A Persuasive Thesis Statement On Youth And The Internet Essay

How has technology affected mankind over time? How has it affected the youth of our country? How has it affected the adults? We rely on the internet for almost everything, do we still have the power to detach ourselves from it? The article, “The Virtues of Reality” written by Ross Douthat caught my attention with a thesis that is quite realistic. Douthat theorizes that the main cause of both the youth becoming safer over time along with the adults growing more immature is the virtual reality that the internet provides us with. Douthat then leaves the readers with a thought to ponder about. He questions if we as human beings have become so reliant on technology, that we can’t take a step back. What I wish to know is why should we need to take a step back when the world that we live in has infused technology along with the internet into everything that we do in life?

According to CNN, teens spend nine hours a day consuming media. But is that a good thing? Youth can be mocked from posts on social media. Youth is more into their media “life” than real life. One doesn’t even make real friends online. Overall, social media has a negative impact on youth.

The Internet Age has become a time in which computer technology has not been envisioned as a luxury, but rather a necessity in many parts of daily living. And as the positive impacts of technology use in the workplace, and education setting, becomes a reality then so does the negative consequences. However, the ability to deal with the negative consequences may be more difficult to deal with for adolescents and young adults who heavily use technology for social media, text messaging, and web surfing. As these impressionable sectors of society learn to navigate their place in the world with the aid of technology, they are experiencing an inordinate amount of

The article, “What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow up in Cyberspace,” written by Brent Staples discusses negative influences that internet has toward teens. The author elaborates that teens are far more comfortable with online conversations. Social Media has high expectations to how a teen should act or look. Media emotionally scars teens, demanding them to have clear skin and skinny body. The more people that are connected to their phones, higher the chance of losing relationships. The internet has left many teens with unreal social skills. Real life experiences such as law, teens are not knowledgeable. Teenagers miss out on life experiences that can help them grow into adulthood.

Roughly ninety-two percent of teenagers are online daily, but has the internet hurt or improved their lives? The internet has made certain tasks easier like looking up information to prove somebody wrong. Although, it has many negative effects on teens. The internet is accompanied by cyber-bullying, online predators, and other types of violences. In this case, the cons very much outweigh the pros.

When a young person breaks the law in Canada, they are dealt with differently than adults, for they lack the level of maturity and development. The federal law that governs Canada’s youth justice system is Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA). The act was created in 2003 with a purpose to hold youth (12-17) accountable through sanctions that contribute to the protection of the public. The basic principles of this act are crime prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration, protection of the public and youth, meaningful consequences, and accountability. Hence, it is fair and equitable, as well as effective for youth to a great extent, with preventing crime while ensuring the accountability of a young offender. The data from Statistics Canada show that youth crime has decreased 42% since 2000. This essay focuses on how the justice system effectively ensures the protection of society, the innocent, and ensures that those who break the law, face appropriate consequences.

It has become common today to dismiss different perspectives, such as Danah Boyd’s, that teenagers aren’t the ones responsible for themselves constantly being on the internet, but society is the one to blame. Many people assume that teenagers have put themselves in the position of being addicted to the internet, yet Danah Boyd complains in her article, “Blame Society, Not the Screen Time”, that, “We put unprecedented demands on our kids, maxing them out with structured activities, homework and heavy expectations.” In making this comment, Danah Boyd argues that adults continuously add stress and pressure to teenagers, which then results in teenagers resorting to the internet as a way of socializing. For many, the internet is simply an escape.

As a teenager, I completely agree with the argument that Goldwasser is presenting. I myself have heard adults say “You would learn more if you put your phone down”, or “If you spend as much time browsing the internet as you did a book, you would be a genius”, but this article is the first time I have ever heard an adult agree with the way that technology is shaping our generation. Adults tend to think that websites such as Twitter or Instagram are useless and time consuming, but what they don’t realize is that it provides teenagers with a way to express themselves by posting a status or a tweet.

Aided by the convenience of smartphones, tablets, and computers, the Pew Research Center has found that 92% of teens are online daily, with open access to harmful material that can affect developing minds permanently, and set up habits that can damage their potential for success in the future. An even more shocking 24% of teens say that they are online “almost constantly.” As a tenth grader in Carolina Day’s upper school, I’ve witnessed the daily activities of students who confirm these statistics. To them, navigating the internet is second nature, and that is where the real danger lies. While at school, they are still granted connection to every game, social media site, and free essay resource, without limits. Unrestricted and unlimited access to the internet is negatively impacting Carolina Day School’s environment by affecting interpersonal relationships, stunting the positive development of the brain, and decreasing the chance of students gaining critical life skills.

Social media has dramatically changed the world and the way we communicate with each other. We are now in the era of Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Anyone in the planet is just a click far from us and every information is handy in our smartphones. Social media has evolved as the tool that created a gigantic difference in the way individuals interact, promote their opinions, share thoughts, and even impact others. Especially teenagers and youths spend more time in social media than anyone else. According to the report by Pew Research Center published in 2015, 92% of teens go online daily including 24% who go online almost

The article “What’s the Matter with Kids Today?” written by Amy Goldwasser and published on Friday, March 14, 2008 is an article about how the internet influences a teenagers choices and lifestyle. Goldwasser stated that some teenagers never knew what role Adolf Hitler had in history. She also stated that teenagers have complete control over what becomes popular from mentioning it on social media. Lastly, adults in this generation should start to accept teenagers using the internet, because it is not necessarily a bad thing for them to be exposed to.

Ever since the internet became popular, there has been an ongoing debate on whether the internet is helpful or harmful to adolescents. Those who oppose the use of the internet claim that it damages teenagers’ “real world” social skills and distracts them from other important parts of their lives(ex. school, family, job, etc.). This group believes that teenagers need to distance themselves from technology before it “damages” them by means of cyber bullying, obsession, and/or photographs that promote hazardous behavior. The other side, however, sees the internet as a tool that can be both helpful and harmful.This viewpoint is illustrated in Thomas A. Workman’s essay “The Real Impact of Virtual Worlds”. In his essay, Workman breaks his argument down into five “digital norms” that describe teenager’s attitude

The internet was established in 1969(citeAPA) and had started becoming more sophisticated and popular around the early years of the Millennials. Hence, unlike the adults and older individuals from earlier generations, the millennial generation became familiar with the technological advancements at an age when their brains best develop and learn. The impact of learning during the teen years is pointed out by Jay N. Giedd, a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist, when he says, “Plasticity is the essence of adolescent neurobiology and underlies both the enormous learning potential and the vulnerability of the teen years.” Thus, as children observe new norms, such as taking selfies, become popularized, they quickly accept them as the normal and natural way to behave. Therefore, instead of mocking people of the millennial generation as being addicted to the internet, people of earlier generations must recognize that the newer generations have always lived in an internet-centered

The 21st Century is roaring, and the use of technology sweeps across the nation like a pandemic. The American lifestyle is being consumed by electronics. Due to the increase of technology, childhood is rapidly transforming and evolving. No longer do children only thrive in fresh air and on playdates, but also with tech savvy gadgets and computers. Children are currently part of a digital generation that has sprouted in a world immersed in technology and the internet, and they are utilizing cell phones, tablets, e-readers and computers every day. Furthermore, because technology is becoming a dominant part in childhood, cyberbullying among children is also increasing. Suicide rates among middle and high school students have increased in the past 15 years due to cyberbullying through social media and direct messaging.

On the negative side, children are spending more time indoors playing computer games or the equivalent, but they are not developing interpersonal relationships. As the internet is becoming less of a modern convenience and more of a necessity for humans, young and old, it should be noted that the internet can cause impaired academic achievement, bad time management, and problems with health and interpersonal relationships (Lai & Gwung, 2013). In another study, Laverick (2009) states the children of the 21st century have lives that are interwoven with technology. These children do not know of a world without technology; in the study, this is called “an Eculture” (Laverick, 2009).