Online Childhood

I watched a show the other day about growing up online. It was a show by Rachel Dretsin. Rachel explained in the show how kids today spend time interacting with the internet. The show, showed how kids use the internet as an outlet for self expression, by joining online groups to post what ever you want about yourself. Kids can find sites that they can relate to wether it be fan sites, community sites, or disorder sites. One part of the show a girl was talking about a site she belonged to for a eating disorder she had. The site had a community of followers that would post on the site for and to encourage the sites patrons disorders. The girl said that her parents had no idea about her disorder, and she did not want to tell them. Which is another part of the show in which parents were saying that their kids would hide from them what they were doing on the internet. The parents said they were concerned for their kids because of online predators. Most of the kids said that they were "more knowing of unwanted solicitations" and that they would not respond to those people and immediately block their communications. Parents say that it is hard for them to keep up with their kids because they are not as computer savvy as their kids. In one part of the show a kid said he knew when his dad was watching what he was doing from another computer, so he would just bring up another site to through him off. Its not that these kids are even getting on sites they shouldn’t be its that they want to protect their privacy like kids would with their rooms a couple of generations ago. The kids were saying how they are "more expressive online". Or how they would be more truthful or do stuff they wouldn’t in public. I believe this is because when you are sitting behind a computer screen you aren’t judged. You may not want to go up to someone face to face to ask them out on a date, because you’re afraid that they might say no. Most people don’t take rejection well. So if they do it online and are rejected it’s not as bad because they aren’t looking into that persons eyes.

In my life the internet is used for research more then expression. I’m not one to show the world that I’m sad today at 11:30 in the morning on what ever day. Though the internet is a big part of my life. I use the internet almost everyday. I use it to pay bills because it takes a lot less time doing it online then trying to write a bunch of checks and then having to mail them. I also buy stuff online because you can usually find a better deal then some places locally. I did finally break down and start a face book account though I’m already starting to regret it. If I want to learn something about a certain subject I’ll look it up online. Plus online you can find many sites usually on that subject so you can compare. It also saves you a trip to the library, so you can accomplish your task in a more timely fashion.