Today, I watched a video entitled "Growing Up Online." Directed by Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio on the effect of the internet on the kids of today. The internet or dubbed the "New Wild West" has drawn in kids left and right and given them a place where they can be someone else. However, this new liberty can not be controlled by anyone and therefore whatever you do online is not considered the most vile thing you can do, but in fact it is possibly one of the most vile places you can say things about yourself. Online, you don't technically have to describe yourself, in fact, you can take on an entire other persona. One girl named Jessica was tired of being a nobody and not being noticed, so she decided to do something about it. She has a persona on myspace named Autumn Endows where she basically poses as a Gothic model that looks 18 whereas in real life she actually was 14. This is one of the several variables that the internet has taken affect on the younger generation of today. Socializing has become huge today and with the help with such websites like myspace and Facebook, teenagers have created an addiction to it and can't help talking to everyone they know. But that doesn't mean that they only talk to just their friends, there are other people on the internet like stalkers and sexual solicitors who pray on younger people who surf the web. But sexual crimes are not the only crimes that can happen on the internet, there is a whole new level of bullying that happens online. a thirteen year old named Ryan Halligan was cyber bullied and killed himself in October of 2003. There are several more cases today similar to this one.
I am aware that there are those kinds of people that do that to people or to themselves, I know some myself. I think that the kids who were part of the make the internet safe organization are on the right path but they in my opinion will only provoke more people for them to be harassed or amazed by. There will always be that Achilles heel on the internet. I use the internet mostly for social use as well as downloading music and videos, I have grown a tolerance towards people who do in fact pray on those who try to feel powerful online by telling others to kill themselves. I've surfed the internet long enough to know what to expect if I go to certain websites, I just don't let such incompetence get to me and neither do I try to fight back, it's useless. Besides that, I have grown even more tolerant and yet I adapt with the evolution of technology just like everyone else who is in the same position as me, I do not mind, I find it to be more of a positive thing. As the days roll by, the internet matures into a greater power where people can literally access anything if they want to, we just live in a society where we feel free. Personally, I enjoy this fact where people can do more things than they could ever imagine a decade ago. It just goes to show how powerful the human mind can be and how much it can accomplish in a small period of time.
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
No comments:
Post a Comment