These days, kids, teenagers and even adults have at least two computers in their home. Alot of the hours in the day is either spent at school, work, television or the computer. And when people do use the computer, it's mostly spent on social networks such as myspace or facebook. But according to many teenagers, mostly high schoolers and middle schoolers, kids nowadays are now logging onto a site called formspring.me. It's a site where all you do is ask people questions anonymously and the person you asked will answer it. Simple right? Well, not entirely. See, these innocent questions are not that innocent. Since you can ask a question anonymously, you are entitled to be able to ask anything and the person you're sending the message to will never know who asked.
In my opinion, this is where the problem starts: anonymity. If people know they can ask any question without the person finding out who it is, they are bound to ask anything they like. It may be a question about if you like someone. Or it may be personal questions, embarrassing questions, sexual type questions. Either way, you don't know the person asking, the person asking possibly knows you, and you are bound to answer it anyway even if it's an uncomfortable question. To me, honestly, if it was an anonymous question, I wouldn't answer it. Answering inappropriate and uncomfortable questions can lead to self-consciousness. And the thing about this is, people may not even ask a question. They'll just use it as a comment box and may say something rude about you or tell you through that comment that you look funny, or why is this like that. In my opinion, I don't believe in sites like this. If someone were wanting to ask you something, they'd ask over the phone or even in person. Because these days, it seems no one seems to have a sense of respect for others. Some people think if words don't hurt them, it won't hurt other people or even their friends. They are friends right? Well, yeah, but it doesn't mean you have to act tough and be rude just to be cool.
This site, this formspring.me, could turn out to be unhealthy for a person. That person may think too much about something said about him or her and feel conscious about the way they look, act. This site has also been said to be a target for cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is bullying but just through the internet. And even though it's just through the internet, it could still affect a person pretty roughly. However, no matter how much it could hurt or no matter how humiliating a question or rude a question it may be, kids still log in, kids still read the comments, kids still answer most of these ridiculous questions and kids get hurt by it but they still seek for more of it.
Formspring, it seems, is just another way for people to get money and just another way to suck a life out of someone if it gets to personal and rude. Teenagers are supposed to be having fun with real people, not internet stalkers, or cyberbullies. Honestly, if people would just find some respect and learn to not be perverted, then I think social networks would be fine to use. But that is the case, I'd rather stay away from anything that could abuse your mind.
Actual Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/us/06formspring.html?_r=1
May 7, 2010
