Growing up online, Daelynn Brown

“Growing up Online” is a documentary of young teenager’s lives and how technology has made a big difference made by John Maggio and Rachel Dretzin.  Whether it’s at school or at home, this documentary shows how social networking and constant use of technology has changed kids perspective on what “normal” socializing is these days compared to around 10 years ago.  This documentary shows how young kids use technology to make themselves confident, boost self esteem, and become another person they wish they could be.  A girl named Jessica Hunter struggles to be social at school and pursue friends; with that, she uses the internet and “inappropriate” photos of herself to gain friends and attention on the internet that she doesn’t get in her “real” life; she even uses a fake name, “Autumn Edows” on her internet pages.  “Autumn” tells frontline, “I didn’t feel like myself, but I liked the fact that I didn’t feel like myself.  I felt like someone completely different.  I felt like I was famous.”   From this, we can see that Frontline is trying to imply that the use of technology in teenagers lives has become overused and a way of escaping real life realities.

            If I was making a documentary on the use of technology in teenager’s lives, I would defiantly try to emphasize how it’s being overused to try and solve their problems.  A good example is what is stated above when Autumn tries to use the internet to fill the void of not having any friends.  Kids use technology to take the place of real life interaction and experiences; probably because they know no other way.  I mean, when kids are always online talking to their friends, it takes away from them actually being there in person talking to their friends.  It takes away from their actual childhood in a way.  Kids should be out doing things like playing sports or hanging with friends, not being on the internet all day chatting and facebooking. I feel like I see it in my little sister who is 14 now.  When she gets home from school she goes up to her room to do “homework” when she’s actually on facebook messing around.  She never invites friends over, and never goes places with her friends hardly at all.  To me, when I was that age, I used my phone to actually call people and talk, and make plans to hangout.  Now kids don’t even use a cell phone to call people, it’s mainly for texting or the internet.  I feel like this evolution to me is weird in a way because its call “social networking” but in the reality of it, we don’t completely socially interact with others like we do in person.