Sunday, February 21, 2010

Coming of Age with the Internet

Although I thought that McMillian and Morrison's article was rather boring and pointed out the obvious, I agreed with their points. Today, teenagers are on the internet more than ever. I find that it has enhanced my education like they pointed out in many ways. Whenever I am reading something and see a word I don't recognize, I often look it up on dictionary.com. If there's something that everyone is talking about on facebook and I have no idea what it is, I wikipedia it. I found out about the Haiti disaster through people's facebook statuses before I ever saw it on the news. The internet makes it easier to get in touch with friends, family, and the world; however I believe it has more negative effects than positive. When I see older people interact it is a lot different than when younger people interact. More people now seem to be more socially awkward than in previous generations. A lot of people I find do not know how to hold "real life" conversations since they spend a lot of time on the internet. In addition, I find that people are more likely to say what they want on the internet than to a person's face. For instance, when someone uploads a picture of themselves on the internet, people are likely to comment on it saying that they think the person is "hot" or "sexy", yet these people would never go up to anyone and tell them that to their face. Also, a lot of young people seem to be spending more time indoors on their computers than going out with friends and meeting people. In additon, everyone knows what is happening in other's lives all the time. If you have ever heard of the term "facebook stalk", you know what I mean. I have had people come up to me and talk about what they saw I was talking about with someone else. The internet is getting pretty creepy. I can see future generations becoming a lot more public about their lives, yet a lot more socially inept.

Here is a video from my favorite band and their video about the internet/entertainment:

Rise Against-Entertainment



Here is an episode of the Tyra Banks show (although I find her a little crazy) and internet addiction:

3 comments:

Alexandra Berard said...

I really like that song. It's so true, what the lyrics are saying.

Mindy said...

Your response is so well written as well as "ringing true". I find your comment about young adults being socially awkward in face-to-face conversation to be very interesting. I hope we explore this line of thinking in class.

Amanda said...

Loved your Tyra video. It relates to the article a lot because it distinguishes the real world from the digital world.