After completing a quiz about digital media and digital life, I was actually surprised to see how many teens say they use privacy settings to protect their information, to be completely honest, it's something that I did not expect. I know many people who don't use their privacy settings or don't even realize that they are there, so to see that four out of five teenagers use these settings was sadly surprising.
I was also slightly surprised to see that one half of kids ages 11-18 say that they feel like a different person when they are online. I can understand what they mean and why they feel that way, but I never realized how big that percentage was.
Some of statistics I learned in the quiz are very different to the way I use digital media in my life. I do not send more than a 100 texts every single day, I have never ever received or sent anything sexual and I don't think all my friends share too much information online, maybe a couple, but not all of them.The rest of these statistics though I can relate to. I keep my phone by my bed, I have made my own creations and put them online for people to see, and I use my privacy settings.
The digital media that I use the most would probably be my Ipod, because I listen to music a lot and that is the only device I have music on, but I also use my cellphone for when I message people on Facebook and just text. What I use the least is probably the family laptop that we have at home. I used to use it more than I probably should have, and I still do when I am typing up a story, but ever since I got my own tablet I stopped using it as much.
The Digital World
There are many up's and down's when you think about this generation and how we have and are growing up in a digital world. One good thing, to me anyway, is that it makes it much easier to display things that I wrote and pictures that I've taken. Things that I am proud of and want people to see just for the fact that it's original and mine, I don't care if they don't like it. If there was no internet, it would be a little harder to get things out there. I would have to leave the house for one thing, and that's something that my antisocial self doesn't like doing sometimes. The internet makes this a much more easier and efficient thing to do! A downside however, though ironically, is that I don't get outside enough. I lose touch in people, not that I stop talking to them, but I forget what it's like to talk to people face to face. You get used to looking at a screen, and that's a bad thing. Digital social skills are only helpful to an extent, and if you get so used to watching a screen and typing on a keyboard instead of hearing the words come out of your mouth, that can have a larger affect on your life than you may first think.
The internet has however improved some of my relationships with people, and have broadened my horizons I guess you could say. I know what I just said was all negative and screaming, "Talking online is bad! You will fall in love with the screen and not the person behind it!", but ignore all that! It's true though, but ignore it for this paragraph only.
With the use of the internet, I have met people oceans away and still talk to them now and then, and I have also gotten to know people a lot better. People who I probably would never approach and start talking to in the halls or on the street. In that way, the internet is a wonderful thing that does connect people, but it's losing that connection that worries me and others. As soon as you stop typing back and forth, you can tend to forget. It's a connection, yes, but it's not the same. It's not as deep and ever lasting as when you talk face to face over a pot of coffee. The internet can connect (I have used that word way too many times) people and introduce people, but if that isn't brought over to the physical world, that connection can be easily lost and not many would even care, and that's part of the problem when it comes to society as a whole.
Our society is (mostly, some people will be offended but no offence intended) growing into a brain-washed group of Google programmed bodies. When we don't know something, we just Google it without even attempting to figure it out. We shorten words because it "takes too long" to type the whole thing out. We put things online without a thought about the consequences. We think that online isn't real, that what we say and what we do will just disappear, and no one will think about it after you shut the phone off or close the tab. Well that's a lie. These are all things that shouldn't even be considered let alone fact, and there are countless more. We are a society that claims to be a strong and connected one, but has anyone ever actually looked outside the window instead of the digital one and looked?
What I do on the internet is most likely very different than what my fellow peers in this class do. I write online. I am part of a website called Wattpad and I have 13 books n there. Most of them are not complete or are so terrible I should really take them down, but still! They are there. They are mine. People read them and that makes it extraordinary. I have one book of poems that has over six thousand reads and numerous votes, and it's definitely a way that has connected me with people. Complete strangers on this site have complimented and asked for help on their stories and they are not strangers any more. The internet is a way to connect and evolve in ways that were once not thought possible, but to disconnect to get a better connection is something that should be taken into consideration.
I was also slightly surprised to see that one half of kids ages 11-18 say that they feel like a different person when they are online. I can understand what they mean and why they feel that way, but I never realized how big that percentage was.
Some of statistics I learned in the quiz are very different to the way I use digital media in my life. I do not send more than a 100 texts every single day, I have never ever received or sent anything sexual and I don't think all my friends share too much information online, maybe a couple, but not all of them.The rest of these statistics though I can relate to. I keep my phone by my bed, I have made my own creations and put them online for people to see, and I use my privacy settings.
The digital media that I use the most would probably be my Ipod, because I listen to music a lot and that is the only device I have music on, but I also use my cellphone for when I message people on Facebook and just text. What I use the least is probably the family laptop that we have at home. I used to use it more than I probably should have, and I still do when I am typing up a story, but ever since I got my own tablet I stopped using it as much.
The Digital World
There are many up's and down's when you think about this generation and how we have and are growing up in a digital world. One good thing, to me anyway, is that it makes it much easier to display things that I wrote and pictures that I've taken. Things that I am proud of and want people to see just for the fact that it's original and mine, I don't care if they don't like it. If there was no internet, it would be a little harder to get things out there. I would have to leave the house for one thing, and that's something that my antisocial self doesn't like doing sometimes. The internet makes this a much more easier and efficient thing to do! A downside however, though ironically, is that I don't get outside enough. I lose touch in people, not that I stop talking to them, but I forget what it's like to talk to people face to face. You get used to looking at a screen, and that's a bad thing. Digital social skills are only helpful to an extent, and if you get so used to watching a screen and typing on a keyboard instead of hearing the words come out of your mouth, that can have a larger affect on your life than you may first think.
The internet has however improved some of my relationships with people, and have broadened my horizons I guess you could say. I know what I just said was all negative and screaming, "Talking online is bad! You will fall in love with the screen and not the person behind it!", but ignore all that! It's true though, but ignore it for this paragraph only.
With the use of the internet, I have met people oceans away and still talk to them now and then, and I have also gotten to know people a lot better. People who I probably would never approach and start talking to in the halls or on the street. In that way, the internet is a wonderful thing that does connect people, but it's losing that connection that worries me and others. As soon as you stop typing back and forth, you can tend to forget. It's a connection, yes, but it's not the same. It's not as deep and ever lasting as when you talk face to face over a pot of coffee. The internet can connect (I have used that word way too many times) people and introduce people, but if that isn't brought over to the physical world, that connection can be easily lost and not many would even care, and that's part of the problem when it comes to society as a whole.
Our society is (mostly, some people will be offended but no offence intended) growing into a brain-washed group of Google programmed bodies. When we don't know something, we just Google it without even attempting to figure it out. We shorten words because it "takes too long" to type the whole thing out. We put things online without a thought about the consequences. We think that online isn't real, that what we say and what we do will just disappear, and no one will think about it after you shut the phone off or close the tab. Well that's a lie. These are all things that shouldn't even be considered let alone fact, and there are countless more. We are a society that claims to be a strong and connected one, but has anyone ever actually looked outside the window instead of the digital one and looked?
What I do on the internet is most likely very different than what my fellow peers in this class do. I write online. I am part of a website called Wattpad and I have 13 books n there. Most of them are not complete or are so terrible I should really take them down, but still! They are there. They are mine. People read them and that makes it extraordinary. I have one book of poems that has over six thousand reads and numerous votes, and it's definitely a way that has connected me with people. Complete strangers on this site have complimented and asked for help on their stories and they are not strangers any more. The internet is a way to connect and evolve in ways that were once not thought possible, but to disconnect to get a better connection is something that should be taken into consideration.
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