Reflections on Students Staging Fights for Youtube Publicity

This text is a factual report of the increasing trend of teenagers and young adults filming fights and posting them on YouTube. The writer of the text uses evidence and primary sources to inform the reader about such a trend and its dangers together with the motivations behind filming fights and tries to persuade the reader on measures that should be taken to help teenagers use technology properly.

As to what I feel about the issue: I feel that the issue of teenagers filming fights and putting them on the internet can probably be attributed to two new technologies - the camera phone and the internet video hosting service. With the advent of the internet phone, it is now more convenient than ever for teenagers to film anything, anywhere, anytime. Secondly, the advent of video hosting sites such as Youtube makes it very easy to make personal videos available on the public domain. With a combination of these two technologies, the modern teenager is given an unprecedented amount of convenience in creating and showing off their personal videos.

I agree with the sources that the writer has quoted that convenience brought about by these new technologies can be both good and bad. While it could foster creativity in an individual and bring homemade entertainment to the masses the dark side of such tools is also evident from the text.

I agree with the writer that the social trigger for such activities is that of trying to maintain a self image. Teenagers are especially vulnerable to this type of mentality because many are concerned about what their friends think of them and want to portray themselves in a certain manner. Although internet videos can certainly be used as a tool for improving your self-image, it is often used in the wrong way, as can be seen from the article.

I can empathize with the teachers who are caught in a bind as they try to find solutions to the problem while not stifling creativity; having to monitor, regulate and moderate your students' activities on the web can be a real pain. The strategy of the administrators at Benjamin who are offering classes on blogging and video techniques seems like a step in the right direction, but may still be inadequate. While these will probably help to channel the energy spent in misguided activities into healthy areas, it does not tackle the problem at its roots; the problem of student’s insecurities about their images. Therefore, I think that for an effective solution, both the technological and social problems should be solved together with compulsory classes specifically targeted at destroying instances of fight filming from happening again. As another part of the solution, I do agree that existing school rules should be revised to take into consideration the changing technology of the 21st century that students can access.

In the case at Benjamin, the student code didn't address YouTube or fake fights. This led to loopholes in the school system where students were not able to be punished appropriately by the school because there wasn't an explicit ban on filming fights and posting them on the internet. Therefore, I suggest that schools revise not just their rules but their teaching system as a whole to promote healthy use of video sharing websites and technology.