September 28th

Chapter 3 “Does Social Networking Kill?”

This chapter was a sad but also an interesting read. The chapter began talking about how new media is the current fear that can possibly alter our moral/cultural beliefs. Then the chapter went into the specifics on cyberbullying. The chapter spoke about how online media makes it difficult for children to be protected, and for parents to be able to protect their kids. I agree that it is a difficult threat to overcome however I also believe that if parents educate their children on the dangers and how to avoid them at an early age it could make a difference. Trying to tackle a problem as it is happing is much more difficult than if the problem was prepared for in advance. People don’t need to be terrified about the internet but they need to be smart about it and know that anything and everything that is put out there is really no longer private at all. However the book explains how with cyberbullying “the messages don’t die” and those individuals are often bullied offline and online, which poses the issue that not everything can be prepared for. Also people respond differently to sensitive topics or the feeling of no control over their environment. Not many people understand others sensitivity levels until the damage is irreversible. One part of the article that caught my eye was on pg. 50 it said that “internet addiction is a new form of mental illness.” This is something that I thought people kind of just made up as a term for people who couldn’t put their phone down or leave the computer, so it was interesting to see it used as an actual term. The part of the article by far that surprised me the most was that teens are the least likely age group to get cyberbullied/commit suicide and that number hasn’t increased. I had to re-read the line that said the ages between 45-54 where the most likely victims of suicide. The chapter also concludes that the issue of social networking really isn’t as bad as people portray it to be. This doesn’t mean it isn’t a problem. The internet has both pros and cons to it but when anyone focuses so much on just the extreme cases it is easy to believe there is a horrifying internet epidemic. People also need to be more sensitive overall and look at the possible consequences of their actions as someone’s life could really be on the line, all because of something someone thought of as a “joke”.