though that people become disconnected from each other very much so in key
areas like the family structure. It is ridiculous that one father couldn’t
enter his kid’s room as he would be invading his personal computer time and
space and instead has to email him. I thought it was even worse that all over
the country kids are glued to computer screens alone or in groups instead of
spending their leisure hours in a better way.
As
one student interviewed said, there is a whole other world with different rules
on the internet and that should be met with the proper discretion as is already
under way. There are classes where children of all ages are instructed what to
do if they are sexually solicited by a stranger online, as this is a step in
the right direction. Finally, there is the video from Ted.com where a presenter
was discussing how the information received by every individual online varies.
It is tailored to the preferences and search tendencies of each person from a
search engine like Google to a network site like Facebook. He used both examples
to prove his point, as on Google two of his friends entered Egypt in their
search and both results were completely different. One got the latest news
stories going on politically in Egypt meanwhile the other got travel information,
as the search result screens greatly contrasted each other. You didn’t have to
even look closely at what sites came up because the formatting in terms of the sentence
structure and quantity was clearly varied from on to the other. Most noticeable
though was the videos shown where one page had a few and the other a single one,
which didn’t match those on the other side. On Facebook the presenter noticed
one day that the links he had to friends who were politically conservative had
been erased by the website administrators. The administrators saw that he
visited his politically liberal friend’s links more often, so they went ahead
and erased the conservative minded links. What they didn’t know was that
although he was very liberal, he greatly valued and was really interested in
what his politically conservative friends had to say.
His
argument is that the internet should go back to its roots and what is meant for
as an unadulterated tool that gives the user a complete look into online
information. Coming from a small town in Maine the internet meant so much to
him when he was introduced to it as a kid and wants it to regain its
traditional form. It was said that newspapers used to be imperative because
they were the driving force behind an informed public and now the information
landscape has changed drastically. The public needs a healthy diet of
information with both what is educating and what is fun, as people struggle
with what they want to view and what they should view. According to the diagram
people are stuck in an information bubble that needs to be eradicated for the
benefit of the public, and I couldn’t agree more after watching this. I think
it’s helpful and a good idea when a website like YouTube will connect me to
videos similar to what I have been viewing, but there is a limit to this
practice. I used to think that what I googled or searched for on the internet
was a basic and set process that was the same for everyone. I thought it was
based on keywords and the combination of them and not what someone or something
thinks I want to see. I am against that because it is playing with people’s
degree of education to what is going on in the world and that is not right. It
also affects how quickly someone can access certain things online as more
relevant sources to their preferences come quicker. With more people becoming
informed of this skewed system, it is sure that their collective voice will be
heard and things will get reverted back to the way they should be.
