the most wonderful terrible tool you'll ever hate to love

• i would like to say before i start that i felt horribly disconnected from the article and i dont know if that is me reaching my own biases becasue i grew up with the internet, or if everyone was hit the same issue. i find this the computer is pretty self explainitory and relativly user friendly (some operating systems more then others), and that even though i resisted the typical eight-finger typing pattern, i can negotiate the computer just fine.
• Coming of Age with the Internet
  By Sally McMillan and Margaret Morrison
• This is about the introduction of the media tool the computer and its connection to the internet as a tool, rescource, toy, and communcation hub. the article states that:

1. the internet can be positive and negative - it is what you can make it out to be. you have access to so many rescources and you can learn a lot, broaden your horizons, or get in touch with poeple across the globe. on the flip side, it can reinforce stereotypes, be censored by the government, bring you to things you would rather not see/have your children see, or give you false information
2. it effects all aspects of people's lives - people can use it to better themselves, discover their identity, communicate with family/poeple far from them, in their surrounding community or in a completely online community
3. family is key in the introduction to the computer rescource - not only that the younger poeple are exposed the easier it is to learn, but also that socioeconomic status can prevent people from both education and access to rescources like the internet, even something so simple as having a dial-up connection to the internet can cause a roadblock to the vast possibilities the internet can offer
4. the younger the start the better (age/generational differences) - younger people that grow up with the computer and use it all through school are more predisposed to be good with the technology as opposed to genderations that didnt grow up withg it and then have to teach themselves or take classes to learn how to access the same rescources and understand all possibilities.
5. it creates different levels of community that can but dont have to connect - you can use the internet to create an online community with which to communicate with those around you, get to know new people (that you may or may not ever meet), and share ideas

• "most people castes their mother as technogolically inept" (11). This is one point that i have a personal difficulty with and i am wondering if you felt the same. My father is the one that types with two fingers and insists that "they" "didnt include the t" on the keyboard, or "didnt include the s" etc. My mother didn't feel like she was as competant as she wanted to be (though she knew more then me) and after a college course or two i think she's far better then i will ever hope to be.
• when it says that a "common use of the internet is to furthur reinforce ties that are created offline" (13) i cannot help but think of facebook.
• "learnign to use the internet is a coming of age ritual" (7). while i realise that the internet can be a very integral part of education, social life, and lifelong learning, i am very hesitant to call it a coming of age ritual even in our society alone. i would argue that people with a lower socioeconomic status are not necissarily "not going to grow up" if they don't use the internet young and use it though their teenage years.
• "the medium can increase power inequalities" (16) this makes me think of youtube.com, becasue anyone can post a video and those videos reflect whatever biases and beliefs that the person holds. if internect connects you to such a diverse pot of information, not all information can be inherantly literate (from a media standpoint).
• this connects to all the things we have talked about so far but also to the fact the media matters becasue we have proven that the internet can be a deeply positive or deeply negitive (or both) rescource. i would arge that this form of media alone does not matter in a life/death/success/failure situation, but that this type of media can matter rather deeply
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you probably can guess what my problems are with this commercial