Dear Abby Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Dear Abby - Research Paper Example They are exposed to and benefit from computer literacy in schools, some students attend school exclusively online, and then, of course, there are the games, chat rooms, and other social media, like Facebook. However, there is one thing that a very dangerous, hurtful, and serious threats to the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of adolescents and teenagers every single day for some children who visit the internet; this occurrence is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a cruel child of our modern technological age. There are a number of actions that qualify as fitting under the umbrella of cyberbullying, including: 1. Sending unkind or threatening messages through emails or messaging boards. 2. Intentionally spreading untrue rumors onto the internet or text messages. 3. Posting inappropriate, offensive, or insulting photographs of a person onto a site with the sole purpose than to criticize them. 4. Taking another’s internet information and use it to invade the accounts in order to be unkind or may pretend to be someone else that you already know. 5. Participating in the â€Å"forwarding† of such messages is perpetuating the problem (Hatch, 2011). It is, essentially, the same type of degradation, insults, humiliations, and intended embarrassments that children experience in the physical world accept adapted to attacks via the internet. Fortunately there are practical and applicable answers for those concerns. There are a long list of pros and cons related to children, teenagers, and the internet. It can improve classroom learning, helps children keep up with the changing technology, can increase visual reasoning, and can, in some case, widen ones social circle. However, there are also, all of the negative, or, potentially, negative aspects, like loss of privacy, sedentary lifestyle, and the potential for cyberbullying ( Hatch, 2011). Individual people react differently than the next. For some children, the internet becomes their solace from the stressors in their lives, and is beneficial. The trick in this case is moderation. Like with anything there is such a thing as â€Å"too much of a good thing.† When the time spent on the internet begins to supersede the living of their life, which causes them to shy away from all things that are not involving the computer, then there be an issue or problem that needs addressing. It is the responsibility of parents to understand the difference and take the time to be involved in the things your teens, and, especially, adolescents and pre-teens are doing when online. One such proposed negative effect is that excessive internet time, in fact, causes loneliness or depression. This is a rather broad statement. There are so many different factors that contribute to feelings of loneliness and in the case of depression, hereditary and genetic predisposition elements that have absolutely nothing to do with computer usage (Dean , 2010). There is, also, theories that too much internet can cause users to become addicted. Again, like with depression, there are so many factors to consider, like psychological predispositions and hereditary elements, that would contribute it solely to their computer use is a rather impractical argument (Siegel-Itzkovich, 2011). Therefore, for the most part, computers cannot be blamed directly, especially with limited data to support such theories. Cyberbullying is something that is happening every day, in every school, and in every state in the