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Cyber Popularity

When I was growing up, I had dreams of one day becoming famous.

I wasn't sure how I was going to do it. I signed up for dancing, sports, acrobats, cheering, and theater.

During one phase, I was going to be a TV star for the Disney Channel. During another phase, in which my best friend and I refused to take off our roller blades even to sleep because we were "in training," I was going to become a figure skater. Finally, I dreamed of the fame that only the spotlight from Broadway could bring.

As I got older, I relinquished those dreams. They were more like child-hood games we'd play, the objective to become a star. I don't know if many other kids played such games, but I think somewhere along the line, everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame, and some have really strange ways of going about getting it.

When I saw on the Today Show the video of those six teenage girls beating up on one of their "friends," I was mortified. But I was disgusted to learn that the reason they had done that was for the purpose of posting the video on YouTube with hopes of making it a "most-watched" clip.

In high school, I knew how cruel teenage girls could be. Vindictive as they were, their sole weapon of choice was using words and gossip to "get back" at whatever female got in their way.

It hasn't been that long since I've been a teenager, but it seems that so much has changed since I walked the halls of a high school. Teens are becoming more violent and aggressively seeking out ways to be heard and seen. And with the Internet so readily available to everyone, anyone can do something outrageous and post it on the Web for the world to see.

I'm not saying the Internet is to blame for how teenagers act today. It's just another medium. But with things like YouTube and Myspace I think there exists a greater drive, now, to be popular, not only among personal friends, but also among cyber peers.

If teens today are using the Internet to gain attention and furthermore doing outrageous, dangerous, vicious things to get that attention, I think they need to be reminded that there are all sorts of other ways to get it that don't involve Internet access and the abuse of an innocent girl.