“Among adolescents, the Internet has become indispensable for instrumental purposes such as school work and information gathering, as well as for communication purposes.”
This article discusses the use of internet for adolescents. It analyzes teen behavior to determine whether the amount of time that they spend on the internet is harmful to their emotional health and communication skills. The article concludes that the internet is good for emotional health because it gives kids that my otherwise be lonely, a form of communicating their feeling to someone else. The internet absolutely provides excellent ways to communicate with those that we may not otherwise keep in touch with such as family and friends who live far away, or even new friends that some may meet online. I can see how the internet would help people who like to stay in the house and do not want to visit with a person very much, would enable them to maintain communication with someone rather than sitting in their bedrooms by themselves. However, I was surprised that the article did not seem to conclude that this is harmful to their communication skills in a face to fact manner. My husband has a teenage family member who spends nearly all of her time on the internet, and I feel sure that this has made her very uncomfortable in social situations. However, I found this article to be very interesting, and I can absolutely see both sides of the argument regarding internet usage for adolescents.
Subrahmanyam, K., & Lin, G. (Winter 2007). Adolescents on the net: internet use and well-being.(Survey). Adolescence, 42, 168. p.659(19). Retrieved April 16, 2008, from Academic OneFile via Gale:http://find.galegroup.com.dml.regis.edu/itx/start.do?prodId=AONE.
1 comment:
I would have to agree that the internet has become an indespisible tool. I have two boys in high school that spend quite a bit of time on the internet. However AI do not feel that it is harmful to their communication skills. Both are very active in sports and activities. They also like to play interet games. Most of the games are being played online with friends from their football team or other kids from school. They also spend time on My space and use that as a study tool as well as communicating with relatives who are out of state. They are both monitered for the activities that they participate in online and are not given free reign of the internet. Many of the classes they take in high school are also suplimented online for their homework assignments.
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