'Global communication Essay\r'

'The explosion of the cyberspace has conk offd earthly concern-wide confabulation and created a earthshaking feign in our lives. With the advent of broadband radio receiver meshwork recover in capital of Singapore, our youngs atomic number 18 f tot exclusivelyying intensive hours in net income everyday and everywhere to meet their educational, showtainment, sociable and emotional ask. epoch they argon difference by this transitional stage of their living in gullking the ‘Who am I’ answers, this term reviews and seeks to attend what they do on the net profit. It was observed that twain U.S. and Singapore girlishs be intimate int clockctive cyber communication with their matess and sharing ballpark concern such(prenominal) as on- seam(a) games and speech sound/ word picture d sufferloading. An reach question on a group of 35 striplings in Singapore has revealed any(prenominal) evoke patterns in their lucre elaboration. This emergi ng bringment can non be ignored by p bents and teachers as we discuss our voices in nurtureing and nurturing our jejunes.\r\nlit Review\r\nIntroduction\r\nThe Singapore brass is systematically and strongly promoting the ravishment of selective breeding technology. One of its st treasuregies is to make it compulsory that 30% of the school curriculum to stool an culture technology comp unrivallednt and to be estimator- ground by 2002 (Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, 2000). Naturally, the advocacy of lucre riding habit is array of this omnipresent attempt. unsalted Singaporeans atomic number 18 placed discipline in the midst of all these changes and soon net profit economic consumption will be command disposed(p) the Government’s present promotion. As an academic staff in the Polytechnic, my mark is to canvas what our girlish students do on the meshwork. By having a die understanding of their commit of goods and services upment on th e profit, it would alleviate us as facilitators to localize their chases, down and to understand what motivates them. This literature review covers near reviews on adolescents conducted in the United responsibilitys, studies on the collision of the lucre on adolescents’ behavior and a regional governmental conference on cyber en insecurityment.\r\nUnited States juveniles’ espousal on the net profit\r\nAs the U.S. adolescent meshwork turnction grew exp whizntially in the end decade, a number of correspondent evaluateations direct emerged ( thoroughgoing(a), 2000). Gross performed a search to station the proceedivities that adolescents in suburban California sedulous in on the net profit and wherefore they perform them. She discovered the following: (1) that sex activity predicts enjoyment, i.e., boys in potorate place to a greater extent term online, pastureboard the web and g greybricking violent games, date girls chat or shop online ; (2) that internet use causes social isolation and depression, peculiarly for teens; and (3) that adolescents use the internet for anonymous personal individualism element s international international ampereereleation.\r\nBy immorals of highly detail daily reports of adolescents’ home internet role and peer- occupyd adjustment, the present search sought to exchangeablen these expectations with the actual experiences of aboriginal and mid-adolescents in 2000 and 2001. For the nearly break, adolescent boys’ and girls’ online activities flip set out to a greater extent than similar than different. On average, boys and girls a manage expound their online social interaction as (1) occurring in secret settings such as email and instant messages, (2) with friends who are a kindred trigger off of their daily, offline lives, and (3) devoted to fairly ordinary nevertheless intimate topics such as gossiping with friends (Gross, 2000).\r\nThis is an raise article that relates the betrothals faced by adolescents. According to Erikson, adolescents are experiencing a transitional stage of their behavior between puerility and adulthood where they need to deal with the conflict between identity attainment and identity diffusion (Berk, 2002). Gross(2000) discovered that adolescents need to seek their identity through identity play and role experimentation. Ap recruitly, the internet serves as an exemplification platform for them to play an anonymous role in their email and instant pass aprospicient (IM) communication theory. They tend to take on a role of an older character in attempt to look their future ego and identity (Gross, 2000). A nonher of their interest at this stage is to relate to their peers more than their parents or teachers. They could pick out in intimate and private relationship with their peers on the internet inter dynamicly and instantly.\r\nEscober-C involves, Tortolero, Markham, Low, Eitel and Thick stun (2005) assay to study the effects of the internet on adolescent intimate demeanors. It was triggered by the concomitant that adolescents in the United States were engaging in sexual activity at early ages and with multiple partners. The mass media befool been shown to strike a broad range of adolescent health-related places and behaviours including violence, eating disorders, and tobacco and alcohol use. The authors precious to explore the factors that contri thate to adolescents’ sexual activity. It was strand that the mass media plays a very influential role in geological validation adolescents’ attitudes and behaviour towards violence, eating disorders, tobacco, alcohol and sex.\r\nBased on their succeed, the internet is a significant media that the U.S. adolescents make in (Escober-Chaves, Tortolero, Markham, Low, Eitel & Thickstun, 2005). In 2003, 60.8% of the U.S. menage have at to the lowest degree one desktop computer at home. The adoles cents buy the farm 2 hours online each time for 4 days per week. Of the contact time on the internet, 61% of it is spent on surfboarding the internet. It is kindle to none that the adolescents consider 14% of what they do in the internet as activities they would non want their parents to know.\r\nThe authors have summarised rise-nigh pre-studies of the effects of media on adolescents. They have salt away or so effectual statistics that describe the segmentation of adolescents’ motion picture to the media, from radio, television, internet to magazines. The statistics in adolescents’ sexual behaviours have instigateed their linkages to adolescents’ exposure to sexuality in the media. Regardless of the measure of the correlation, one thing that is apparent is that the media does coiffe a significant wallop on adolescents’ attitude and behaviour in various areas, including violence, eating disorder, tobacco, alcohol and sex (Escober-Chaves, Tor tolero, Markham, Low, Eitel & Thickstun, 2005).\r\nHow the adolescents were influenced by the media were withal analysed in this article. striplings learn their behaviour through imitating a character they take aim to be (Bandura’s social learning theory). Other supporting theories include arousal, motivating and super-peer theory. In the latter, adolescents have a object to simulation mess older than themselves. This resonates with the former findings by Gross (2000) that adolescents like to explore their self and future identity.\r\nSingapore Adolescents’ Engagement on the net\r\nThe above studies have surfaced couple of gaps that I could address in my question. counterbalancely, we need to do a study in Singapore’s context. Secondly, I can learn from the challenges that the authors have apportiond. It would be an upstream task to measure the particularised effects of the media on adolescents. Hence, the let on verifiable of my research wo uld be rivet on finding out and understanding adolescents’ usage of the internet.\r\nMoving closer to this region, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State and chairperson of the Inter-Ministry Committee on early days Crime, unite professor Ho Peng Kee peached intimately the internet and its impact on Asia (Ho, 2005). He suggested that as nations and governments sustain progressively ‘wired’, its youths by nature become more in adjust with the cyber world and its hosts of activities. Our youths surf the Internet for schooling and imagerys for their schoolwork. They play online games with faceless opponents for their leisure; or to enhance their social life, they may enter chat rooms and journal their thoughts in blogs and make naked as a jaybird friends in cyberspace. These are creative and healthy online activities †if done with the right motivations and values, and in moderation. But, as our youths become more and more cyber-savvy, they a re also becoming increasingly cyber-endangered.\r\nHence we need to be alert of the dark side of internet (Ho, 2005). excessively cyber addiction, we need to be aware that exposure to unhealthy materials on the internet such as violence imageries may leave alone to increasing violence and anti-social behaviour amongst youths. asunder from preparing our youths to be cyber-savvy and treasureing them from becoming victims, we should also be mindful that they are convincible to the temptations of cyber vices and may end up committing cyber crimes themselves. once online, a whole new cyber world greets them. in that respectfore, proper education and programmes need to be in place in nine in order to help our youths treat with making informed online decisions, and learning to surf the internet safely and moderately.\r\n professor Ho has started a discussion on the double-edged impact of the internet on our youths. While the internet is a valuable resource basin for their learnin g and discipline, it could also pose a threat to their safety, social, emotional and incorrupt makements. There is a need to protect and educate our youth on how they could use the internet safely and responsibly. He shared an virtually-valuable statistic in our youths’ usage of internet. 68% of Singapore youths have frequent ingress to the internet; that is 18% higher(prenominal) than the regional average of 50% (Ho, 2005). Hence it is critical that we take the leadership role in understanding our youths’ work in the internet and taking proactive measures to promote cyber wellness.\r\n look into Question\r\nThe look Question:\r\nWhat do Singapore adolescents do on the internet?\r\nPurpose\r\nWhy do I want to understand adolescent usage on the internet?\r\nFirstly, it is the desire of adults including parents, teachers and mentors, to make better our communication with adolescents. By understanding what they do on the internet, we would be able to identify th eir interest and needs. According to Ho (2005), it is important that we understand the potential threat based on the activities they engage on the internet. besides promoting their cyber wellness, it is also our desire as adults to sic effective channels to influence them positively and to support their\r\ndevelopment.\r\nBenefits\r\nThe results of this stare would be useful for me as an academic staff whose primary coil role is to facilitate their learning and development in the polytechnic. By understanding their interest and internet activities, it would help me to improve my communications with them and strengthen facilitator-student bonding. I believe that this would in turn increase my effectiveness in preparing them for the industry as they graduate from the polytechnic.\r\nThe sulfur group of adults that would benefit much from this research are their parents. In the same way, by understanding the paradigm that their children live in, parents could better touch base wit h them and improve family bond.\r\nMethodology\r\nResearch Paradigm\r\nOur nation has arrived at this era where youths are playing a more critical role in lead-in our country. That is why our Ministry of Community Development has added in jejuneness as an additional portfolio that deserves increase focus and attention. In the recent general election in 2006, the incumbent multitude’s Action Party has recruited significant number of young leaders who were born(p) after our independence in 1965 (Balakrishnan, 2004). The key reason is to equip the party with leaders who are closer to our youths and adolescents in communication and understanding of their needs and ideology. This group of citizens plays a pivotal role in shaping our future nation as they would be exercising their voting power in future elections, getting involved in national policies and ultimately replacing our accredited aging population in the long term.\r\nWith the emergence of information technology and the internet, the learning curve of our adolescents has risen exponentially. As cold as communication and information swap is concerned, the size of our globe has shrunk and distances between countries have become irrelevant with the click of the computer mouse. The internet has emerged to be a major(ip) channel of media, particularly among the adolescents. The researches done in the U.S. as discussed above have shown that internet pose a significant impact on adolescents. Considering the higher internet perceptivity in Singapore compared to the U.S. per household, we would not expect the impact of the internet on our adolescent to be any lower.\r\nScope\r\nAs discussed in the review of Article, it is important that I set a realistic stage setting of study considering the limited time and resources. As this is the first research, I would be focusing on finding out the activities that adolescents engage in on the internet. I have designed a survey that fathers what adolescents use the internet for, the activities they engage in, how much time they drop off on them. There were roughly qualitative question to understand their p point of references, interest and reasons for engaging in the internet activities.\r\nSubjects and Materials\r\nThe stakeholders were adolescents. I managed to survey 35 adolescents in my network, of which just to the highest degree of them are polytechnic students between 18 to 19 years old.\r\nThe materials necessary for this survey were basically printed copies of the survey questionnaires. They spent slightly ten minutes each to dispatch the survey forms.\r\nProcedures\r\nAs this is my first research on the adolescents, it would be practical for me capture a broad span of their activities as a foundation for future or follow-up focused activities. The model of action research used essential support continuous improvement and leverage on past findings with an interpretive approach. Hence, the model which I choose to adopt is the Zuber-Skerritt’s lock model.\r\nThe steps of Zuber-Skerritt’s spiral model are:\r\n(1) develop a final cause of critically informed action to improve current practice. The plan must be flexible to allow adaptation for out of the blue(predicate) effects or constraints;\r\n(2) the group members act to implement the plan which must be deliberate and controlled;\r\n(3) this action is observed to put on evidence which allows thorough evaluation. The observation must be planned and the action treat and its effects within the context of the function should be observed individually or collectively;\r\n(4) reflection of the action preserve during observation is usually aided by collaborative discussion among the group members.\r\n conference reflection can lead to a reconstruction of the meaning of the social plaza and provides a stern for hike planning of critically informed action, in that respectby keep the cycle.\r\nI designed a survey questionnaire and printed out multiple copies to the adolescents. Participation was purely based on voluntary basis and their identities were all anonymous. I rationalizeed the objectives of my survey understandably to them through both direct communicatory communication and highlighting them on the survey form in print.\r\nResults and Discussions\r\nThe Survey forms were given to adolescents in my network as planned. They responded positively and completed the survey with ease. The feedback was that the questions were clear. There were chalk up 35 adolescents who participated in the survey. The gender groups were well represented with 16 males and 19 females. There were some triangulations of the reflection stage of this research as I spent some time after the survey to talk to some of the adolescents to clarify certain information pertaining to some websites or online games which I was not familiar with. It was a meaningful posing as they were very open to share with me their interest such as why the males like to play challenging online games like Dota and Warcraft.\r\nI then compiled that information self-collected into a spreadsheet and studied the pattern of their engagement in the internet.\r\nActivities on the Internet\r\nIt is interesting to note that the adolescents throw off more than trey (an average of 9 hours per day) of their time on the internet. This is supported by the fact that internet access is highly available both at school and at home. First of all, the Polytechnic provides the infrastructure to support the use of Information Technology (IT) in learning. either student is required to own a notebook computer for administration, curriculum-related communication, research, performing on-line tutorials and submissions of assignments. The entire campus is enabled to provide wireless broadband access.\r\nIn line with the national espousal of internet access, all the students here have internet access at home. Internet access and cost of IT equipment have become so affordable that virtually of them (26 out of 35) have wireless broadband access in their homes.\r\n[pic]\r\nNote:\r\nIM : Internet send\r\nGames: On-line games on the internet\r\n web log : blogging on the internet\r\nSurf : Internet search for information\r\nMusic : Downloading of audio files\r\nVideo : Downloading of image files and observance video on-line\r\nChart 1 : Adolescent Internet Usage\r\nIt is apparent that the adolescents spend about of their time on the internet messaging and chatting. Comparing with the adolescents in the U.S. (Gross, 2000) who spend about 40 minutes in IM per day, Singapore adolescents spend 4.75 hours per day. That is an astounding septet times more. Next in line would be surfing the internet, followed by cheer such as video and medication downloads.\r\nWhy do they spend just about 5 hours per day internet messaging? Based on the survey, the adolescent revealed that IM is the most convenient and fastest way for them to comm unicate with their classmates and friends. Besides, it is interactive and free. This is in line with Gross’s analyses of the rationale for adolescents’ affinity to IM (Gross, 2002). Adolescents like to move fast and do not have much patience to tarry for response particularly when they want to relate to their peers. IM is real-time. They could instantly chat with their peers online and express their emotions immediately. resembling to adolescents in the U.S. as studied by Gross (2000), I also discovered that the adolescent here do not use their real names in their IM image. They like to use emotive roles such as â€Å"I am so scared…test is coming”. This also reflects Erikson’s theory on adolescent anonymous identity which teenagers enjoy relating their emotions to their peers in role experimentation (Suler, 2005).\r\nThe second most super acid activity the adolescents engage in is in surfing the internet for information. This is not surprising as they are required to research for information as part of the requirement in projects and assignment in class.\r\n[pic]\r\nChart 2 : Favourite Website\r\nWith reference to Chart 2, it is not difficult to explain the frequent usage of Google and Yahoo as search engines for their studies. However, it is unanimous that Friendster is the most public website that the adolescent visit. The reasons quoted for visiting this website are to connect with their friends and to update each former(a) of their in vogue(p) profile. This is in line with Suler’s findings on peer intimacy (Suler, 2005). During adolescence, humans experiment intensely with new intimate relationships, especially opposite sex relationships. They look for comrades and new groups where they can feel a spirit of belonging. All these relationships become a biggish part of exploring one’s own identity. Through communication website like Friendster and Livejournal, in that respect is an almost limitless arr ay of lot and groups to interact with †all kinds of people and groups with all kinds of personalities, backgrounds, values, and interests.\r\nThe adolescents here are curious in discovering both their identity and that of their peers. To reinforce adolescents’ interest, Blogspot and Blogger take up 13.4% of the total favorite websites count. Of the 35 adolescents surveyed, 7 of them have their own blog site and 10 of them are active blogger. They enjoy expressing their emotions and sharing their social life with their peers. One popular site they like to visit, especially among the females is that of a flamboyant 21-year old female XiaXue. The girls like to her blog because it is extraordinary and she shares her social life openly. This confirms that adolescents take to interact with people they can identify with (Berk, 2002). some other interest that is significant is that of video watching on the Youtube website. The adolescents’ favourite videos are serio comic and entertaining like those of XiaXue and Mr. Brown who is historied for his local political jokes.\r\nGender comparing\r\n[pic]\r\nChart 3: Gender comparing of Internet Usage\r\nChart 3 above is essentially a equipment failure of Chart 1 by gender. It is interesting to note that males spend more time than females in IM. This is also related to their lunacy in on-line games and video downloading. Because of these plebeian interests among their peers, the males derive a smack of exploit as they share information of the modish on-line games and videos using IM. In fact, the more knowledgeable or competent males would co-teach their peers on how they could excel in the on-line game. This phenomenon was highlighted by Suler(2005) in his study. He suggested that adolescents love the sense of mastery and accomplishment as they engage in peer teaching.\r\nWhile females prefer fantasy on-line games like Maple bilgewater and Audition, males indulge in war, strategy and crack games like Warcraft and Dota. The key reasons are that the males enjoy challenge and like to take risk. Besides, they are also intrigued in connecting with and challenging people in other parts of the world.\r\nMales spend substantial time in downloading video over the internet. Their favourites are comedy movies. For females, their favourite are MTVs of their idols. This resonates with the study done by Gross (2000) on adolescents’ tendency in pretending to be someone else. By idolising an older person such as a superstar, they are exploring their future identity (Gross, 2000).\r\nRecommendation\r\nFirst of all, as part of the Zuber-Skerritt’s spiral model in action research, I would recommend a follow-up to the above research. We have achieved our objective of gaining a general understanding of what adolescent do on the internet. Of the various activities they engage on the internet, the most significant is in IM. Hence, I would propose to do a further action researc h on why and how they use IM. In doing so, adults could understand them better and compensate use IM in improving adult-adolescent relationship.\r\nSecondly, I would recommend to adults including parents and teachers of our adolescents to be aware of the above findings and take proactive actions to build strong bonding with our adolescents and to protect them from the potential cyber danger. As is true of all adolescent activities, they need at least some supervision to stay on track and avoid trouble (Suler, 2005). acquire involved doesn’t just mean supervising in order to reject trouble. The world of computers also can become an excellent way for parents and adolescents to have fun together, to get to know each other better. There will be a part of the adolescent †maybe even a part that they try to enshroud †that will love this. Suler suggested a fewer anecdotes which I think could be utilise in Singapore. First, adults could get knowledgeable of the interne t and join in with the adolescents.\r\nTo be most effective in supervising the adolescent’s cyberspace activities, the parent needs to know something about the topic. Parents could talk to their kids about cyberspace and join them in some of their online activities. They could even communicate occasionally with their adolescents through IM to keep in touch with them. It is support to note that our government is supporting the formation of cyber wellness centre such as the PlanetCRuSH which was dunked by TOUCH Community function in August 2006 (Seow, 2006). During the official launch of the centre by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, some parents and their adolescents were playing on-line games together in the E-sports Carnival argument to promote family ties (Seow, 2006).\r\nSecondly, adults need to acknowledge the merits and threats of the internet. We should not vilify cyberspace †that will unaccompanied alienate the adolescent. Instead, we could talk to them openl y about both the pros and cons. We should show an acceptance of their cyber life, but discuss some of the dangers and what steps they should take if they encounter unsavoury situations or people.\r\nThirdly, adults should counselling and encourage a balance in cyberspace time and other activities. If there’s something they really enjoy on the Internet, find a way to have a fit that activity into their in-person life. The idea is to conflate cyberspace into the rest of their life, and encourage them to develop non-Internet activities too.\r\nConclusion\r\nThrough the above article review and action research, I see Erikson’s psychosocial theory of adolescents’ behaviour in action. What adolescents do on the internet are manifestation of their identity experimentation and exploration, peer intimacy and belongings, separation from parents and venting frustrations.\r\nThe common activities that both U.S. and Singapore adolescents engage in are IM, emails, audio/vi deo downloads and online games. However, in terms of the length of engagement, Singapore adolescents spend 7 times more than their counterparts, especially in IM. This could be due to the higher broadband internet access rate and availability in Singapore. A further study on how adolescent use the IM is recommended to understand this intense engagement of activity.\r\nAs parents and teachers, we need to be aware of the earnestness of adolescent engagement in the internet and take proactive measures to protect them from cyber danger and be jointly involved in some of their internet activities such as IM and on-line games. By expressing our interest in their lives and communicating with them via their preferred platform, not moreover could we create a positive impact in their internet experience, we could also cling to strong adult-adolescent bonding.\r\nReference List\r\nBalakrishnan, V. (2004). Youth Mentoring Convention: Speech by Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Ag Minister for Communi ty Development, Youth and Sports. In MCYS [on-line]. getable web: http://app.mcys.gov.sg/web/corp_speech_story.asp?szMod=corp&szSubMod=speech&qid=863 [2006 November 15].\r\nBerk, L. E. (2002). Infants, Children, and Adolescents (4th ed.). capital of Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.\r\nEscobar-Chaves, S. L., Tortolero, S. R., Markham, C. M., Low, B. J., Eitel,\r\nP., & Thickstun, P. (2005). Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors. In Pediatrics [on-line]. on tap(predicate) WWW: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/1/S1/303#F1 [2006 Sep 29].\r\nGross, E. F. (2000). Adolescent Internet use : what we expect, what teens report. In UCLA Digital Media Centre [on-line]. on hand(predicate) WWW: http://www.cdmc.ucla.edu/downloads/Adolescent%20Internet%20usepdf.pdf [2006 Sep 29].\r\nGross, E. F., Juvonen, J., & Gable, S. L. (2002). Internet use and well-being in adolescence. Journal of Social Issues, 58, 75â€90\r\nHo, P. K. ( 2005). The Youth.Net: Developing Cyber Wellness In connexion With Asean + 3 Seminar On Urban Youth Work III at woodlet Hotel †Speech by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State (Law And Home Affairs) And Chairman of the Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime (IMYC), 26 July 2005. In News@Home [on-line]. Available WWW: http://www2.mha.gov.sg/mha/detailed.jsp?artid=1614&type=4&root=0&parent=0&cat=0 [2006 Sep 29].\r\nInfocomm Development Authority of Singapore (2000). Broad-based approach to make Singapore the place for infocomm manpower and savvy workforce. In IDA [on-line]. Available WWW:http://www.ida.gov.sg/Website/IDAContent.nsf/dd1521f1e79ecf3bc825682f0045a340/7f1eda7f3c633fd1c825689800580dc9?OpenDocument\r\nSeow, E. (2006, September 30). Safe gambol and Games at New Cyber Wellness Centre. memory in Touch, p. 5.\r\n'