Growing Up Online

After watching “Growing Up Online” I did not really find any of the information presented in it surprising. Instead I more find that it is sad how so many kids today are growing up online and are so obsessed with the internet that they do not feel like they can live without going on it at some point in the day. It saddens me to see how much the Internet controls young people’s lives. Teens today seem to think that without the Internet they cannot be cool or in on the latest gossip. Even the fact that kids and teens will not go out and do something together before they end up talking to each other online to play a game together using electronics and possibly the internet. I do not think it is healthy to see so many young people using the internet to express themselves. Why is it that they feel they have to use the internet to do this? Why can they not find different ways to get their ideas out into the world?

As much as kids and teens do say they know not to answer people they do not know on the internet and even through studies have shown that this is true. I don’t think that the kids and teens understand still how dangerous it is to go out on the internet and just let people look at their information or pictures of them. So many think MySpace is safe and that no one can look at their information unless they are friends with them but what if someone hacks the system and then all the information you thought was safe is out for all to see. And going back to the comment on friends, why is it that people accept others as friends if they have never met them or have only met them once? Why do they have a need to have as many friends as possible? I know personally on facebook I only let people I know, friend me, even if I only know them a little bit. I do not ever friend someone that I do not know at all because I think that would be creepy and that that person then could find out things about me or look at my pictures, which is really none of their business.
I thought it was interesting that the mother of four wanted her kid’s passwords to their facebook or MySpace accounts. I know my mom had asked me also about my facebook and I do not let her have the password because I do feel it is my page and therefore I should be the only one who should be able to change things on it. I do however let my mom look at it when I am online at home. In all honesty I don’t have anything on my facebook, which I feel I need to hide from my parents. I do not put anything up on my facebook that is too personal therefore why should I care if I show it to my mom so she feels better about what I have online. On the other hand I do know many people who are afraid to show their parents their facebooks or MySpace pages because they know the pages have things on them that their parents would not approve of. I ask them what their relationship with their parents is and I seem to always get the answer that it is OK but not a great open relationship. It just seems like such a stressful thing to have to worry about your parents not trusting you. My parents do trust me because they know what I am up to most of the time. I mean of course there are things that I do not tell my parents but it is never anything earth shattering and if I do not talk to them about it I always do with a close friend who I trust.

I understand where the parents are coming from somewhat because I know when I become a mom I want my kids to be safe and part of keeping them safe will be knowing what they are up to. I want my kids to be able to talk to me about anything and know that I am always there for them when they need help with something in their lives. I know I am terrified that someone I know will get cyber bullied and then want to hurt themselves or god forbid kill themselves. And of course I never want that to happen to my kids.

I do think that kids today are taking the internet to lightly. They say they understand the danger and to stay away from it but when you really think about it part of the danger is how much they are staying on the computer and the internet. Some spend hours and hours online doing nothing important, I mean of course I can understand if people go online to work on homework or find out information they need like directions, but how much to kids and teens need to really do this?

In the end who knows what the future will bring. The internet will probably keep growing and more and more kids and teens will start using it. What can be done about all of this no one really knows I guess, the best thing to do would be to have teens and kids watch documentaries like this one in the hopes that they will learn more about the internet and really look at how much they are exposing themselves online for all to see.