Internet allows teens fast access to outside world

The age-old phrase “I’m bored” soon will be obsolete. Just ask any Brewer High School student, and you’ll hear that there aren’t enough hours in the day to accommodate a student’s computer usage. Of 320 BHS students randomly surveyed, only 14 said they did not have a computer at their home, and five of those 14 said they logged on elsewhere. This means that roughly 97 percent of students at Brewer High School have regular access to a computer.

A small percentage admitted to spending more than three hours a day online. Although these teen-agers have been negatively characterized as “Internet junkies,” the Internet offers a positive, diverse community. Computers that have a basic modem and Internet connection provide an endless source of music, create social liberation and spontaneity, and give a whole new meaning to the phrase “window shopping.”

Teens of today get their music mainly from CDs and MP3 files – music files that can be downloaded right off the Internet. Some musicians choose to make their newer music available only through the process of downloading, such as the sensational alternative band Smashing Pumpkins, which released its album “Machina 2” exclusively online. Other music icons, such as Alanis Morrisette, make prereleased songs available in MP3 format at their official Web sites.

One of the most popular sources for retrieving MP3s is Napster. Last fall it was involved in a legal dispute about whether file sharing is the same as stealing music. The broadening opinion is that it is not the same at all. “I absolutely love [Napster]. It has actually made me buy more CDs than I ever did,” said Chelsea Boyd, a student at Brewer High. “I’ve been able to listen to a lot of older stuff like Bob Dylan, Jethro Tull, Neil Young, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Grateful Dead and lots more.”

Napster also is a great place to retrieve the latest hits everyone is talking about. Remember how hard it was to locate a copy of the song “Macarena” by Los Del Rio back when it was a hip, new dance song? That problem has vanished thanks to Napster. Now you can get not only the radio version of the song, but also the Weird Al Yankovic version, the Alvin and the Chipmunks rendition and the Cheech and Chong parody, “Gonorrhea.” This keeps you current with the times, which makes online social gatherings and conversations easier to understand, and you can form your own informed opinions about songs. With Napster, you get an endless amount of choices for music anywhere, allowing your playlist to consist of the most diverse selections. The new age of technology and the Internet has changed the way teen-agers listen to music.

On top of advances in music, the Internet also offers a forum to share opinions with friends or strangers and allows you to receive feedback in seconds.

Thanks to programs such as JavaScript, chat rooms and instant messenger, teen-agers are able to connect with their peers in a setting other than school.

Computers have broken down social barriers, allowing students to become themselves, while feeling protected by the comfort level of their familiar environment.

“I love helping my friends with their problems online. We talk through issues and it really helps both parties involved,” said senior Anne McGuire.

Not only can friends receive help from their peers, they can obtain homework help, too.

“If I miss a day of school,” Meagan Fleming said, “I can contact my friends online to get the assignments I missed.”

One beauty of the instant messenger program is the unlimited number of people who can talk with each other at one time.

Another is that IM is free, which means catching up with your buddy in Guam no longer entails a $42 phone bill. Every day, teen-agers chat long into the night, often with people they have never met.

When have you ever dialed a random number and struck up a conversation with a total stranger about the significance of the play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”? Such a premise is possible and even common to Web-based teen-agers.

Another online activity catching on rapidly is shopping.

Forget putting on your Sunday best and rushing to those early-bird sales at the local Ames department store. Now you can shop whenever you want in your pajamas, your underwear or naked.

Online stores not only offer convenience and endless variety, many present shoppers with free shipping and handling, overnight delivery and the option to send the purchased item gift-wrapped.

Comparing prices online is much easier than driving store to store – and wasting gas – to get the best deal, because just a click of the mouse takes the shopper to any store on the Web.

You can bid for items on eBay, shop for books or CDs at Amazon and purchase pants at the Gap.

Sixty-three percent of Brewer High School students surveyed spend an hour or more each day at their computers.

With so much time invested in e-mail, instant messaging, research and word processing, teen-agers simply don’t have time to be bored.

Now parents only need to worry about the complaint, “I need more gigs!”

Editor’s Note: The writers are students at Brewer High School. Their faculty advisers are Tanya Baker and Sherri Thomas.