Growing Up Online, Essay Example

A1. The video shows that the generation that has grown up with the internet has grown accustomed to quick responses and solutions as evident by the popularity of SparkNotes and declining trend of reading among students (PBS Frontline). This is because internet has made it possible to access and share information. In addition, the average attention span has also been growing shorter, motivating young people to look for solutions that prevent boredom. One teacher presents a great example of a professional in advertising to demonstrate how the future workplaces are going to be like. The emphasis will not be on having knowledge or information only but more on skills to gather and process information. The workers will be required to be efficient in knowing where to get the information they need and how to process it effectively. Thus, IT systems will be designed to ensure quick and easy access to information and answers.

We also saw in the video that friends and colleagues now increasingly interact over the internet and their collaboration skills have improved as a result though most of the collaboration may be non-school related. Thus, IT systems will also incorporate social networking-type tools that increase collaboration among co-workers and even enable them to work productively with individuals in other regions. Thus, success in future workplace will not only require technical skills but also organizational skills such as virtual communication, organization, and information sourcing and processing skills.

The video also demonstrates the difficulty of monitoring online activity which may create challenges for companies to prevent loss of time resources. Similarly, internet can also be a source of undesirable activities such as bullying. Thus, IT infrastructure will not only put controls in place to prevent unproductive use of company’s technological resources but will also monitor employees’ online conduct to prevent incidents that could subject the companies to lawsuits for failure to prevent harassment.

A2. As the video demonstrates, the youths often have internet lives which they see as extension of their real world lives. But unlike the real world, it is much difficult to monitor their online lives. Making the matters worse is the fact that youths are usually more technology proficient than their guardians and even when monitoring tools are put in place, youths figure out ways to keep their online lives secret (PBS Frontline). This limits the society’s ability to not only intervene in a timely manner if the youths may be engaging in harmful and destructive activities since internet allows anonymity but also makes it difficult for the society to protect youths from cyber predators. Because internet can be addictive and allows round-the-clock connectivity, youths interaction with friends and strangers increase at the expense of interaction with family members and parents often have no idea of the problems being faced by their children until it is too late.

The internet has also led to some unethical trends such as cheating and looking for shortcuts to achieve objectives and there is a real danger that these habits may accompany them into real life. The pursuit of success without hard work and through short cuts may encourage more youths to engage in unethical activities which could have lifelong negative consequences for them. Thus, the society will have to figure out ways to ensure that our youths have strong ethical principles and they learn to balance their internet life with real-world interactions so that help can be provided to them regarding their personal and social issues in a timely manner.

Reference

PBS Frontline. Growing Up Online. 13 November 2012 <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/view/>.