Teenage Internet Dependency Essay Example for Free

Teenage Internet Dependency Essay Teenagers are too Dependent on the Internet As the internet has become very popular among teenagers over the past few years, there have been many social impacts affecting the stakeholders of the issue. Teenagers use the internet for various reasons: to do research for homework or a project, to socialize with friends, and to keep up with the latest movies, music, and video games. The internet allows teens to be receptive to many resources that would not be available to them without the internet. Although some aspects of teens using the internet may be favorable and beneficial, many are causing laziness and under-developed social skills. The other stakeholders of the issue are the parents and teachers of these students. Parents are concerned that their children may be being stalked or predated and feel as if their children are becoming more distant from their family because of the significant amount they are spending on the internet. Teachers also must deal with their students having the resources to cheat by using the internet to give them the answers. The growing teenage dependency on the internet has both a negative and positive impact on the world. Some people may say that teens are not too dependent on the internet. Teenagers use to internet to complete homework, projects, and study for tests because of all the resources available. The internet provides a large collection of online books, newspapers, and magazines, allowing the teenage students to gain more knowledge about their school work and save them time. For example, when a student has an exceptional amount of homework and does not have enough time to complete his reading for that night, the website SparkNotes provides summaries, characterizations, and other important literary devices that allow the student to understand the novel when short of time. Another way that teens are not too dependent on the internet is seen through the social interactions they are able to make via social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. These sites allow teenagers to keep in touch with their fellow classmates and friends in a quick and easy way. They also allow students to share their personal lives with people they otherwise would not interact with, allowing them to make more friends and develop better relationships. For example, a teenager can create a whole new personality through the internet, giving him more confidence and a higher self esteem due to the positive reactions they are receiving through other internet users. The reasons for teens not being too dependent on the internet, allowing them more resources for school and more opportunities to interact socially with friends and peers, are not strong enough to override the reasons as to why teenagers are too dependent on the internet. This is because students have several other facilities that provide them with sufficient information, such as the library, museums, and bookstores. Teens also may be able to more easily communicate with friends through the use of social networking sites and resulting in higher confidence, although, this affects the way teens interact with other people because they can be totally different people via the internet. Teenagers are too dependent on the internet. It allows them to become easily distracted from their work, and lessens their face-to-face social skills. As a student may have the original intention of finishing his homework on the computer, the temptations to log on to MySpace or Facebook are too high, therefore the student visits those sites instead, causing them to deviate from their work. This causes more teens to get behind in school because of their lack of effort due to the internet’s capabilities. For example, a student may tell his parents he is using the computer to work on homework, but rather he is using it to communicate with his friends through a social networking site or online video game; this slows down the student’s work ethic because of the distractions it provides. Another reason that students are too dependent on the internet relates to physical appearance and self-esteem. There are many different sites on the internet that provide teens with information regarding dangerous groups and activities. For example, if a girl has anorexia, she is able to access online forums for anorexics that encourages dangerous behavior that harms the human body. For these two main reasons, teenagers are too dependent on the internet. The stakeholders of the issue, regarding whether or not teenagers are too dependent on the internet, allow one to examine the advantages and disadvantages of increasing internet use. The stakeholders’ reactions are more against teens using the internet so excessively than they are in favor of teens using the internet. Since more teens are becoming more dependent on the internet, they are putting themselves in harm’s way of predators and health/mental issues, they are distancing themselves from their families, and they are becoming more accustomed to communicating with their friends through social networking sites rather than face-to-face contact. The reasons supporting the idea that teens are not too dependent on the internet offer other options to teens using the internet, weakening the argument. Therefore, teenagers are too dependent on the internet.