Social Networking and its impact on others

Using the internet and computers is now considered a norm in everyday life, especially among teenagers. With the popularity of social websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, it is hard for parents to monitor what is going on with their children. There was a presentation on social networking done by PBS called Growing Up Online. The title of the documentary really tells all, because nowadays, kids are more inclined to use the computer as opposed to reading a book. With other websites such as Youtube available to all, children sometimes might want to get away from reality and speak to the cyber world as shown in the documentary. Also shown in the presentation, PBS showed both sides of spectrum, however, showing more of the downside.  Growing Up Online took viewers into multiple stories of teenagers that used these websites as a way of self expression and others that use them for personal issues, whatever it was, their parents seemed to be concerned. 

The most tragic story within the presentation referred to a young child in middle school who was found hanged in his bathroom. His father, confused and wanting an answer to why his son did this, went to what he thought was the root to the unfortunate ending of his son's life, the computer. He found disturbing conversations between his son and another child talking about a website which showed how to correctly hang oneself. With all the bullying his son suffered online and in person, the frustration had gone over the tipping point leading to tying the noose around his neck.

The others stories demonstrated how highschoolers somewhat rely upon these social websites and what they use them for. Feuds can start online and overflow into the school like PBS showed with two groups of girls and the fight being put on Youtube. Two stories showed what the role of parenting can do with their children and the internet. The parents of two different families were concerned with the constant use of the computers and what really goes on behind their back. In the end, the parents basically wanted to have control of the situation and in one way or another "ruined" their child's outlook on the use of computers and of life in general. Another child in the documentary was dealing with an eating disorder and the internet gave her even more inspiration to continue her disorder which was not good, especially at such a young age.

The final story being discussed from the PBS documentary, was about a teenage girl who was an outsider in the real world, but behind the computer screen, in cyber land she was a huge hit. She just wanted to change her image online and have people notice her, but these pictures were found to be too revealing by her principle so she was forced to pull them down and that was tough for her to do, seeing how much time and effort she put into this alias of hers. All in all, this documentary was an eye opener for me because I knew about a handful of the issues discussed in the presentation, however, some others were new to me.

The methods implicated by Obama in his campaign with the use of social networking tools was one of the reasons why he went from being a senator to one the most prestigious jobs in the country, not to mention, the first black president in United States history. Obama had a networking site set up under his name which helped him win in the Texas delegate count, 99 to 94. Obama had some great recruits helping him in his campaign, including Chris Hughes, co-founder of Facebook, to help create these websites and other technological features. This website, www.my.barackobama.com, better known as MyBO had many donations and an impressive number of more than a million user accounts which led to 75,000 local events in support of Obama. Even popular sites such as Youtube had many Obama supporters with two postings of a music video set to an Obama speech--"Yes We Can," by hip-hop artist Will.i.am recording more than 10 million viewers each. The Obama party knew it had to be active on other popular social websites such as Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook. Using the internet at his disposal, Obama played all the right cards and had major success when it came to his campaign and gaining support from citizens all around the country, which ultimately led to becoming the President of the United States this past January 20th, his inauguration.  

Virtual communities are places where people speak to others around the world at their leisure. One of the more popular being "Second Life". The game really is what it's named, a second life. In this virtual world, an open-ended environment that lets players fly, drive futuristic vehicles, dress up in crazy outfits and build just about anything they could imagine. There are many personal and societal cost and benefits that this massively multiplayer online game brings to the table. As stated in an article about this game, "They easily get in touch with people that they don't personally know," said Llewelyn, explaining how the children, who are forced into hiding to get away from abusive parents, benefit from the game. "This means we seem to break a barrier of socializing." This bode well for people who may be an outcast or anti-social in person but they have something to go to back at home where they are a whole different person, similar to some of the stories from the PBS documentary. This could also be detrimental because of any anti-social behavior, it would just be amplified if the person becomes addicted to playing this virtual game and become more of an outsider. An innovative use of this virtual world of Second Life has found the classrooms. In an article titled, "Campus Life Comes to Second Life" describes how some professors have started taking advantage of the game. The professors say how this would make the students react in different ways and gives the whole class a different feel. This is similar to Obama's methods because both are taking advantage of the social networking world. 

Social networking may be good or may be bad in people's eyes, but one thing is for sure, it will always be used.