In the video, Growing Up Online produced and directed by Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio, shows the stories of several students and how technology and the internet have affected their lives. The most popular websites, Myspace and Facebook, are having kids revolve their lives around it. They could spend hours on it and still not get off. As Anne Collier, author of Myspace Unraveled, stated, “They’re definitely more comfortable being public then we were; discretion, privacy, almost seem like a thing in the past”. Another student, Jessica Hunter, had an experience where she used the internet to create a new identity. Her new name, Autumn Edows, was reborn as a Goth artist and model, but was later disposed when her parents found out that she was posting up provocative pictures of herself in lingerie. Also, there is Sara’s story of how she used the internet to let herself out. In her own words she stated, “I can be 100% me.” Sara struggles with Anorexia and she used it help her tips and to encourage herself to keep going. Many students upload videos of themselves doing awful things. Fights, drinking, or partying are uploaded on Youtube. Evan Skinner, a parent of one of the students, Cam, found a video and the pictures of one event her son participated in. There were hundreds of kids that were drinking and doing preposterous things at a concert. She sent out an email to all the parents that their children participated in, and the results were appalling. And it has been said that the internet has created the biggest generation gap since the advent of rock and roll. One child suffered strongly because of it. John Halligan was in 7th grade he told his father he was being bullied, so his father taught him how to fight. He had so many online relationships that were affecting him horribly. People were cyber bullying him and then in October of 2003, he killed himself. John’s father feels he clearly made a mistake putting that computer in his son’s room. He states, "The computer and the Internet were not the cause of my son's suicide, but I believe they helped amplify and accelerate the hurt and the pain that he was trying to deal with that started in person, in the real world." But in the end, students and parents need to understand that the internet is something inevitable that we have to face.
The internet has greatly impacted our society today. I can’t think if a person who hasn’t used the internet, and because of this, many unfortunate and awful events have occurred. When I was around 13 I got my first Myspace profile. Immediately, I felt so mature and “cool” for finally getting one. Now all I needed was to make my page presentable. I had no idea that Myspace would soon become a large toll on my life. Months went by and I realized that I was spending huge amounts of time on the computer checking my Myspace page. When I needed to be working on homework, I would get on the computer instead and browse the web. As soon as I logged on, it would take hours for me to get off. Back then, I used to use Myspace as a way I could release tension, but that usually resulted in making conflicts. Fights would occur over the internet. Hideous words would be said to one another and it was known to be okay because it wasn’t in person. There are countless times where my friends and I would have trivial disputes over the internet. The internet, I believe has become this entire new dimension where people can live their lives at and you can do whatever you want and no one can say anything about it. You could post videos, pictures, blogs about yourself and the internet will be a willing listener. That’s what makes it so appealing. Today, I don’t spend as much time on the web as I used to. I do admit though that at times I do give in and spend too much time than necessary. Internet has affected children today, most people hear the awful things that result in it, but we need to realize that it’s an inevitable factor in this new generation and learn from the experiences so we can help prevent or aid the situation.
Welcome!
Welcome to our Eng 100 Blog “Conversations Beyond the Classroom”! The title of this blog refers to the community of active readers & collaborative learners we are creating by sharing our academic writing for Eng 100 with each other + a larger group of students, instructors, academics, and just about anybody who chooses to follow our blog! When you write and post your reader responses here (and, later, as you write your essays for the course), I encourage you to use this audience to conceptualize who you are writing for and, most important, how to communicate your ideas so that this group of academic readers and writers can easily follow your line of thinking. Think about it this way: What do you need to explain and articulate in order for the other bloggers to understand your response to the essays we’ve read in class? What does your audience need to know about those essays and the authors who wrote them? And how can you show your readers, in writing, which ideas you add to these “conversations” that take place in the texts we study?
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
As students of Eng 100, you will use this blog to begin conversations with other academic writers on campus (students and instructors alike). We become active readers of each other’s writing when we comment on posts here. And, best of all, we are using this space to share ideas! We encourage you to use this blog to further think through the topics and writing strategies you will be introduced to this quarter. As always, be sure to give credit to those people whose ideas you borrow for your own thinking and writing (you should do this in the blog by commenting on their post, but you will also be required to cite what you borrow from your peers/instructors if and when it winds up in your essays. More details on that later…).
Finally, keep in mind that writing to and for this audience is a good way to prepare for the panel of readers (faculty at WCC) who will be reading and assessing your writing portfolio at the end of the quarter. We hope that as a large group of active readers, we can better prepare each other for this experience. But, in the meantime, let’s have fun with it! I am really excited see how far we can take this together!
--Mary Hammerbeck, Instructor of Eng 100
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