Thing 18 Social Networking

I could talk about this topic for a long time, but I guess I'll limit it to the obvious. Social networking has so many benefits - find others just like you, find out anything in an instant, find new friends/confidantes/business contacts/sources of revenue. It's so great, who thinks about the bad things, right? The fact that millions of teens will trust, fully rely on, and follow the advice of virtual (no-pun intended) unknowns. People go online and become whoever they wish they were, or whoever they think you want them to be. There's something to be said for living in a fantasy world for a little while each day, but many people don't have a clue about reality, they can't cope with not being the image they have created online, and therefore cannot function in the face of demands, such as a boss, a job, face-to-face confrontation. I have a MySpace account, but it is private, used only for sharing pictures and ideas with close friends. I don't feel the need to live there, and I really worry about the upcoming generations who know nothing but online relationships. People need the skills of both the older generation's face-to-face mentality, as well as the ability to navigate the web and new technologies.
On top of that, there is the worry of authenticity. A teacher recently brought her class to the library, so that I could stress the importance of verifying sources when researching. These kids will believe anything that anyone takes the time to type up. If it's on the world wide web, it must be true, right? And if 2 million other teens believe it as well, and read about it in all their friends blogs, it must be better to follow their lead than believe anything, say, a parent, doctor, lawyer, police officer, or other authority figure might tell them. Just call me Negative Nancy!