"Growing up online"

In "Growing up on line" a video created by Rachel Dretzin and John Maggio, Frontline takes us into the very public private world that todays youth are creating. Its about a 60 minute look at how the internet affects kids,family,friends and complete strangers. As the announcer states "they are the first generation to come of age on the internet, Immersed in a virtual world, outside the reach of their parents". A teen named Greg's view is that "you need to have the internet on to talk to your friends because everybody uses it". Clay another young man states " It's just addicting,I can go on for hours". they've created their own virtual society, Its a world largely hidden from parents and teachers. Brook a freshman thinks " You can be more crazy online because there's no one watching to see what your actually doing". On a friday night, 6 friends are having a party. They've set up camp in a basement rec room, with desktop computers, high definition monitors and an excess amount of caffeine. Within minutes, they're locked in battle. Some 90% of teenagers are online, a number that is still growing, as the narrator suggests " for teenagers, the internet is an outlet for self expression, a place to complain about adults and a means to connect with each other". As Anne Collier,Author, myspace unraveled suggests "It's not going away. It's not a passing fad.And nobody's really in charge" "It's really hard to control what our kids are doing online. What we have here is kind of a new wild west, nobody's in charge". Kids are doing all kinds of crazy things to just be noticed and a select few are using the web in a respectable responsible way to reach out to their friends. C.J. Pascoe, PH.D, digital youth project,UC Berkley thinks "It's just this huge shift in which the internet and the digital world was something that belonged to adults, now it's something that is the province of teenagers. So there's a prolification of pictures and videos and them living their lives, in essence, online". With that said, Dana Boyd, Harvard Berkman CTR. for the Internet & Society adds on by saying "This generation that sees online not as a seperate place you go but as just a sort of continuation of their excistence. It's socialization> It's learning about life". Even in schools it's fast becoming a problem, Teachers are trying to figure out how to reach this online generation. "we almost have to become entertainers" Social Studies teacher Steve Maher tells FRONTLINE "They consume so much media. We have to cut through that cloud of information around them, cut through that media, and capture their attention".