Tech Savvy Teens Essay -- Technology and Teens, Facebook Twitter, MySp

Technology has advance far beyond what our parents knew. During the time in which our parents grew up things such as ‘apps’ and ‘tweets’ didn’t exist. But these terms are quite familiar to today’s generation of teenagers. The use of Socially Interactive Technology’s or SIT’s such as online networking sites, text messaging, and instant messaging (IM) are becoming more and more popular among teens (Pierce). Social networking sites such as FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter are examples of SIT’s. SIT’s can be used by anyone, but they are most popular among teenagers. Though SIT’s are meant to be fun ways to interact with friends, they can also be very dangerous. Socially Interactive Technology’s are dangerous to teens because they can easily put themselves in danger. There are hundreds of online social networking sites, and they range from general networking sites like FaceBook to sites aimed at certain groups such as CrunchyRoll, which is a networking site for fans of anime and manga. Of the hundreds of social networking sites MySpace and FaceBook are the most popular (Guo 620). MySpace has a current active user count of 115 million. And FaceBook which is a year younger follows with a user base of 60 million and growing (Guo 621). MySpace opened on August 15, 2003 and grew quite quickly afterwards (Guo 621). But why are these sites so popular amongst teenagers? There seem to be quite a few answers to this question, MySpace’s popularity is attributed its openness, anyone claiming to be over the age of 14 can sign up for MySpace (Guo 621). FaceBook which was created a year later by Matt Zuckerberg in 2004 originally limited its membership to college students which resulted in slow growth of success (Guo 622). However once FaceBook opened... ...fying internet information to be reported to the police. Their information is then added to the National Sex Offender Registry; social networking sites would then have access to this information and can prevent sex offenders from registering to use their sites MySpace has also begun to enact safety measures to protect their teenage users. In 2006 MySpace announced the creation an automated system that compares profiles a database contacting names and descriptions of sex offenders. It’s been reported that since the creation of this program MySpace has removed 29,000 sex offender profiles from their site (Guo 639). MySpace is also developing a program that will provide parents with their child’s profile name, age, and location (Guo 639). A program like this will allow parents to also get involved in protecting their children from the dangers of social networking.