Newspaper Article 1

Their lives are an open (Face)book (Page B7) - Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The number of teenagers hanging out on social networking sites, such as Friendster and Facebook, are increasing enormously.

Ever wonder why teenagers create accounts in such websites?

I have many friends who have such accounts, and i know of some who make use of these social networking sites to socialise around with people whom they do not know.
Teenagers tend to spill their problems and troubles to their "new" friends as even if the other party let the cat out of the bag to their friends, no one knows who they are talking about.

Normally, teenagers will upload pictures, write up on themselves, add friends, and many more. Creating accounts in such websites can also eradicate boredom of the teenager, thus it is so popular among teens.

There are pros and cons of creating accounts in social networking sites.

As they socialise, they will be able to build up on their confidence level as they meet the outside world. Socialising through the net is also one of the ways to curb loneliness of the user as they find someone they can pour out their troubles to.

Although creating accounts in social networking sites have their advantages, they also have their disadvantages.

Making friends in these sites and thus hanging out with them is not appropriate. The other party might not be what as described as they are in their site at all. As teenagers get addicted to such sites, they might spend the entire day sitting in front of the computer and thus neglecting their parents, having little communication among one another. This widens the generation gap and the teens will start to grumble about their parents not trying to understand what they are doing.

Teens often create thoughtfully designed profiles that prominently display "friends" who number in the hundreds or even thousands.

Parents should supervise their children closely, and check for any sensitive information on their profiles. Abuses on such sites can come from exposing too much of one personal information online, such as phone numbers, address and photos.

I find this situation very common among teenagers nowadays, and it's very important to find out more about such cases, and thus helping both the young and the old in their relationships, as well as teaching the youth to be careful of what they are doing.