Growing up Online – what are our youth facing?

I watched the Frontline episode of “Growing up Online” that aired on Tuesday night (you can view it here) . I thought overall that the episode was pretty good. It was a bit of doom and gloom, however, it showed a pretty realistic view of what youth are experiencing as far as the social networking tools that they use so frequently and how it is affecting SOME of them. Hopefully these were not seen as generalizations because not all teens are committing suicide, putting up questionable photos of themselves, or searching for the best way to become anorexic. There are numerous positives to the technology and our youth using them.

My interactions with these social networking tools have been very similar to how Will Richardson described his own experience: “And I think that was the major point that was driven home to me, that as much as I look at these social tools and “properties” as learning opportunities, as much as they are a part of my life, I understand them only from the viewpoint of an adult, one that came to the Internet and blogs and live streaming television with a pretty healthy sense of who I am and a well-developed and tested decision making process that made navigating these spaces fairly straightforward. “

In saying that, these tools need to be considered from the perspective that teens are viewing them with, rather than how we might see them as adults and then plans can be made for teaching them appropriate uses.

The most disturbing part of the episode was the clip about the father of the boy who committed suicide who reached out to the friend of his son’s who also seemed to be toying with the idea of suicide and then talked to the father who did not know anything about computers and seemed unconcerned about what he was being told about his son. It would be nice for parents to know something about computers if they are equipping their children with these tools, however, at least they should be involved in their children’s lives and be able to have a discussion with them.

In Angie Balkwill’s blog about the episode, she included some key quotes that rang out for her. The one that I am quickly learning this semester through blogging, Twitter, email, Facebook… is “The Internet is always a willing listener.” How true!! Available 24/7 to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection, there is always someone you can “talk” to and it is an arena in which you will be heard – though as one of the other quotes infers, you are not always sure who it is that is listening.

A lot to consider…