Life Online

I recently read the article Life Online: Canadian Students are More Connected, More Mobile and More Social than Ever by Matthew Johnson, director and Education for Media Smarts. I was not surprised by the fact that youth today are an online generation, but some of the information he presented were shocking to me. The entire time I was reading this article, all I could think about were the things I was doing as a youth, and none of them involved technology. Something I have always been interested in was what are our youth doing online, and how do they spend so many hours connected? I can't sit down with my computer long enough to write a blog post, but these youth can do it for hours. To me, it's surprising and concerning. 

I like that this article has a general overview of many different aspects of being online. Johnson discusses areas of interest which include but are not limited to sports, news, relationship advice and health issues, he presents statistics for gamers and the types of games played as well as which gender chooses certain games, and he provides information on social media such as Facebook. What bothered me while reading this article is the fact that people (youth and adults alike) seldom shut down or go offline. Many people sleep with their cell phones beside them at night in case they receive a call, text or message. This drives me crazy! A sufficient amount of undisturbed sleep is extremely important, and leaving your phone on is unhealthy. How does a brain recharge? How can people effectively function without sleep? I just don't get it. My phone is on silent and I use an old school alarm clock to wake up. I have seen the negative effects first hand of not powering down. When eating dinner with friends or family, strangers always have their phones beside them on the table. I have seen two people out for a meal both texting on their phones, not conversing. My thoughts - why bother going out?  I could vent about this for hours, but it would not be conducive to this post. Continuing on, youth are reporting less parental supervision when online. I don't believe that an adult needs to be standing over their child on a computer, but I am a firm believer that parents need to know what their children are posting and researching. It's about building a relationship with your children to ensure they are safe and responsible. As stated in the article, if parents aren't teaching their children about the dangers of the internet and they aren't learning it in school, then those children are more likely to get in trouble online. As Johnson states in his article "more than half of the students in grades 4-6 have not learned any strategies for authenticating online information with at home or at school". This concerns me as an educator. It is crucial that children, young and old, know the risks of being online. They need to be taught what is appropriate to post and share, and what is not. As an educator, I believe it is my duty to provide students with the information regarding online safety. When using devices in my classroom, I will be sure to talk with my students about the hazards of posting anything, as well as proper use of devices. I believe that we are doing a disservice to these students if we are not ensuring their safety. As an early years teacher, it is my job to make sure rules are explained and implemented for the future and safety of my students. 

All in all, I think that this article does a great job of raising awareness for online living. I think there are many studies that could follow from this information and I would be interested in reading up on them. If you are interested in reading the article, I have attached the link below. 

To read the article Life Online: Canadian Students are More Connected, More Mobile and More Social than Ever by Matthew Johnson, click on the link below.

http://mediasmarts.ca/blog/life-online-canadian-students-are-more-connected-more-mobile-and-more-social-ever

Just a bit of ecard humour for those who didn't have a cell phone as a kid.