Beyond the Crystal Set

Teenagers can find isolation and fellow-angst sufferers in social networking. MySpace and its fellow travellers can allow teenagers to avoid having to talk to adults and have their insecurities shared. Lisa Mitchell wrote a fascinating piece for The Age on Monday 14 May 2007 which asked the question about whether it was really healthy for young people to have a social ghetto into which they can retreat and only communicate with others of the same age – “While the internet is a tremendous resource for young people, critics of sites such as MySpace say adult-free cyber worlds can be dangerous without an adequate safety net or monitoring system.

They say young people experiencing depression or mental illnesses are particularly at risk. Upwey teenagers Stephanie Gestier and Jodie Gater left a farewell message on a MySpace page before committing suicide.
Parents who are unfamiliar with computer technology and social networking online may have little understanding of what their children do on MySpace, while other parents check their children’s profiles secretly.
Parents may even have their own profiles.

Some teenagers think parents should keep out of their cyber worlds and respect their privacy. Would a parent read a personal diary hidden away under a bed? Then why should they read their child’s MySpace, they ask?…”

Maybe parents didn’t read their child’s diary but teenagers in other generations had to front up to the family dinner table and part take in conversation. There were opportunities for exchange.