The Internet: Teenager Wonderland?

Throughout the United States, teenagers, children, and adults are all using the internet for their own purposes. Children are using the internet for games, adults are using it for their work and research, and teenagers are participating in all these activities and many, many more.
We have noticed that as time goes on, and the teenagers of this generation get older, they get even more co-dependent with using the internet, and find it a part of their everyday life. Although the internet does come in handy for school work and research for us teenagers, we mostly spend our time using social networking sites such as Facebook, AIM, and YouTube. Even when we are doing our homework, we find ourselves on these sites in the midst of writing an essay, commenting on someone's photos or having a long-distance conversation with an old friend from camp. It's not something that teenagers can help or prevent- it's a part of their everyday lives, just something they do without actually thinking about it. It only seems natural to spend a lot if their time on the internet, which they grew up around, and always had it at hand.
People in 7th, 8th, and even 9th grade, however, do not only use the internet for websites such as the ones listed above. On the contrary, it is true that they do often use the internet as a resource for them to get information for classes that require this. In fact, our school has a homework calendar that is posted online in case a student has forgotten what their homework assignment was. As well as this, many of our homework assignments require us to go on a specific website for a certain amount of time. Today, a lot of school lessons are revolved around using the internet and computers.
But it is also true that not all work done on the computer is for school purposes. Any normal teenager would not be ONLY doing their homework while they are using the computer. However, they may have many tabs open, including Facebook, Itunes, and AIM at the same time. This can turn an hour of homework into three hours of homework. Many teens would find this an excuse to put off doing their homework and procrastinate on social networking sites. These same teenagers would also be likely to admit that they are, in a way, addicted to the internet.
However, the internet is also a very good resource for teens of this generation. Keeping in touch with friends can be difficult, especially when they are long-distance friends. Because of this, many good friendships often fade away. To prevent this from happening, teens stay in touch with friends over the internet. Facebook is a very common way of keeping in touch, as well as AIM.
The internet can also be a scary and dangerous place, especially for young adults. Social networking sites can give away your personal information to people who you don't want knowing about you. Teens are especially vulnerable to online predators because we never were taught a proper internet safety lesson. In this past year, our school has been offering useful and helpful internet safety lessons that usually take place every couple of weeks. After some frightening stories came out about unsafe online actions, the school administrators decided to create these classes to protect the teens of our town.
We must be sure that we do not become too attached to what the internet has to offer. If we teenagers vow to stay aware of our surroundings on the internet and stay safe, the internet would be the perfect place for teens to get together and interact with each other.
By:Elizabeth K. and Sarah M.