As a person who does not have a virtual social life I cannot really identify with some aspects of these results (http://www.kidscape.org.uk/events/SurveySummary_02082011-complete.pdf). I will however try to be understanding and non judgemental.
I think that a number of children are happier in a virtual existence because it's an environment in which they can have control and show the world what they want to show. In the real world children are generally powerless, exposed and vulnerable. They can't really hide who they really are and as a result they can be subjected to bulling. They also have to obey the rules of their parents, which many children object to.
I think that there is definitely a generation gap between children and of adult of today. Most adult went through the whole of their childhood without the internet being this place where people socialised through a virtual world, so these adult had no choice but to spend their childhoods in the real world. Whereas as many children have grown up with a choice of socialising in the real world which can be difficult or socialising in the virtual world which can be easy. The problem with spending so much of your life in the virtual world is that it is not the way the majority of the world live. The people who spend their life online are living on the margins of society and are more likely to be missing out on the important tools needed to engage with the majority of society.
Well spot on i spent most of my time in the playgrounds and playing football. It's only recently that i sometimes play online games.
ReplyDeletechildren tend to learn more from direct interaction amongst thier peers. virtual world takes away the ability for children to harness the skills from real life socialising and interaction.
ReplyDeletei agree a lot with you article dorian, its good that we have said that children are in rsik of loosing the skills to function in real life by spending all thier time in virtual world like facebook. but come to think about it, adults are also getting caught in this virtual world . i have some friends that have gotten so hooked, that they prefer watching movies online than going to the cinema.this is just an example.
ReplyDeleteas a result of virtual world, even adults have become lazy therfore bringing a lot of unhealthy people in society today.
Companies are facing problems because employees who are paid to do a job rather spend thier time on social sites. i rememeber meeting someone online who happened to be at work, we just chatted but cmon she wasnt suppose to be using office time for leisure online surfing. i hope you get my point.
There's a balance that needs to be struck. Facebook for example is a tool that lets people stay in touch and tell others what they are doing (Twitter is the same kind of idea but with less functionality). However, it has evolved into a virtual community as well. All the time people keep a balance between real friends and virtual 'friends' then it's fine. It's when they start thinking that counting the number of virtual friends means something, or feeling the need to keep everyone informed of what they are doing to such a degree that it gets out of hand. I know students who can't go into a lab without checking their FB account! Some are putting in in excess of 30 or 40 hours a week - in other words it is equivalent to a full time job. I doubt even those of you who are obsessed with football are able to put in 40 hours of football a week! :-)
ReplyDeleteWell done for commenting on each other's blogs! I'm impressed by that. No other team has done that as well or as seriously as this team has.
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