Manon’s Blog

When creating a website for the first time determining where everything should be placed is not obvious. However, just like anything in life, there is a useful and effective way to organize a website. There are certain areas of a page that attract more attention from a reader than others. These areas are known as “hot spots.”

Luckily, I mostly had automatically followed the “hot spots” naturally. The only real changes I made to my blog were to place my blog links to the right side bar. After all, it has been shown that most users tend to look to the right for any links. Otherwise, my blog title was already located in the upper left of the page and my blog information remained at the center of the page as well. The left hand is the first place readers look since most people tend to read left to right. Furthermore, since information should be the “center” of attention to the reader, it is important to place any writing at the center of the page.

These few tips are very helpful to help create a more user friendly blog or web page. By going to the Hot Spots
web page you will be able to further explore how to create a usable website.

With the recent You Tube scandal, online violence has become a pressing problem in the United States. Recently there has been an increase in the amount of violent videos uploaded to different online sites, notably You Tube.

The fact that young teens are able to not only premeditate an attack on one of their peers, but videotape it as well, is very alarming. Teens seem to have lost the disgust in violence that current adults still have. They are less susceptible to seeing pain in others and reacting in a way to help the injured person.

However, is the internet to blame? Though the internet access may have increased throughout the United States, there is no direct link that it has increased teen violence. When video games first came out the same claims were made, however, many studies disagreed with the assumption.

As seen here, the violence rates have actually decreased with the years. There is no need to blame the internet and websites such as You Tube for the inability of some teens to control their anger. However, if we, as a society, work together to defeat such violence, perhaps teen violence will continue to decrease. No teen should enjoy violence, whether it be watching violence or committing acts of violence. Personally, anyone who wants to fight should be sent to the military because they could be more valuable committing such acts against a common enemy. The penalty may be harsh, but shock is really the main solution to catch the attention of any violent person.

Truthfully, I could never commit an act of violence. I cannot understand how people enjoy watching people in pain. It is hard enough for me to watch people suffer in a movie, let alone in real life. For now I do not know how people turn to such violence, I can only hope that with the combined efforts of parents, friends and teachers, teen violence will continue to go down in quantity.

In November of 2007 an article was released on Science Daily Online discussing the overprotection of teens on the internet. Many schools and parents have placed restrictions on students and children from roaming around on the internet. The teenagers are not able to use any blogging or chatting websites. Parents and teachers have placed these restrictions to help protect the safety of their children. It is widely known that there are many hate groups and other “digital dangers” according to the article “Benefits of Online Interaction…” Some children may be offended or hurt by material spread by the internet, yet is that a reason to isolate them from the pain?

Personally, I agree with Professor Brendesha Tynes that teens need to be exposed to such internet dangers. As hard as society tries, racism and negative input will remain important issues that will lurk through our streets. Choosing to create a teenage class where ignorance is bliss will only be negative to the future of the children. Prejudice cannot always be ignored, instead it must be confronted. Similarly, the dangers created by the internet must be confronted. Instead of pretending nothing is wrong with the internet, parents and teachers should teach there children how to protect themselves and remain safe on the internet. Eventually, students and teachers may find that the benefits of confronting the internet far outweigh the negative possibilities that the internet presents.

Myself, I have never been subject to internet protection at home. I have learned to remain safe on the internet through experience. I know never to give my name out on the internet and I know how to keep any pages related to me private. As a result, I have never had a bad experience from the internet, besides spending hours researching for a last minute project! I realize that some people do not feel as secure on the internet as I do, but that is why I find that learning internet protection is so important. No one should fear the internet because it has so much to offer!