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May 9, 2006 02:36 PM
To Block or Not To Block
I can hardly contain my aggitation at our solution to tools like Myspace... just block them and schools will be safer. Instead of understanding the tools and thinking of productive uses of engagement, we bury our heads and roll our eyes.
Here are some great opinions in educating us about the concept of online tools such at MySpace.
"Many of you may have heard about MySpace, most likely due to moral panic brought on by the media's coverage of the potential predators and bullying There is no doubt that the potential is there, but there are more articles on predators on MySpace than there have been reported predators online.Furthermore, bullying is a practice that capitalizes on any available medium. Moral panics are a common reaction to teenagers when they engage in practices not understood by adult culture. There were moral panics over rock&roll, television, jazz and even reading novels in the early 1800s [1]. The media, typically run by the parent generation, capitalizes on and spreads the fear with little regard for data or actual implications. Examples are made out of delinquent youth, showing how the object of fear ruined them in some way or other. The message is clear - if you don't protect your kids from this evil, they too will suffer great harm to their minds, bodies or morals." Check out the whole article.
Our own neighbor toured MySpace. My visit to MySpace, by Nancy Willard
Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad?
Posted by jena on May 9, 2006 at 02:36 PM in General | Comments (0)
