“Growing up Online” is a video documentary made by Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio, this video describes the way online media and resources are affecting the lives of teens and their parents today. The documentary describes the most popular web pages on the Internet being Myspace and Facebook, teens are very much involved in these two pages because of numerous reasons such as how they can easily communicate with their friends or new people around the globe, and how they can be themselves and post anything they want. One of the parents interviewed in the video described web pages like Myspace and Facebook as “an outlet of expression” or a place to complain and talk about it. The fact that no one is in charge of what is expressed over the internet gives those teens a large freedom. Jessica Hunter, a Female teenager that was interviewed for this video, talks about her story in how she felt unwelcomed in the real world outside of the computer, how she was always left out and made fun of. She said that she was ignored by her peers until she found herself a way into the Internet that made her popular by posting pictures of herself and making herself into a completely different person. She says, “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.” In a way, she did become famous, people recognized her and all over the country there were people commenting on how beautiful she was, she was like a model. This example of Hunter brings out one of the points that the video makes about how web pages can become you, they have your personality. It was portrayed that because kids think they are safe at their house gives them a chance to do whatever they want over the Internet. Teenagers interviewed tell how different the Internet is in comparison to talking to the person’s face, they like the fact that they have their own world there, parents however disagree. The parents that were interviewed describe how unhealthy they think the Internet is, they describe it as something that is non-stop, they notice that kids never take a break from it, their unwilling to be unconnected from technology for more than an hour. Parents said that so much media is consumed that it may be a bad thing whether its how learning is more difficult for students to give their own answers and find their own meanings or how it may cause eating disorders and suicides because of how easy it is to consume information. Most parents and teens disagreed in this documentary about the life on the Internet, but I think that no one is right or wrong.
My life has been affected by the Internet in many unique great ways in my opinion. I have become friends and have met so many great people through Facebook and Youtube, I think that the Internet is a wonderful way to stay connected and keep up with people’s everyday lives; it has also made it so much easier to talk to one another and keep in touch. Some friends that I had when I was younger and had moved away had also created a Facebook page and I was able to find them on there and reconnect with them. I love the fact that technology has become so much easier to stay connected with my peers and to learn more about people who I would not have learned outside the computer. I believe that people are more open to discussion over the Internet more than they are face to face; when my friend was going through some extreme tough times in life, I was able to guide and help my friend through it by talking it over on an instant chat messenger. We talked into such depth that never would have been expressed in person. The Internet brought us closer together because we were able to share more personal experiences with each other. I found that the Internet has gained my intelligence, since it has become so much faster and simpler to look up information online; I am able to take in more at once. Just the other day my mom had to find some quick information to fix a quick problem on my car, all she had to do was Google it and there it was, only ten seconds whereas if the Internet did not exists she would have had to drive all the way down to the library to check out a book or get ahold of someone who knew the answer to her question thus taking up way more time than it should. As for the media, I do have to admit that it can be harsh; looking at pictures of beautiful models and having constant information thrown at my face on how to be thinner or how to become more beautiful does sometimes bring me down. Internet has its advantages and disadvantages, but then again, so does everything else in the world.
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
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