Confession time: for a good chunk of my high school/early college years, I was a regular in a Lord of the Rings chat room (Link for the interested: http://www.theonering.net/torwp/java-chat/)
Now before you cry nerd, hear me out. I think that sometimes, spending hours a day talking to people on the Internet is a good thing.
I was shy, a little awkward and going through some personal stuff at the time I found my particular chat room. I found a community of like minded people and from a a shared love of a particular subject blossomed a lot of friendships that I still maintain.
When I hear people wonder why their children spend so much time talking to people on the Internet, here's what I wonder: How did they themselves make friends? Chances are, it was finding a group of people that shared a common interest and then the friendship developed out of said common interest. The only difference is the Internet makes finding those people a heck of a lot easier.
Thats exactly what your kids are doing. Finding people with a common interest. Granted, I'm not advocating giving kids free reign to find chat rooms. But cut them some slack. If you see children or students spending time in a particular room or forum, let them. It's not wrong, it's not weird: it's a new way of forming social interactions that actually last.
torn love...which sounds a bit like an 80's rock ballad, now that I look at it. did I ever tell you I did a paper on chatroom etiquette, apologies, and face-saving? it's not a good paper, but if you're interested let me know.
ReplyDeleteI would actually love to read it. Every time someone mentions the internet in a legitimate context it makes me happy :D
ReplyDeleteBelatedly, I'll look for it and send it in an email.
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