The last decade has seen the Internet becoming a more important resource in all types of different areas of life. From business to entertainment, the World Wide Web now rules above all else. But does this also mean that a generation of children are being raised online?
I have gone from spending a few hours a week on the Internet five years ago, to maybe six to eight hours a day currently. The biggest reason for that is my job being Internet based, but there is also the time I spend on social networks such as MySpace and Facebook, on Wikipedia finding out lots of useless information, and YouTube to see stupid, and sometimes newsworthy videos.
This current generation of children probably aren’t working online, which means they spend all of their time on the sites I previously mentioned, as well as various forums and discussion groups. But is that actually healthy? Particularly when it’s clear that a large percentage of kids have personal access to the Internet, with little or no monitoring done on what they see.
According to The Daily Mail, many under-16s spend more than 20 hours a week surfing the Web. And this consequently means that a large proportion have been exposed to things parents may not be very happy with.
It seems that in this day and age, Facebook and MySpace are the new mummy and daddy, and are effectively in charge of what children can and can’t see and do.
Social networks such as these encourage people to make friends, and prepare them for the adult world by exposing them to grown up subject matters.
Taking this analogy onwards, how do other Web phenomenons fit in to the new family unit?
Google is the all seeing elder, who you go to for advice and information. The problem is, the brain is going slightly, and so may send you off down a path you really didn’t want to go.
YouTube is the leery uncle, who constantly wants to show you something slightly risqué, or tell you a dirty joke or two.
Wikipedia is the knowledgeable aunt who has lots of facts and figures at her fingertips. Unfortunately not all of it is true, and you’ll have to filter the crap from the good yourself.
All joking aside, this generation is certainly the first to be completely devoted to the Internet. I now communicate with my 7 year old niece via email, which just doesn’t seem right somehow.
I’m glad youngsters are brought up to be well versed in new technologies, but when that supersedes parenting, and morals are learnt online instead of in the home, I think we may have a problem.
Source: http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/03/24/children-being-raised-online-facebook-myspace-are-new-parents/ by DAVE PARRACK
