Today’s Internet is probably the most amazing technological phenomenon that has benefited our generation, the teenagers of the world. Even though people of all ages use the Internet, it is we, the teens, who have grown up with it.
For teens, the Internet has been accused of being dangerous and a waste of time. Myspace.com had been criticized for making teens vulnerable to predators. However, Myspace.com allows visitors to be public or private and improves its protection capabilities all the time. The truth is that the Internet has endless beneficial possibilities. Teens need to control the use of the Internet instead of letting the Internet control them.
In an October 2007 survey of 116 Bay Area male and female teens from ages 13 to 17, teens reported using the Internet 3-15 hours per week. And how do we use the Internet? We use it for research, communication, entertainment and shopping. For research projects, we don’t have to dig through large encyclopedias. Rather, the entire world’s knowledge is at our fingertips. We use search engines such as google.com, yahoo.com and wikipedia to immediately access information.
In addition to the favorite Web sites yahoo.com and google.com, is another favorite – the social Web site Myspace.com. Socializing online is a major fad for today’s teens. Aol.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com and numerous other sites provide e-mail accounts for its users. We love our online mailboxes.
But much more fun is visiting friends’ mini Web sites featured by Myspace.com and Facebook.com. There we can customize our very own Web site with layouts, comment boxes, colors and decorations. The appeal is the interaction as we view our friends’ pictures and blogs. Plus, we can post our own comments. Contrary to some people’s opinions, Myspace is not evil. Also, yahoo.com and aol.com provide instant messaging where we can have online chats with friends who are also online.
Teens love the Internet to listen to music, to watch various videos and to play games. Myspace users can input music and post videos on their mini web sites, which are called “profiles.” Some artists have even become famous through Myspace: Sean Kingston is a reggae singer who used Myspace to contact music producers.
However, the most popular video site is youtube.com where teens can watch and post their videos. Even political parties campaign and debate on youtube. Addictedgames.com offers another form of entertainment. Other favorites include photobucket.com (designed to share photos with people online) and comedycentral.com.
Shopping for books, CDs, DVDs and all kinds of equipment can be done on-line. Shoppingnetwork.com plus thousands of other Web sites offer merchandize. Teens who own an iPod have iTunes, the computer software required to operate an iPod. Through iTubes, we can access the iTunes store to purchase songs for 99 cents each, which then are downloaded into our iTunes library.
So what is the future of the Internet? The sky is the limit. One thing we don’t want is for the government to tax us 10 to 20 percent for Internet access. Since 1998, the Internet has been tax-free in order for it to gain popularity. That protection had been extended in 2001 and 2004. The House of Representatives and Senate have just voted to approve another four years of protection. This really should be a permanent protection from taxation. Otherwise, we will be taxed for merely using the Internet as a means of communicating. That means a tax on research, entertainment, socializing and even an extra tax on commerce. If this taxation happens, the government is going to have millions of furious Internet users on its hands. It is up to us to make sure this never happens.
