Relationships on the Cheap
When I was in high school, the internet had become vastly popular, but not quite to to the point of being ubiquitous. Almost no-one I knew had any sort of broadband connection, and instant messaging had only been around for a couple of years, so it still seemed a little novel. None of my peers had mobile phones, and there were certainly no popular social networking sites that everyone had to be on. It’s amazing how in such a short time (seven years?) the norms of communication, one the internet and off, have changed and altered the social climate.
The idea of allowing teenagers to have access to these tools kind of blows my mind, too. High school is already a huge social pressure cooker. When these things become a “requirement” to be considered as a part of society, it could considerably alter the way teens perceive relationships and what it means to have a meaningful relationship with other people if they feel they have to depend on these tools. In fact, I’m pretty sure my generation didn’t come out of it completely unscathed, and we didn’t have half of what is availabe now. I can’t imagine how different things would be among me and my peers in high school if we had access to this stuff on a near constant basis.
While this stuff has been on the back of my mind for sometime, the catalyst for this post was this article on how some youth are rethinking how online communication plays a part in their lives. Most of the people in the article are college students or people in their 20s, though, and for the most part are mature enough to realize such things. I wonder what high school students would have to say about such things.
