PLN-22

Megan Meier was thirteen years old and coping with not only your basic teenage problems, but also with depression and attention deficit disorder. W hen she met Josh, her life changed. Things got better for her, but after Josh end the relationship, things for Megan went downhill. In Neighbor Family Manipulates Suicidal Teen from CBS and CNN (the articles were the same), a fake boy in a young girls life causes more damage than the real thing could.

Thirteen year old, Megan started up a MySpace. Though she was a year too young to have a MySpace, it didn't stop her from making many friends. One of those friends was Josh Evans, a boy who never even existed. Josh was created by the family of a former friend of Megan. The family wanted to see what Megan said about their own daughter. They never realized that when they made Josh end his relationship with Megan, that things would get so out of control.

This article relates to me because so many of my own friends own MySpaces. Though they are all old enough to handle one, at our young ages, we can still be easily manipulated by the people we talk to online. I do not own a MySpace, but I see the talks my friends have with people online, and I can't help but worry that my friends will get so deeply involved with someone that they meet through MySpace, that when the relationship ends, my friends will resort to suicide, like Megan. I know my friends are more sensible than that, but I still fear that I am going to get a call similar to the one Megan's friends must have received when she died in the hospital.

This article relates to the world because MySpaces are very quickly becoming more and more popular, and more and more dangerous for fragile teens. Thousands of teenagers just like my friends have a MySpace. More than half of them get in too deep with the strangers they meet online. MySpaces are one of the easiest and most interesting ways to talk to others, but shouldn't we be concerned that, though there is an age requirement of fourteen years old, thirteen year old girls like Megan are still meeting people like Josh, who only mean to hurt them? The family who manipulated Megan never meant to hurt her like they did, but their intent was to manipulate her and trick her into revealing things they could have found out without leading her into that false sense of security. Because of MySpaces, people all over the world can manipulate young adults, with much more malicious intent in mind.

Teenagers have a need to be social. We love to talk with others, and chat online. We call friends daily and probably couldn't stay sane without doing so. However, when a relationship with someone you have never met, and don't truly know anything about, get so far out of hand that you resort to suicidal thoughts, I have to wonder; is being able to chat 24/7 worth it?