Reading Response #4: Growing Up Online

Gurjot Ram
February 07, 2010
English 100A- Reading Response #4

In the video, “Growing up Online,” Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio discuss the effect of the internet and social network sites on teenagers. On the internet, there is a vast majority of teens on a social network such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and many others. These sites have created concerns for parents of the teens because they are afraid of what their child may get themselves into. The parents know, “If it’s on the net, it’s for everyone. There is no safeguard.” This means that whatever you put on the internet is visible to everyone. The video had a story about a teenager who had gone to a New York concert and had gotten drunk. They had taken pictures which were later put on Facebook where everyone could see them even a parent. When a parent saw these pictures, the parent contacted the other parents as well. The other parents had different reactions such as, “Thank you,” to, “You are so naive.” The teenager of the parent who contacted other parents was furious because some of his friends had got busted. Another teenager they had interviewed was a girl who was skinny. She said that she was living two lives. One was the real life and one was a fake life. People at her school thought she was an alright girl, but she was living two lives. This was kind of surprising because in the video she didn’t look like she had anything wrong with her. We don’t really know a person until we have gotten to know them on a deeper level. The girl was going on these sites where she was talking to other people that were anorexic and kept telling her that, “skinny is beautiful.” In today’s society, Internet rules many things around us because we have adapted on using it. We can find information and chat with friends and family.
I have been affected by the internet greatly because it has been in my life for a great amount of time. I have been on many social networking sites such as Hi5, MySpace, and Facebook. I have joined these groups because to keep in contact with my friends. I have moved on from Hi5 to MySpace and then Facebook. I think that I have been on Facebook for almost two and a half years now. I have learned about people such as stalkers and others and have learned to keep away from them and not put any of my contact info on these social networking sites. When I was on Hi5 and MySpace, I had little knowledge about social networking sites because I really didn’t know how to use one. These social networking sites can be dangerous because you can be the subject of, “cyber bullying,” which can be dangerous. “Cyber bullying,” has been the cause of many deaths due to social networking sites. There are many things on the internet that some people need to avoid. I also think that those social networking sites have good rules because no one under thirteen should have a social networking site. They prevent little kids from getting into too much trouble. Like anything on the internet, people have learned to bypass these rules in which that younger people than thirteen are creating social networking accounts.