Generation Digital!!

Today's generation--my generation--is obsessed with media. If it isn't iPhones, iPods, or texting constantly, people are online emailing and checking facebook as if it was as necessary as eating or breathing. Admittedly, I don't feel "connected" to the planet in the morning unless I've at least checked my email, and try to think up a good reason why I shouldn't check my facebook :P

However, as we discussed in class this morning, my generation is sort of an odd generation. Born in the late 80s to very early 90s, my generation still has a vague remembrance of what the world was like without cellphones, iPods, or the internet. I can still remember the first time I ever sent an email.

My generation is the first generation to actually grow up with media access--albeit limited access in some cases. Being the first generation to grow up with this new media, obviously there is much concern by parents about what will happen to this 'digital generation.'

Parental concerns are, in most cases, justly founded. Who wants their little girl to be sent obscene pictures? Who wants their little boy to receive requests for his address from perverted strangers? Who wants their teens to be exposed to the vileness of pornography?

However, there is a gentle balance to be observed (as with all matters of life--if you eat too much, you'll die, but if you don't eat enough, you'll die too!) Just because the internet is new, does not mean that it is necessarily evil--and just because your children have the ability to send emails does not mean that they will be targeted by perverts.

As we discussed in class this morning, there have been fears (some well-founded, others not) about every major addition to the media. However, the internet is the biggest, and most overwhelming addition that we have seen thus far (like the invention of the printing press, only bigger) and so parents have a right to be concerned about the morality of their children.

What they do with that concern--teach their children to use technology to their advantage, rather than letting it take advantage over them--is another matter entirely. And that topic is about parenting skills, not media.

Cheers!