The Myspace Generation

I had watched a video about youth and the Internet these days. It totally blew my mind what was going on now. I have known about myspace and facebook, I even have both of them for myself. What I didn't know was the stuff that was going on in these sites. Youth these days think that when they are on the Internet no one is watching them, well they are wrong. When they are on the Internet it gives the WHOLE WORLD the right to see them and see what they are doing through posts of blogs(like this one) posts of picture, and even posts of videos. Another thing that youth are happy about with the Internet is no one is in charge of them when they are on it. They believe that they are free from parents and all authority when they are on the Internet. Even if some parents try to block or restrict some sites the youth of today know so many ways to get by the filters that the parents should just not even bother with them. It is sad to say but today's youth rely on the net and they don't even know it. They are blind to the fact that if the Internet would break down for a day their worlds would come to an end. Myspace and facebook combined have over one hundred and sixty million(160,000,000) members.
It is not just myspace and facebook that get all the attention on the Internet. Other sites such as sparknotes.com serve as a cheat to homework. Instead of reading the books the students go onto the Internet to sparknotes.com and get the outline of the story. The teachers are very aware of this and try as hard as they can to try to get the youth to read the actual books. They have gone to measures as far as making the student read the book in class so they know that the students did not go onto the Internet to read the sparknotes. Schools are also having a hard time to get the students involved in classes because of lack of technology. Today students have so many technology at their fingertips that they don't want to learn in the "old way" of text books and note books.
Another thing that blew my mind was the kind of websites that are out there today. There are such sites out there to a god names Ana, the god of anorexia. On these sites devoted to this so called god it gives "testimonies" of girls who have not eaten for days or who have dropped to outrageously unhealthy weights. It gives the youth ways to stop eating and how to loose weight. There are also sites out there for suicide. On these particular sites it tells the youth how to kill themselves. There is even a site that has a little quiz you take to see what the best way to kill yourself would be.
As a follower of Jesus Christ and a Youth Worker these sites scare the crap out of me. They are telling out precious royal youth that they are not good enough to live, they are not pretty enough to be seen, or they are nothing but a piece of garbage that should be thrown out into the trash. We, as youth workers, need to reach out to the youth and tell them that they are so much more than what this world tells them to be. We need to get out there and tell them that they belong to a royal family and they are kings and queens, princes and princesses of the King of all kings. I believe that the best way to reach out to these youth is to go right to the source. Some may say not to have a myspace or facebook because we too will get sucked into the addiction. My concern and argument is how can we know what these youth are doing on the Internet if we do not have the tools they have. How can we reach out to them if we block ourselves from myspace and facebook. If they are on these sites most of the day after they get home from school shouldn't we make one to be able to communicate with them? I know there are plenty of other ways to communicate with them but will they really pay attention and listen through those ways? Maybe, but I be live they will listen much more if we get into their world via the sites they love. This does not mean that our site has to have suicidal quotes, or Ana shrines. We should make our sites the person we are off the sites. If we are a rockstar, then your site is quite alright to be rocking. We should also use our sites as ministry tools for these youth. When they add us as a friend they are going to go to our site and check it out. How awesome would it be if one day the youth came to your site and read or saw exactly what they needed to be led to Christ, and you didn't even say a word, you were just real with yourself and the rest of the world.
These are some things youth workers as myself should be thinking about. How can we reach out to the generation that is glued to the computer? If you have any other ways to reach out to this generation, please post comments and let me know.

God Bless
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