I was recently watching the news (yes, some teenagers are interested in current affairs) and following the Virginia Tech University shootings, the BBC showed a piece on how new media has helped the lives of the survivors—using YouTube to create tribute memorial videos, using Facebook and MySpace to try contacting one another to see if people are safe, and quick text messages to tell people that they should ring their parents to say they are not hurt. One student even admitted to checking their Facebook account more than they watch the news. The point remains that new media can actually be used for other things besides entertaining people—it can be used to connect with people emotionally, and within a generation who are so plugged into their computers, new media is shown to be the quickest and most efficient way of communicating with young people.

This method has it's benefits and drawbacks though, as with any other technique of communication. People often become very reliant on their social networking account, to the point where they sign in before school, at school, after school, after each meal, before they go to bed and so on, just to see of anything new has happened on their account—I can only talk from a MySpace perspective as I have not yet succumbed to the powers of Facebook! However, young people have manipulated these sites to showcase their talents as a photographer, musician, poet, fashion designer and after recent events, to help people deal with the grief of losing a friend. These sites have also proved to be an instant, sure-fire way of checking for someone's safety.

Contributed by Jess