Growing up online

Claire Janigo

Anna Wolf

English 100a

7 February 2010

Writing response 4: Growing Up Online

As a class, we recently viewed a program directed and produced by Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio, which aired on PBS (Public Broadcasting Station). The showing was a documentary by FRONTLINE productions that analyzed the impact Internet is having on younger generations and how integrated it has become their lives. “Growing Up Online,” gives viewer an inside look into the first generation to integrate the Internet into almost all aspects of their lives. Most of the hype for this video has to do with how children can have an entire separate life on the Internet that is virtually hidden from their parents. In interviews with adults and parents who do not connect as intimately with the Internet, they expressed a sense of fear and awe to the depth of complexity and secrecy that students have breeched. The Internet has become more than just a search engine but also an advanced dating service, peer concealing program, game based entertainment, and a modern social network. A lot of the fear that parents feel towards student’s openness on the Internet is related to predators; but as an Internet security expert claims, “the real concern…is the trouble that kids might get into on their own.” Indicating the websites that feed students’ depression or physical harm, for instance, learning suicide techniques or tips on the best way to starve oneself, things completely veiled from concerned parents.

I am part of an online generation, one that understands the Internet’s depth and boundaries more than any other generation before. I believe that the process of socialization and knowledge has forever been shifted from the physical world to online sources due to the convenience of the Internet. This transition from physical to abstract is intimidating and I feel that traditional means of conversation and intellect should not be forgotten. Through my life Internet has been readily available and willing to help whenever needed. Though despite its availability, the Internet has not always been as prevalent in my life as it is now. Through years of schooling I have made the shift, as well as many others, from searching for information and textual evidence in books and encyclopedias to depending completely on scholarly journals and websites posted online. Any regard to books as sources for evidence surrendered in high school, when Internet became the all-knowing, all-powerful network of all information. At the simple touch of a button everything that once took time to find in a library of books was available instantly. The use of social networking has also become increasingly prevalent in my life. Starting with AIM in sixth grade and progressing to MySpace then Facebook, I have internalized the indirect communication promoted by these networks. I still favor face-to-face conversations and find them to be more valuable and mentally stimulating, but having experienced the ways of the Internet I fully understand the indirect intimacy that sharing information on-line offers.