wordsworth

CyberTeen: What about that name? Someone at the Sentinel made it up. On Thursday last in the Orlando Sentinel (step-child of the Chicago Tribune) there was an article I’ll save for you titled “Digital Puberty: A new rite of passage”. It had some tips for teens on cyber-civility. Here are a couple hi-lites:

“Don’t make big moves on Facebook,” says Kelly Kovacs, a high school senior. “Don’t fight on Facebook; don’t tell someone you love them for the first time; don’t ask someone for a first date on Facebook or in a text message.”

Don’t give out your password, not even to your best friend, or your boyfriend or girlfriend. Some of the nastiest scenarios unfold after a romantic breakup.

One thing they don’t mention is the error of attaching a birth year to a digital handle, like NeKo94, or NoItAll57; doing so may advertise age to a cyber-predator looking for young or old, both of whom are vulnerable to various forms criminal abuse, youth often victimized by sex crime, the aged often abused by property swindles.

Anyway, here’s one of my favorite songs for the digital age, a song I gave your mom even before we became computer-using-publishers. You’ve heard it before. But so what? It’s a good oldie. And I still want to believe that it is about moving with Jennifer into the digital world, and yeah, you, too. Here on the world wide web, looking for your love, one of your computer loves, I remain, Cyber+Fifty