Global Kids' Online Leadership Program

In addition to 24 different flavor options for your coffee-like beverage, we seem to have developed an affinity towards digital media. It permeates our very existence surrounding us at all times. In a typical day I am exposed to digital media constantly. My cell phone calls me to wake me up just in time to catch the morning headlines on TV while news, sports scores, and stock reports are sent to my cell phone via text message. As I get ready for school, I either listen to music on my MP3 player or watch more news. Before I leave, I check my email accounts and add to my blog if anything particularly interesting happened that morning. I then hop in my car and turn on the radio while driving to school. At school, I go to my class, take notes from the PowerPoint presentation my teacher is showing, and write down my assignments that I’ll type up on the computer later that night. At some point in the day, I check email again and maybe get online to get a jumpstart on homework. Before lunch I have Information Technology class where we work with all types of technology including movie making, sound editing, web page design and more. At the end of the day, I go to the library and get online for my online history class taught by someone eight states away. After school, I go either to practice or to volunteer at the hospital. At the hospital, I go to the front desk, put on my headset and log into the national MediTech system, which has access to every patient in every hospital with an internet connection in the country. After my shift at the front desk, I get my mobile workstation and go around the hospital on a wireless connection helping the nurses stations locate everything from medicine to patients’ families. After volunteering, I call home on my cell phone and check what time we’re having dinner. If I have time, I’ll call a friend and go hangout with them. Sometimes we get on the internet and instant message people or we’ll play video games; I’m partial to James Bond games. When I go home, I’ll have a late dinner and get on my computer to do homework while watching TV and listening to music, and possibly talking on the phone. Before going to bed, I’ll write a couple of emails and write about my day in my online journal.

My generation has been blessed/cursed with the insurgence of digital media. Blessed because of the convenience and positive benefits such as in health care where sensors alert me that a patient has slipped into critical condition and I can alert a Doctor before the patient even realizes that he is dying, saving his life. However, it’s a double edged sword. The constant exposure can be overwhelming and poses many dangers. For example, the Internet (thanks to Al Gore), can be used to communicate with grandma and send her pictures of the soccer game after you research the Incas for homework. You could also be chatting to someone who wants to exploit you sexually. You can file you taxes online and do your shopping without leaving the house as long as nobody gets your information and steals your identity. You can surf the web for interesting sites and get addicted to pornography. If you like, you can download music online without having to pay for it, so long as you don’t download a virus with it. It’s not just the internet though. Someone listening to his MP3 player, absently mindedly walks out in front of a moving car while the driver of the car is talking on his cell phone, not paying attention to the street in front of him. It’s happened, more than once.

As Uncle Ben once told a young Peter Parker, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” We have to learn to be responsible and safe with our powers. We have all the information in the world literally at our fingertips and the ability to be in contact with everyone in satellite range. That’s a lot to handle. In my life, digital media is used as a convenience and a positive. I look to digital media for news, communication, and entertainment. That doesn’t mean that I spend hours in front of a TV watching dribble or playing video games. Everything in moderation is my policy. Our generation has the potential to make the biggest advancements in medicine, mathematics, space exploration, genetics, and many other fields. I think that it would be a shame to waste that opportunity by playing online games and instant messaging all the time. In my life, I try to find a balance between recreation and responsible use of my recourses. I understand that digital media can be a distraction and a danger if not used properly but can also be very useful. For example, the word count feature shows me that I now have 1000 words.

Mike L. attends High School in Belpre, Ohio. He is creative person who likes to be involved in his community. This essay was a Grand Prize Winner in the 2006 Global Kids Digital Media Essay Contest. For more information, please visit GlobalKids.org.