I think we can all agree there is obvious danger on the internet. Sexual predators, Nigerian-Princess scams, and pop-up ads lurk around every click of the mouse. Perhaps, more dangerously, is the internet addiction afflicting hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. As stated in the video and reiterated by Mackenzie, most tech-savvy schools conduct internet safety courses in order to protect children from those who would try and hurt them. What the video failed to depict was that it’s really the excess of internet usage that is the trouble. Teens that spend a vast majority of their waking hours online are far more likely to regard the internet as something innocuous.
The video, almost laughably, describes the internet phenomena as if it were some horrible pandemic of disease. Facebook and Myspace, when used appropriately, are excellent social networking tools, rather than some ailment found on "House". However, as explored in the video, discretion seems to be the element we as a demographic lack. I know several people personally that have been targeted by internet “creepers”, but their experience has been because of their own poor judgment rather than because they were sought out. It’s common sense that if someone asks you to take a picture of yourself topless and put it on the internet, you don’t do it. For as many examples of internet misuse that PBS was able to find, there are dozens more counter-examples that disprove their theories.
The internet is not a simple fad. It is used daily by millions worldwide, creating easy commerce and linking people around the globe. What bothers me most is that the internet (as well as cell phones and instant messenger) eliminates the necessity for face-to-face communication. Using this class blog as a standard method of communication makes me wonder if the science-fiction farces in the movies are really all that far off. If our reliance is based on a simple data-transfer system (punctuated by the occasional emoticon if we so choose), we lose the real meaning of relationships. Even the Pope has condemned overuse of these internet networking tools!
It’s sort of funny, really, how quickly we have embraced Facebook and Myspace. For example; in my high school, unless your relationship was “Facebook-Official”, it didn’t exist. If you weren’t friends with a person on the internet, you clearly didn’t socialize with him or her in real life. It seems ridiculous that an internet site would dictate so many social interactions. In a perfect world, everyone would get along in social situations. We wouldn’t be so distracted by our technology. Still, to be perfectly honest, I have Facebook open just behind this blog post. My cell phone is going off on the table right next to me. I’m sitting in the student center with about twenty other kids, all of whom are glued to their monitors. We're all in our separate little internet worlds, though I bet you anything half of them are Facebookchatting each other. I’ve got to take my idealism with a grain of salt, I suppose.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/23/pope-warns-against-obsess_n_160283.html
http://mashable.com/2006/08/25/facebook-profile/
plus, I thought this was funny;
http://www.bittertonic.com/daily-dose/395/i-can-be-your-facebook-stalker/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Honestly, I don't know what to write after reading Lindsay's post. She expressed all the same opinions I have (actually, it was quite uncanny how alike our opinions were) concerning the Internet. If I hadn't known better I would have thought that I wrote it. (Quite obviously I didn't as she is an amazingly gifted writer AND English major to boot, and after reading my comment, It's quite obvious that I'm not...but back to the subject.)
ReplyDeleteI do feel that connections such as Facebook are great tools to keep track of friends and family who aren't close by. I check my Facebook daily and at least once or twice a week one of my French friends will communicate with me via Facebook. Facebook chat has been a great tool for me to practice my french (a l'ecrit bien sur!) which has helped me out tremendously since I'm a French major. And yes, it is quite addicting yet I feel that it is too useful to condemn it. Just like everything else in life, moderation is key. Using the internet is fine as long as we don't 'live' through it.
Condeming something like the Internet is as logical as saying cars are evil for the deaths they have caused. Anything can be perverted or twisted into something wrong. Sex, movies, airplanes, eating, or anything else. It's not revolutionary that things people use every day can be dangerous. Yes, there is a risk of dying in a car accident on your way to work. Does that make cars bad? Or work? Or roads? Prehaps our government that makes the roads we drive on that could possibly end our life? Obviously, this line of reasoning is about as logical as Justice Kennedy's voting habits.
ReplyDeletePersonal responsability is key. You use the god-given wisdom we all have. Don't shoot yourself in the face with your gun. Don't drive on the left side of the road. Don't offer some guy named "conebone69" or "littlekidlover" your address. Don't drink three cans of Cocaine in a row. Don't take the scissors your mommy gave you for school and gorge your brain out. If anything needs to happen in our society, it should be a higher focus on logic and reason in our public education system. Maybe then we won't require stickers that tells us our hot coffee is hot or that our tennis shoes are not flame proof.
There's a great clip from the movie "Thank You for Smoking" that backs this up. You can find it below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=596DgHsNzTM&feature=related
(8:18-8:50)
I think the thing Lindsey brings up that both strikes me as interesting and that bothers me most is fact that "the internet (as well as cell phones and instant messenger) eliminates the necessity for face-to-face communication."
ReplyDeleteI am very much a people person but I have found that it is sometimes "easier" to just text, email, stalkerchat (this is what I call facebook chatting), IM, or even call someone than to try to track them down and talk in person. The saddest thing is we lose several forms of communication such as facial expressions or body language even our tone...one thing that I can't stand is not knowing if someone is serious or just teasing when they write words that can be taken either way regardless of context.
While I am not saying I don't or will refuse to use technologies as communication, (because lets face it I can't go all day without checking my phone or email, and facebook never closes on my computer) I'm saying I agree the others that these technologies are tools and should be used in conjunction with face-to-face communication rather than replacing it.
Like Elena said, I was most struck by the idea of losing our face-to-face communication. Technology really can't replace tone, facial expressions, and body language that face-to-face provides.
ReplyDeleteJust like the two girl groups in the video had fights on MySpace, my friends were involved in one, too. One of my friends is very sarcastic, so when she made a comment once on another friend's Facebook wall, he took it the wrong way. He didn't read into the joke of the comment; thus, war ensued--all on Facebook. Finally, when they talked about it in person, they were able to settle their differences quite quickly. This fight never would have happened if my friends had used face-to-face communication because he would have been able to hear her sarcastic tone.
The internet is a great tool for fun, work, and networking. The internet is just a tool, though. We can't let it become our life, for we will lose out on reality. Like Callie said, moderation is crucial. If we use Facebook and tools like it as our secondary means of communication and let face-to-face remain as our first method of communication, we can avoid some fights and misunderstandings.
The extensive internet usage as a means of communicating is already a problem, but it has the potential of becoming an even greater problem. We see people drawing away from each other because of their addictions to the internet. I am also involved in this. Being the introvert that I am, I find it much easier to send someone a Facebook message or an e-mail (if they don't have a Facebook) than to call them or to go talk to them face-to-face. For me, it is much easier to express my feelings in writing than through speaking, so I rely on that when I should be getting out and talking.
ReplyDeleteFacebook and other social-networking sites can be a great form of communication. If you are getting ready to leave for class but need to ask a friend something and don't have time to call them, it is very nice to be able to type out a quick message on Facebook before leaving. It is even a great way for adults to stay connected. They can contact old friends from high school or college and reminisce on the good times. There are good and bad sides to the frequent use of social-networking.
On the topic of internet predators, I realize that they are out there, but there are so many things that can be done to prevent any unfortunate incidents. When something like that does happen, a vast majority of the time, it is the victim's fault. They reveal too much about themselves on the internet, which is public. Anyone, whether they are terrorists, parents, friends, rapists, or employers, can access the information. The best way to prevent predation is to not reveal anything that you would not want the worst of people to know about you.
LOL, why are all the people in the stalker video Indian!!!!??
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I guess I agree with Lindsey, but I did think the video was interesting. It's crazy- In this age of information expansion, the way we transfer this info is rapidly expanding as well. The video was a little too quick to jump to the conclusion that if your child is online, something terrible will happen to them. Social networking is a wonderful thing and it allows people to keep in touch like never before. However, like texting, it can quickly become an addiction, which I see as the main problem with online networking. I don't think it's healthy to spend hours maintaining a relationship online, when you're face-to-face relationships are suffering. Bottom line: It's up to parents and children to have enough self-discipline to sit down and create boundaries that guide online behavior and don't allow it to get out of control.
I have to disagree with everyone. I hate the internet! Why do we have to write on a blog about something we could be talking about in class tomorrow? In the words of Steven Gragg, “Honestly, is this really necessary?” Who cares about a series of tubes?! Let us all just face the facts. Change is bad. Whatever comes out of technology is just evil. People on the internet are pedophiles, freaks, gangsters, murders, and Democrats. I say we all go to the Amish settlement up north and burn their buggies. They’re technology worshiping heathens to and we need to show an example of them. (That last sentence is not a threat. I love Amish folks and their whimsical lifestyle.)
ReplyDeleteI hope no one reads this comment and takes it seriously. In other words, I hope it doesn’t end up on Wikipedia.