Upstream Looks Inside Amsterdam High Via Myspace
One of the more important but neglected aspects of Myspace, however, is that it is an uncurtained window into the minds of our teenagers. Instead of the usual yes, no, I dunno or grunt when responding to parent’s questions, on myspace teens are positively logorrheic. This gives parents, educators, sociologists, psychologists and anyone else concerned about young people today an unprecedented opportunity to find out what our teens are thinking and what they are doing.
Yesterday, Upstream took a look inside Amsterdam High School via myspace. We were surprised at what we found.
In the following paragraph, one of the students describes himself. Similar descriptions abound.
“Im awesome... Umm i like to hang out with friends and i hate Fat people, Skanks, Sluts, Hores, Bitches, Losers, skumbags, perverts, wiggers, fake people, goths, ugly people, stupid people, retards, jerks, immature people. im a very nice person... unless i hate you... But i love ducks... “
Another student describes her heroes.
“HERO'S well myself and Brittny and squashA........ because we are all gonna kick the shit out of ewwwwy gothic freaky pieces of crap Omg i hate gothic people they annoy the crap out of me omg i wish they would all die like they all say they want to PATHETIC people omg it's pissing me off to no end so i have to stop talking about them before i walk to this bitchs house and kill her KK bye.......”
Because I have such an interest in books, I couldn’t help pass on the following comments that some Amsterdam High students made about reading.
“Books: i do not read who does theese days*hehe*”
“Books: come on now... this is Bg your talkin about.... I read See Spot Run...”
“Books: don't really readd:o)”
Just how serious should we take what students are saying on myspace. Certainly, they seem to talk with a freedom that they don’t when around adults. But on the other hand, I sense a lot of the bragging and posturing that went on when I was hanging out with other teens in the late 60s and early 70s.
Anyway, I have included links below to six Amsterdam High School students on myspace so you can see for yourself what I am talking about.
posted by Anonymous at
3:51 AM
2 Comments:
Excellent item...scary, isn't it?
By
Albany Eye, at 8:55 AM
this is a seriously great article.
having worked with kids that age, i can tell you that yes, there's a lot of posturing, and appearing dumb by denying that they read (or actually not reading at all) seems to be a trend across the board, not just in amsterdam, but this is an excellent case study.
overall, i'd like to note i like the direction things have been going lately, taking national news items and exploring their impact/corillaries (oh lord, now I can't spell!) on the local level. makes for very interesting reading
~Natalie from York Staters
By
York Staters, at 4:54 PM
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