Internet is more and more popular. The number of teenagers using the Internet has grown 24% in the past four years and 87% of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online.
Of course there is the bad and… the good side…
The Bad
- Easy access to pornography (children can come across pictures or films accidentally).
- Viruses and malicious software (złe/wredne oprogramowanie) that affect our home and business computers – it’s so easy to receive (otrzymać) one of them in an e-mail so be very careful when opening unknown e-mails).
- SPAM – do we have to say more on this subject?
- Psychopaths, murderers, paedophiles – you have to be aware (być świadomym) of their presence on-line. It’s a very serious problem and you have to be very careful who you are talking with.
The Good
- Access to museums and libraries all across the world – it definitely makes your school life easier.
- Instant access (ciągły dostęp) to the latest news and events.
- Instant access to friends and family through e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing. You don’t have to worry you’ll lose contact with them and you don’t pay huge telephone bills.
- Shop from home without leaving your chair – it’s getting more and more popular. This kind of shopping saves you time (you don’t stand in a traffic jam, don’t queue) and money.
- Entertainment – music, movies, books, radio, etc. You don’t know which book to buy for your friend, what was on the radio yesterday or what movie to watch with your boy/girl? You can check all of this information (and more) on the Internet. And there are millions of great games!
We love the fact that we can find any information within a few minutes but we also hate all the bad things out there that can hurt us. Of course it will never get better and the best we can do is to be aware and protect ourselves.
Is there anything you can’t live without? Czy jest coś, bez czego nie możesz żyć?
There are many things that teenagers need. Money and free time – that’s for sure. And if you had a lot of money and free time, what would you do?
- Computer games – some of us love computer games, others just like them. The best thing about computer games is that when you play you are in a different world. There are so many scenarios, stories, characters that actually everyone of us can find something for themselves. Be careful and don’t forget that a game is one thing and the real world is another!
- Chat rooms on the Internet – you can talk to hundreds of people at the same time (well, you can try) from all over the world. Many teenagers are shy and have complexes – that’s normal. While meeting in person makes them even shyer, chatting on-line makes you anonymous (anonimowy), if you want to be. And all people you meet seem to be more relaxed, tolerant and friendlier.
- MP3 (or MP4) players – we all love music and teenagers love music even more! It’s really great to have your favourite songs with you all the time. In the past there was a walkman (cassette player), the disc-man (CD player) and today there are MP3 and MP4 players. Do you notice that almost everybody on the bus has one?
- Television – it’s been with us for many, many years. Why do we love TV? You can just sit in front of it and be… lazy! You don’t have to move, or do anything! And of course there is always something interesting on.
- Mobile phones or cell phones (American) – it doesn’t matter what we call them, it is number one on the list of things that a teenager can’t live without! The newest tunes wake us up in the morning, friends saying hello in messages and you sending messages if you have any questions or you just want to say… hello. A mobile makes your relationship more vivid (żywsze), you have contact all the time (if you turn the buzz off, you can get the messages even during the lessons at school). Unfortunately, many young people forget that it’s not the only one way they can communicate with their friends.
Zadanie 1. Gap filling
person; e-mails; friends; future; laughed; interesting; people; other; married; student; common; photos
Internet love story
I was a scholarship (1)______________ at the University of Barcelona. I had been there one year and was very lonely. I chatted with my Polish (2)______________ on the Internet but they weren’t there with me.
One day I decided to check a Spanish chat room. There were quite a lot of (3)_____________ online but whether I couldn’t understand them or there was nothing (4)_____________ about them. Suddenly a guy wrote me a message “Hello, you poor girl”. He was from Seville and there was something in the way he “talked”, he was so sensitive and funny. We talked a lot and it was obvious that we had a lot in (5)________________. We “met” in the chat almost every day. If we couldn’t, we were sending (6)___________. After a while we exchanged (7)__________________, we talked on the phone a few times and we began to think we should meet in (8)_____________. A month after our virtual meeting I travelled to Seville. This was the first personal meeting and of course we were both very nervous, but not disappointed. All day long we wondered around. I (9)_______________ all the time and I couldn’t believe I was so relaxed. There was no doubt we wanted to stay in touch. We were still meeting on chat, calling and thinking about each (10)______________.
A week later he came to see me in Barcelona. From then on we met every weekend. Our love grew each day and we started planning a (11)______________ together. One year later we became engaged and in 2004 we were (12)_________________. We still chat with other people on the Internet but we don’t look for our second half. We already have each other.
Odpowiedzi
1 – student; 2 – friends; 3 – people; 4 – interesting; 5 – common; 6 – e-mails; 7 – photos; 8 – person; 9 – laughed; 10 – other; 11 – future; 12 – married
Zadanie 2. True or false
Technology addiction
Ryan Timp is a normal American teenager. He goes out with his friends every weekend, spends Sunday afternoons with his family and has to clean his room regularly. Fights between him and his younger brother are common as well. What makes him different is that he mustn’t have a mobile phone, he doesn’t attend informatics classes at school and he writes all his semester essays in a traditional way – by a pen. Why is that?
This 16-year-old boy suffers from depression caused by technology addiction. How did it all start? He had to type his homework on the computer so his parents bought him one. Internet was necessary as well – to look for the information. Ryan was spending more and more time on the Internet. Sometimes he was staying-up all night long. His parents thought he was learning. They didn’t like it too much but they could do nothing – school tasks had to be done.
He started buying new parts for his computer to make it work better. When he was at school and didn’t have an Internet access, he was using his mobile. He bought another computer from his pocket money so that he could play on-line game with one, and chat with people on the other one at the same time.
After some time Ryan stopped going out with his friends, he didn’t want to go to school, he saw no point in learning, eating, talking with people. He couldn’t go to the shop – he said he didn’t like meeting people, later he was pretending he wasn’t at home when the postman knocked on the door. He was sure his friends didn’t like him and people laughed at him all the time. He felt safe only in front of his computer… in the virtual word.
Luckily, the psychologist can helped him… for now. Ryan has to be as far from technology as possible! Sometimes it can be really difficult but he’s trying. One thing is certain, the boy has to be really careful for the rest of his life.
1 Ryan spends Sunday evenings with his parents. true false
2 His parents bought him a computer for school. true false
3 Ryan could stay-up all night long if he was doing something interesting on the computer. true false
4 He was using his first old computer all the time. true false
5 The postman was the only person who Ryan let in the house. true false
6 Ryan never had internet access. true false