vesselsSocial networking sites are an everyday phenomenon these days. So much in fact, that a young person without a page on Facebook or Myspace is borderline anomolous. I got a Myspace about three years ago. After a year or so, I deleted it because I felt like I relied on it too heavily for information about my friends, when I could just call them. After a while, I made a new one and still use it. It's easy to think of it as a guilty pleasure, but then again, maybe it isn't.
Humans have a natural curiosity about one another, and with MS or FB, this curiosity is easily satisfied. Plus, one can browse through a wide array of subjects (people) while sitting in one place. Also, they offer people the chance to study a person in anonimity. You can check someone out without being caught staring. It's all extraordinarily convenient, so it's no wonder these things have taken off the way they have.
If there is a cohort that is particularly enthralled by SNS's, it is undoubtedly adolescents. Now, we all remember high school and it's boundless collection of social booby traps. So, with this in mind, many are concerned with the SNS's potential hazards as they offer kids instant access to other kids, which they will certainly use to scrutinize and punish one another. But, haven't kids done this forever? In high school, I was on both sides of the bullying. I dished it out, and I took it. Myspace didn't even exist yet.
I view SNS's as vehicles or vessels for social phenomenon, not advocates or proponents of them. The amount of bullying online, in my opinion, is no greater than the amount occuring in the lunchroom, playground, gymnasium, or hallways. One can criticize a SNS by saying it harbors teenage cruelty. The same can be said for the aforementioned locations.
Of course, there is the more serious threat of online predators. This should be taken lightly. There is the option of making profiles private, or unviewable by people 18yrs+, but that alone is not enough. I imagine, though, that successful predation would be both very rare and very difficult. There are lots of obstacles an online predator faces. Most kids are savvy to online predators. A kid in Chicago getting a message from a kid they've never met in Indianapolis will be suspicious because they know that this is the likely disguise of a creep. Most of them pose as children, because they know that if they tell the truth about their age, the kid won't talk to them. Most children and parents are educated about online predation. Besides, the kids are watch each other's sites. If Suzy, 15 gets a comment(a message that is viewable to all) from Joe, 27, Suzy's friends will undoubtedly raise Hell about it.
I have this stance because I've witnessed these things happen with my younger brothers and their friends at our house.
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2 comments:
Hello, I wanted to respond back to you about the cyber-bullying comment.
I think you definitely make a good point that if we start trying to monitor, or stop, bullying online, we would also have to look at school buses, gym class, etc. I understand that bullying and picking on classmates is part of life, and part of childhood. So, it will happen no matter what we try to do. The only difference, I feel, is that in the school building there is usually an adult around that can step in and stop the bully for harassing other children. Also, it tends to be on a smaller scale. Online the "Audience" of the bullying is much, muchg larger.
In high school there have been cases of girls being so depressed and embarassed by name-calling and rumors that they have committed suicide.
I wanted to make a comment about online predators. I have always wondered how this has become so wide spread. You are exactly right about the private profiles. My sister, in high school, has her MySpace page set to private, to even ask to be her friend you have to know her middle name, then she has to approve it. (I am sure everyone knew this feature already.) But, even if a young girl, say 15, decides to chat online with a guy she doesn't know, she could lie about her age. Or, how about this, why are young girls setting up meetings with these weirdos in private places? We have to tell our children, brothers, sisters, etc. that if they are going to meet people online they need to take proper precautions. I just don't understand how this happens so often.
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