Response #4

Shae Hughes
Reading Response #4

Growing up is viewed as a process of extended maturing where a young individual goes from a point in his life, learning from mistakes and being raised by some sort of guardian type figure. Seldom do people look at the process of growing up as though that parent figure is a machine built by human beings. Nor do they see it as a cyber network that sticks its user as though they were caught in a spider web of social connection. In the documentary “Growing Up Online,” Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio take viewers on a journey through the lives of teens and growing up with the internet. They discuss topics like how and why this social network affects young adults and how the parents of these once so innocent children have been driven away from their families.
“I just became this whole different person. I didn’t feel like myself, but I liked the fact that I didn’t feel like myself. I felt like someone completely different. I felt like I was famous, “explains Jessica Hunter, a shy weird girl who was made fun of in school. At the age of 14 she changed her image to Autumn Edows, a Goth girl and self proclaimed model. Though it wasn’t the same as the person her intimidators and instigators viewed her as. She became the image of a cyber model. She posted erotic pictures of herself online, where she began to gather more and more much needed attention. The true question then becomes, at what cost though. Where does it occur to women that when going on so long with being yourself and gathering little to no attention, that maybe the attention that you receive from flashing a little skin may not be the attention that some are looking for?
The internet or what could also be called the technology community bulletin board has affected my own life in its own unique way. As students progress through school life they tend to gather to certain groups that meet their similar personalities. As my high school life progressed there was certain crowds that my affiliation with would be thought of as a comical gesture to think of becoming one of them. The internet and popular community sites though have shaken the hands of my once rivals. For now I can simply shrug asides those in commonalities and become what could be called cyber friends. Here I have access to all of their personal lives where they post their every action and talk about the real friends that envelope their lives. The uniqueness of this is that I am not a Goth or a model posing to attempt to raise some friendship out of random people but a person that oversees like a museum tourist watching these new friends live a life that I was supposed to be aiming to have. It says “Facebook Friend,” but it means anything but. For most internet goers know that if these same friends were to see them in public, the most probable cause for avoidance would be initiated. Though you are a cyber friend the truth comes out that in a world without a protective wall of technology there to shield you, you are still the same outcast. The same Goth model that never had many friends.