Growing up online--importance of communicating with adolescents

By Gianna Suppa
College of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
March, 2011

In today’s class we watched a movie, Growing Up Online, which I found very interesting. This movie caught my attention for a various number of reasons. One of the reasons I found this movie interesting was because it showed real life people and their troubles with the Internet. From the concerned parents to the adolescents that were showcased, each of them had an interesting story to share. The story about the young boy who committed suicide because he was being cyber bully was the hardest to watch. I felt so bad for this young boys father. The father was brave enough to go on his son’s computer and see what he was up to.

As I watched the story of this young boy, I wondered how the father could not know that he was being cyber bullied or how he did not know that his son was looking up ways to kill himself on the Internet. The only way that I could rationalize this is that the father was not monitoring his son while he was on the Internet and was not communicating with his son. I feel that if the father talked to his son instead of just teaching him how to fight he might have realized that his son was being terrorized and that it was a serious matter to pay attention to. This young boy touched my heart and one day as a teacher, I hope that if I notice bullying going on in my classroom I can stop it before it becomes a serious problem.

Another story that I found very interesting was the adolescent boy Cam and his mother who was very involved in the community. Cam was very mad at his mom for what he did and while I was watching the movie I tried to put myself in his shoes and think of how I would feel. My first instinct was that I totally agreed with Cam and thought his mother was crazy but as I thought about it I saw a different side to it, his moms side. I am not sure how I would feel as a mother but I could understand how she was worried and concerned and how she was looking out for other mothers.

Overall, I found this movie very interesting and full of information. I was able to observe various aspects of adolescents and how they view the Internet. I feel that technology is an important part of an adolescent’s life and if used properly could be very educational and helpful in their studies.