Growing Up on the Internet

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

After watching the video about how the internet is affecting teenagers today, it brought up a bunch of issues that I don't think most people think about. Kids do spend a lot of time on the internet today in online social situations that can be just as harmful to them, if not more, than actually being with their peers. The internet has a sense of anonymity that makes kids more brave in the things they say-good or bad. As Rachel says in her blog though, http://rsister2.blogspot.com/, teenagers need to make sure that they know how to socialize in both worlds. If you can only truly be yourself on-line, in the case of Autumn or the the girl with annorexia, you are going to have this dissonance in yourself because you know you have two personalities and in what situations you can be which one.

The effect the internet has on kids is both good and bad then in a sense. They can be social and learn about society and academics and they can be easily connected to resources that are helpful to them like email from teachers or homework help pages. But when you hear all these stories it's hard to think that there is a world out there that parents can't control, and can't even imagine. Like Anna, http://abohlke.blogspot.com/ , I can't imagine being this lost in the internet. A lot of the time I get bored using the computer because I'm not too entertained by checking out other people's lives and critiquing little things about people that don't matter. Unlike Anna though, my middle school did experience problems with cyberbullying (all the way back in 2001!). There was a case where a less popular girl's parents took another girl to court for bullying because of an Instant Message conversation, which was saved and printed for evidence. It's crazy how such a useful tool can be so harmful to children.

As for teaching, I would still like to use the internet in my classroom. I probably won't use any of the social networks, but at least I can have a page where they can check homework and grades and find out if other students are having the same problems they are. I would also like to use some of the free demonstrations or have them research possibilities to problems. The internet can be a great tool and I don't think using it in the classroom will cause children to be that much more exposed to the harmful things on the internet.