Growing Up Online

Before "facebook" and "myspace" I feel social networking was different in that people used to meet up at a certain spot after school or on the weekends. (i.e. a burger joint). It then seemed to shift to the phone, where everyone is tieing up the phones with three way and call waiting. I feel the big start in the change of social networking was Instant Messenger. I remember my mom asking me, "do you call anyone anymore?," because everyone would always get on IM after school and just like that school life spilled over into home life.
If I were to describe facebook to a friend who has never seen it, I would tell him it is basically a place where people can stay in contact with their friends and share interesting links and really just stay in tune with all the gossip. It keeps people in the loop on whats going on and its also a place for people to let out different feelings. For example a person might put as their status, "I'm so tired from work today." Do people care? Probably not but people just do it to put their feelings out there to someone.
I've explained it to my parents before and I only mentioned that it helped you stay in touch with your friends since most of our friends are spread out over the country due to college.
I think it would be a lost cause trying to explain it to my grandparents. I would basically tell them it was a newer way of talking to your friends than having to call everyone. It makes it easier to talk to more people at once. I would basically say the same thing to a teenager in the 1950's because they ARE our grandparents.
The facebook page I looked at reveals all of the persons interests, photos of the person, and what other people are saying to this person. You can get a view of what the person is like through what they put down and how other people talk to them. The fact the person has a self-taken picture made me want to look at their profile cause I think it is stupid to take a picture of yourself and put it up. I would not want to friend or message this person because they seem, in my opinion like an idiot. They dont seem like the kind of person I would associate with. I want to know if this person is actually worth knowing.
I feel it does compartmentalize images and the way you broadcast about yourself because it gives you certain spaces to put your interests, photos, and conversations.
I believe that McLuhan is right because on any given page people put what they want you to know about them or they put up pictures that make them look more attractive. People can delete wall postings and news alerts if they don't want people to see them. Facebook is a way that a person can put themself out there and yet lead you to believe they are someone they may really not be.
I felt this documentary was ridiculous. Yes there are dangers online but that is where we need to educate kids and teenagers on safe useage but allow them to keep their privacy. I had feelings of legitimate anger when the mom of one of the kids told all the other parents about things she saw. Frontline blows the internet use by many kids out of proportion picking only the kids who really spend alot of time on it. I do not personally know one person who is online as much as the kids in the documentary. Like I said before, the documentary was ridiculous.