The Positive Side of Adolescents Using the Internet

Outline

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Approach Step: Many overly concerned parents and like-minded reporters believe that adolescent use of the internet is dangerous, harmful and turns teens into zombies.

B. Thesis Statement: In reality, adolescent use of the internet is not harmful, like so many older people think. In fact, it could be one of the only means with which teens can communicate in a way that makes them feel comfortable.

C. Method Statement: Teenagers use the internet as a means of expressing themselves in a wide variety of ways which makes them feel at ease with their peers. Many adolescents use the internet to try to improve their world. Others are looking for information and help, while many use it to socialize with friends in a realm that they understand. Others use it to research and keep up with current events.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Young People Use the Internet to Do Good

1. Benjamin O’Keefe: changing fashion standards (Petitioner of Abercrombie & Fitch)

2. Minddrive Students: changing at-risk teens and their perception of their abilities

3. Signing these petitions and learning more about them is a key point in using social media

B. Sex Ed Class for Teens

1. Politics and parents prevent many teens from learning comprehensive sex education

2. Many LGBT teens feel more limited than their straight counterparts

3. Since its private and since most LGB teens have no one to talk to about sex education, they turn to the internet for help

C. Use the internet for social media and socializing

1. Gives them technology skills and literacy (basic computer literacy skills)

2. Allows teens to tinker and explore with their own identities

3. “Geeking out” allows students to learn more about an area of interest with like-minded people

D. Ability to Research and Keep Up with Current Events

1. European teens use the internet to find out current events

2. European teens also use the internet to learn about public transport

3. After learning about current events, European teens connect with international contacts

III. CONCLUSION:

Adolescent use of the internet is not harmful. The assumption that the internet turns teenagers into mindless and hermit-like zombies is incorrect—many use it for social change, interaction, research and as a tool to better understand themselves.

The Positive Side of Adolescents Using the Internet

Overly concerned parents and like-minded reporters believe that adolescent use of the internet is dangerous, harmful and turns teens into zombies. In reality, adolescent use of the internet is not harmful, like so many older people think. In fact, it could be one of the only means with which teens can communicate in a way that makes them feel comfortable. Teenagers use the internet as a means of expressing themselves in a wide variety of ways which makes them feel at ease with their peers. Many adolescents use the internet to try to improve their world. Others are looking for information and help, while many use it to socialize with friends in a realm that they understand. Others use it to research and keep up with current events.

Many teens are not the apathetic, internet-addicted hermits that pundits and parents would have the world believe. Several of them have tried to improve their own lives and enrich the lives around them by using the strongest tool at their disposal—the internet. One of those teens is Benjamin O’Keefe. According to the Huffington Post article Young People Who Used the Internet to Do Major Good, O’Keefe was outraged by Abercrombie & Fitch’s CEO Michael Jeffries’ insensitive remarks about who should wear his A&F brand (only good looking “cool kids”). O’Keefe decided to do something about it. He wrote a blog post for the Huffington Post and began a Change.org petition asking consumers to boycott A&F until the company issued an apology. O’Keefe’s petition received over 74,000 signatures and got him into a meeting with A&F executives to encourage inclusion for all kids (2013). Another group of teens, with the same desire as O’Keefe to change the world and help those around them, created Minddrive. Minddrive is a non-profit organization that helps to inspire at-risk teens to learn skills they wouldn’t normally learning in the classroom. According to the video on the Huffington Post’s article, Minddrive teaches teens in a hands-on setting how to apply theoretical math and science to building a project: in this case, an electric car that is powered by social media. Every re-Tweet on Twitter, Like on Facebook and picture on Instagram help to power the electric car on its maiden voyage from Kansas City to Washington, D.C. Many of the students interviewed in the video say that Minddrive has changed their opinion of their self-worth and their abilities as learners and achievers. The doors that the internet can open for teens who feel that they can make their own world and the world around them a better place are immeasurable, and far more helpful than the media would lead readers to believe (2013).

Along with opening doors to help change their world and self-worth, the internet provides a place for teens that may not have a strong voice in a non-social media related world (the real world). According to Michele Ybarra, MPH, Ph.D., on Psychology Today, many parents do not know how to relate to their children or even talk to them about a subject they consider awkward (2013). Not only are there mixed and reserved feelings in the home, but the political firestorm surrounding sex education for teens makes it nearly impossible for young people to get a hold of plain and simple facts about sexual health and education. For teenagers who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (LGB), the ability to seek out real-world help is nearly impossible - especially with the attached stigma and findings that this minority group are more likely to be a target of hate crimes. A recent study, according to Ybarra, states that 12 percent of LGB youth thought that their schools represented non-traditional sex in a negative light and that two in three LGB teens felt that most of the material covered in sex education class was not relevant to them whatsoever. Another study’s findings state that most LGB youths preferred to use the internet for researching sex questions because it was private and because these teens felt they had no one to talk to in person about such questions (2013). The internet, for these teens, is a safe place to ask questions about sexual health and explore who they are and who they are becoming.

Exploring identity is important for teens, as they are still discovering who they are and who they want to be. According to research scientist Mizuko Ito, the internet is safer than the media likes to portray and helps teens acquire basic computer literacy and technological skills they might not receive at school (Lewin, 2008). Not only this but in the modern world, most business and interaction is done through the internet; teens just happen to be faster at adapting to the change than adults. The internet allows teens to “geek out”, to study one particular subject intensely with peers who care about the same subject. This is important for teens who may not have real-life friends who are interested in the same subjects that those teens might be. Teens use the internet to safely socialize with their friends, carving out an identity in a more confident way on the internet than they might in the real world (2008).

But the internet is about more than just socializing for teens. According to Jack Loechner, at the Center for Media Research, teens in Europe, like their counterparts in America, use the internet for research. Many of them also use the internet to keep up with current events and what’s happening in their world (2013). Not just a place for asking research questions or reading the news, teens use the internet as a tool to research public transportation systems, as well. Of course, they use the internet to keep in touch with their contacts, but not just the friends they see at school. Teens can use the internet to connect with or get acquainted with their international counterparts (2013).

The media push that the internet is a dangerous place for adolescents doesn’t address the entire scope of teen use of the internet. Many teens do good deeds for others and try and change the world in a positive way. Others need the internet to ask questions and learn about their own developing identity, while others connect with friends. The internet is not a place to demonize—in fact, it is a realm that adolescents understand, can control, and feels safe to them.

References

Lewin, Tamar. (2008). Teenagers’ internet socializing not a bad thing. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/us/20internet.html?_r=0

Loechner, Jack. (2013). Teens use internet to “…look things up.” Research Now. Retrieved from http://www.researchnow.com/en-US/PressAndEvents/InTheNews/2013/march/teens-use-internet-to-look-things-up.aspx

Staff blogger. (2013). Teens and social media: Young people who used the internet to do major good. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/26/teens-using-social-media_n_3505564.html

Staff blogger. (2012). The conscientious teen’s guide to using the internet for good. Social Media Week. Retrieved from http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/2012/02/16/the-conscientious-teens-guide-to-using-the-internet-for-good/#.UmYpOBB9tso

Ybarra, Michele. (2013). The internet: A sex education class for teens. Psychology Today. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/connected/201308/the-internet-sex-education-class-teens