The social world of the "computer"

I would like to respond to "WillingParticipant"'blog posing about radio national's programme on digital households. Though I use the computer and internet myself I have never seen the internet as a particularly positive form of social connection that enhances my children's lives. Instead I have been one of those parents who have seen the computer as a time waster; something that reduces physical activity and inhibits social connections with family and friends.

I agree with WillingParticpant's argument that there is a conceptual gap between generations relating to use of the internet. I think this gap exists for a variety of reasons including the way generations percieve the potential use of computers, the way generations choose to socialise with one another, and language used in the internet world. I also think though, that there are cultural and social influences that affect how parents perceive the internet, particularly in terms of the harm it can cause their children. For example, all parents face the responsibility of helping their children to survive both physically and mentally to adulthood. With this in mind, parents fear things that they perceive may cause harm to their children. Social and cultural influences including the media and government constantly place pressure on parents to be aware of the evils of the internet such as child pornography and predatory behaviour. Also, governments and health agencies promote the concept that comupters and t.v. games are significanlty responsibile for obesity in young people today.


WillingParticipant argued that children in the age of the internet are socialised both in the real world and in the online world, can move between both, and know the standards that are acceptable in each world. While this may be the case, it appears to me that at times the online world encroaches on the real world and this can result in people being at risk of harm or feeling isolated. For example, what happens when a 12 year old thinks they are talking online with another young person, arranges to meet up and eventually finds out that the person they were talking to is 52 and has a history of offences against children? What happens when online speak becomes community speak and no-one else can understand what is being said (this is happening in my sons work currently and is a source of much angst amonst staff who cannot use internet talk)?. Also, what happens when children think they are talking safely amonst themselves and make inappropriate comments in jest only to find that someone else has reported their comments elsewhere and the children are in trouble with authorities or are made to receive psychiactric treatment (as happened to boys from Crookwell highschool recently)?

On a lighter and more positive note, I will finish this blog entry by thanking WillingParticipant for writing an informative email from the perspective of someone who uses the internet as a method of social contact and who could succinctly give a perspective of this source of communication through positive eyes