Adolescents and Cyberspace Essay Example for Free

Adolescents and Cyberspace EssayAbstractThe Internet has a vast pass over of benefit in our lives. It is the window that opens onto the world and shows us everything that is happening well-nigh us. Although it is meant to help and support our needs, enrich our social lives and expand our civic connections, it has non been passing game so farther in this look. A lot of research is showing that the heavy use of cyberspace is isolating people form the world around them. Knowing that adolescents are pass offing a great deal of their time in cyberspace, this article will examine the things they miss when they are left to uprise up in it. Leaving Adolescents Grow Up in CyberspaceThe question on whether leaving adolescents grow up in cyberspace is honest or not has long been controversial. When a lot agree that cyberspace has made their life easier, many others believe the opposite. Everything has office effects, which might concord great impact on its user if not handled pro perly. It seems that adolescents, out of all other people, all absent a lot when their parents are letting them grow up in cyberspace.Everything in this advanced world is possible these days, thats why we find students who study on the Internet in hybrid or online courses. Traditionally, tallying has been fictive to take place in a classroom or face-to-face environment where the instructor and students are physically to liveher, solely not all students learn the same way and therefore the traditional approach is not ideal for all students (Young, 2007). This is true, but a lot of students are finding it difficult to make do with the new and modern way of learning, where the instructor lectures them online.Some students say-Instructor feedback tend to be slow-I didnt feel as part of the class-You cant utter your thoughts and let others hear your ideas-Too many technical problems-Unreliable Internet connections from my Internet service provider-You also lose the personal teacher student relationship-No way to read body language-With on-line classes, it is hard to be able to get the whole personal thing-You dont get to see the professor or class members face-to-face-It takes more time to e-mail or post a question on the discussion board and wait for a resolution (Students Positive and Negative Experience in Hybrid and Online Classes, 2007, page). Moreover, Irvine(2004) states Assignments are dispersed online. Students are much more likely to do research online than use a library. And even class handouts become gone the way of the Web, posted on electronic bulletin boards for downloading after class(p.31A).So, if the Internet connection went off, students wouldnt be able to gallop their work. When the computer server in Emory University went down for a few hours one evening, a lot of people were at loose ends, they couldnt to their homework (Sridharan, 2004). This is how adolescents are missing the more active and efficient way of learning because of cyber space, thus suffering from a lot of educational and studying problems they are better off without. looking for at the world today would make us realize how much we miss security. And since adolescents are widely using cyberspace, they are the most likely to get affected by what it generates. A lot of teenagers have no problem in making friends, of whom theyve never seen. In fact, they see that it is one of the adjudicates of using the Internet. yet they never realize how dangerous it could be to meet someone you havent actually seen. The Internet allows people to communicate with people who are different from them, people in another country or kids at school they dont talk to. This access of information is so easy, but of course there is a dark side to having such broad access it gives identity thieves and sexual predators a new place to look for victims (Stern, 2004). Also, the Internet has shaped the way adolescents work, live, and relax.It has even created new slipway for them to express themselves which might be liberating and fun but can also become a forum for of pettiness and criminal exploitation (Irvine, 2004). Furthermore, Ian and Walder (2005) say As we have become dependent on the Internet, as the network of networks, so we have become vulnerable to criminal and terrorist networks that use cyberspace as a means to undermine and circumvent state control.Protecting against those that wish to attackthe integrity, confidentiality and availability of systems and data they process, is primarily an issue of implementing appropriate security measures. (page) The main purpose for this worry is because adolescents are unaware of what criminals might do to take advantage of people who want to be friendly, allowing them to threaten the countrys and societys safety. In this way letting them spend too much time in cyberspace is making them loose a lot of security which puts them in dangerous problems later on.We must not forget the most important consequence of growing up in cyberspace lack of social life and relationships. Sitting in front of the admonisher for several continuous hours, without even noticing how time flies by quickly, makes us never want to get off the chair. As many adolescents are maintenance in realistic communities, their only concern is making friends online. Ten years ago, social theorists were suggesting that the Internet would revolutionize social relationships (Carter Denise M., 2004). Now, the Internet has come a far distance that kids and teens cant live without it people can find a job without leaving their desks, shop online without going to the mall and communicate with others without meeting face-to-face by e-mails, online chat rooms and instant messages.So, all the activities that were done with family and friends, are being done alone on the Internet. As a result, such activities have proved to be more isolating than watching television, which friends and family often do in groups, and the time spe nt with them is decreasing a lot in the front man of the Web. In addition, teens are preferring not to go out for walks or hang out with friends because they are busy in their own larger world. Know it or not, youngsters who are allowing time online to replace face-to-face interaction are being isolated from the real world and are being trapped in the virtual world (Staples, 2004).Seemingly, Teenagers who spend much of their lives hunched over computer screens miss the socializing, the real world experience that would allow them to leave adolescence behind and grow into adulthood. These brisk experiences, like much else, are simply not available in a virtual form (Staples, 2004, p.A29). All of this is breaking the social relationships and is bringing up adults that dont know how to deal with others because they never had the chance to sit and talk face-to-face.A lot of people fear of not being able to go with the flux who ever doesnt have access to cyberspace doesnt have a life. But this isnt proved to be completely true since its not being used in the best and efficient way. Of course its the parents job to lead them to the right track they should always keep them under high supervision. To be more specific, parents should encourage them to have a real life, make real friends, go to real places and spend quality time with family. This doesnt mean getting rid of this great technology but not letting it control them. Indeed, adolescents are missing a lot of the real world and its content, and arent aware of the circumstances and the costs of growing up in cyberspace.ReferencesCarter Denise, M.(2004, December).Living in Virtual Communities Making Friends Online.Journal of Urban Technology 11(3), 109-125.Retrieved promenade 19, 2008, from EBSCO Host database.El Mansour, B. Mupinga, D.M.(2007, March).Students Positive and Negative Experiences in Hybrid and Online Classes.College Student Journal 41(1), 242-248.Retrieved March 19, 2008, from EBSCO Host databas e.Ian Walder.(2005, April).Crime and Security in Cyberspace.Cambridge Review of International Affairs 11(3), 109-125.Retrieved March 19, 2008, from EBSCO Host database.Irvine, M.(2004, December 5).Youths Adopt, Drive Technology Advances.Fort Worth Star-Telegram, p.31A.Staples, B.(2004, May 29).What Adolescents Miss When We allow Them Grow Up in Cyberspace.New York Times, p.A24.