"Growing Up Online"

“Growing Up Online” was a very accurate portrayal of how young people are obsessed with the websites like MySpace and Facebook. Many teenagers have an exceptional amount of time on their hands, so their free time is spent on the computer. There are many things to do such as look at pictures, post comments, sent messages, do quizzes, and post information about yourself. Many people live a sort of double life because of the way you can portray yourself differently.
Many parents are afraid of predators and stalkers that many young people can attract online. Many young girls post up sexual pictures of themselves, which inevitably causes males to become interested and sometimes ask to meet them. There are a great number of young adults that would say that they would just ignore messages and comments that are predatory, but there are always the select few people who are not so smart. It is very dangerous to have information about where you live, but most people just say their hometown (which can still be dangerous). One mother even tried to monitor her children’s use of the computer by having it in the open and not in their rooms, but they still would close out on the screen when she would come around.
Advertising is massively used all throughout these websites. On every single page you will see advertisements on the sidebars and sometimes pop-ups come up. On Myspace sometimes a random person will comment on your page, but it is an advertisement for some product. I personally got fed up with that website when it began to be flooded with too many advertisements and it was extremely annoying. Facebook is okay, but it is always advertising for ways to be slimmer and more fit.
There is a lot of negativity when it comes to comments and pictures because people can comment really mean and nasty things that hurt one another. It is easy to just delete something that is written, but if you do not get to a computer fast enough, it may be too late and everyone will see it. One friend of mine had that happen to her recently, but she goes on Facebook every 10 minutes so she caught it and deleted it before many people could see the comment.
Overall, people need to be more aware of what they are putting on the web, especially since it can affect your job in the future. There are ways to get onto a website, and you don’t even know if your pictures and information truly is deleted. Someone can steal what you have and easily publish it somewhere else. Websites need to be monitored more carefully and parents should be more wary about letting their children spend a lot of time on the computer.