HW 7: "My So Called Blog"

I believe that it is good for a kid to be able to express themselves by writing online and searching the web without a parent monitoring everything they say. The fact that parents get suspicious about what their child is doing on the computer is understandable. Holding a child back from being able to express how they feel and suffocating a child too much in this aspect will only later make it so that the child no longer wants to listen to what parents have to say. Expression is how we learn and grow, and the idea that children prefer to do this through the internet by using blogs and chat rooms etc, should not be a problem. In contrast however it would be unacceptable to let a child do whatever they please especially since they might not be as smart about the decisions they make online. In her article, My So-Called Blog," Emily Nussbaum expresses how the process of expression is sometimes painful to some,however sometimes you just need to let it go. "As the reality television stars put it, exposure may be painful at times, but its all part of the process of putting it out there, risking judgement and letting people in." (Kline and Burstein 352) The point that is coming across in this quote is the fact that saying exactly how you feel sometimes is not always what people want to hear or are even expecting to hear, but risking how you feel to share that feeling with someone else, allows others to feel what you are feeling. The idea that most issues and discussions are now performed online rather than on paper is definatley something to get used to, as well as something for parents to et used to. However This is what children are learning in school as well as from friends, the idea that expressing yourself can only be beneficial, therefore tellig a child not to do so, or watching a childs every move online is only putting a damper on their freedom of expressing, an basically holds them back from the real world.