Internet's Impact on Kids

Original article by PBS FRONTLINE: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/


After watching the video special Growing Up Online by PBS FRONTLINE, I realized how much the internet is harming students and their identities. I also suddenly realized that I will be competing against Facebook and MySpace in my future classroom, both of which I am currently apart of. While the internet can be a useful tool for exploring and learning, it is also a place for mistaken identities, cyberbullying, online predators, sexual exploitation, and overall social interactions. In the video, we meet several individuals who have been victims of these horrors. We also meet teachers and parents who have realized that they can not compete against the internet. Since every single teacher and parent said they were worried about the impact of the internet, I am now worried for my future students.

In the video, we hear about students living their lives online. We see how children have different personas online, have invisible relationships, express themselves in any way possible, talk to strangers who are in same situation for comfort, and how the internet has become a social arena. Most parents and teachers said this is harmful because no one is in charge. I agree that this can be a dangerous situation for anybody who puts information out onto the web. We saw students having two different identities. One student was a smart high school girl, who all along was addicted to going online looking for ways to enhance and hide her eating disorder, while her parents knew nothing about it. Another student expressed her feelings through provocative pictures, which were brought to the principal’s attention. Other students say these use websites such as Sparknotes and say that they haven’t read a book in years. Another young kid Ryan was having relationships online that were completely invisible from his family and became the victim of cyberbullying. Rumors about Ryan being gay led him to find support online from other kids who were thinking about killing themselves. He also went to websites learning how to tie the rope and other such websites that asked for personal information and then gave back “the best way for your suicide ….” Unfortunately, Ryan ended up committing suicide. These were just a few examples of how the internet has become a source for concern. I feel the internet has added pressure to students to become a part of this social life. I can see this potentially hurting kids who do not have many friends and feel they need to conform to fit in. While many students say they can express themselves freely and be who they are, this can also be dangerous because of cyberstalkers and even other kids who read it and then pick fights over it.

While the internet can be a place to escape and find support, it is can have truly devastating effects and outcomes. Like other teachers, I am worried about what the internet and technology will do to the classroom. Teachers expressed their concern that students have the inability to pay attention, that “having no media in the classroom is like walking into the desert,” and that teachers have to become “entertainers.” One teacher said that after 30 years she can longer compete in the classroom because of technology. I was scared when I heard that because I think I am familiar with technology but I have this concern that my students will know more about how to use it than I will and they will give up in my classroom because I don’t know how to use it. Teachers are now using technology to upload their lessons so that students can listen to them on their ipods. All this technology seems overwhelming to me and I feel it will eventually take away from the traditional way of teaching. Students who go to Sparknotes instead of reading books and learning how to take away from one website and rewrite it into their own words takes away their creativity and is in a sense a form of cheating. The internet is a “willing listener” and anything can be put out there without supervision or rules. I just see the internet harming so many children and their reputations.

In my Catholic high school we had about 400 students total. We only had computers in the computer lab and they were used only for computer class where we learned how to type and type different letter styles. However, as of two years ago, each student was given a laptop computer and wireless internet was installed. I just saw this example of how times have changed and how technology has become the new teacher.