The world is, indeed, becoming a smaller place, even though it seems to be getting so very big in many ways with greater populations, larger towns, and increasing technologies. It is technology itself that helps the world seem like it's shrinking.
Many of the social sites (Facebook, MySpace, Yearbook, Yahoo360, Xanga), criticized a lot lately, are actually the same mediums that allow the children of today to remain connected with their friends from high school, college, and other activities they belong to.
These connections are so much more effective, so much better than those adults (like myself) who weren't raised in the computer world as the teens and children of today have been. They are accustomed to using technology on a daily basis.
Slowly but surely, the computer developments began in the mid-1980’s, with Bill Gates taking the leap in the software design and development and Michael Dell taking the leap in the hardware PC design and cloning.
While the “Big Blue” was already making some computers, they weren’t ready for mass production and affordable price structures at the time. Most of their designs were related to the big mainframes for commercial usage; companies that could afford the prices their computer systems demanded.
By the mid-1990’s, the Internet became more prolific, introducing the “Internet superhighway” and email concepts, which later led to more sophisticated usage and designs.
With the advancement of any technology, there is always a safety concern that someone is going to figure out how to break the code or perform a criminal act. This has prompted the creation of many of the high-tech laws on the books today. The speed of computer usage hasn't declined, but, rather, has taken on an increased social stance in today's society.
We are given a huge power of choices in modes of communication – emails, chats, and messages through social sites, instant messengers, all so much more beyond the choices we had to communicate in person, by phone, and with snail mail.
I am excited our youth has the opportunity to get into these social sites to keep in touch with their friends. Out of the 898 classmates I graduated from high school with, I can probably count on my hands the number of friends I have actually been able to keep in touch with, some of which were, strangely enough, reconnected through MySpace or Classmates.
I have encouraged my daughter to keep connected with her friends from middle and high schools, her co-workers from the places where she has worked, and the college she now attends. I see the big picture for her – having the possibility of being able to remain connected through these communities for the next 20, 30, even 50 years; enabling them to have bigger turnouts at their reunions, as well as remaining more closely connected to her old and new friends.
Article comments
1 - Lacy
I love social networking sites, for all of the reasons you mentioned - they have let me reconnect with old friends and make new ones, and be exposed to so much more - in terms of literature, movies, books, politics, everything - that I never would have found otherwise. I am happy that I'm involved in the community!
That said, it is important to remember that as with anything else online, it IS the internet and complete trust is not always advisable. Be careful with your personal information, don't give out sensitive information online, that kind of thing. The problem with online predators and solicitation is a very real one - the best thing I can think of in that situation IS for parents to become more internet-saavy, and learn about the kinds of sites that are popular, and that their kids go on, and talk to their kids about how to protect themselves. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has some great resources on this kind of thing in their Netsmartz pages, and they run the Cybertipline hotline, which allows you to report incidents of predator-type acts. Actually I'm more hopeful about MySpace, particularly, because they've partnered with this group, to increase safety awareness, etc. And now when you report innappropriate MySpace content, you get another link to report it right to NCMEC's hotline, too. I think that's a great idea.
As with anythign else, the internet and social networks are an evolving thing - so some of it will be learning as we go. But education about practices and resources regarding improving online safety benefits everyone, in the long run.
That book seems incredibly interesting, I'm going to have to check it out!