Huron Expositor, 2007-06-06, Page 4Page 4 June 6, 2007 • The Huron Expositor
Opinion
Proprietor and Publisher, Bowes Publishers Limited, 11 Main St., Seaforth, ON, NOK 1WO
KIds today don't
know how to relax
It!ung
people have often been unfairly stereotyped and
for their work ethic or lack of it.
It's quite easy to look at youth from an older perspective
and deduce that ycirng people are - I ley andlack
the ambition &thleirpredlecessor & : I dent times call
for different meastires and while it may be Viable to
suspect that young people their .spare time with
thumbs engaged m tett-merging or video game maneu-
vers, nothing could be further fiVill the truth.
Statistics Canada recently released the findings of a
study that suggests that Canadian teenagers work longer
than their counterparts in Australia, the United States
and all European countries that track such data
lbs study revealed that the average teenager between the
age 15 and 19 years sods about 50 haus a week on work,
the same as the average Canadian adult. lbday's teen will
spend 92 haps an school days Engaged in attending school,
doing horneword, gousg to a jobs adding some volunteer worn
and even pabmmg household choral
On non -school days they spend 3.5 hours at paid work
or other chores. It is worth noting that our teens are
spending more time at paying jobs on school days than
teenagers in every country except the U.S., our young peo-
ple also devote nm time to school work than teenagers in
try except Belgium.
s vJV'lileetthee resultsstudy indicate Canadian teens
are industrious and far from lazy, it also reported that
stress levels are high among young .. • who feel pres-
sured to maintain paid jobs and 14 : • lactic standing.
Fbrty per cent claimed they were under constant pressure
to do more than they could handle and sixty percent
added that they were sacrificing coring sleep.
Teens are under stress to perform at school and for most
of them, it is imperative to work at a paying job to be able
to afford clothes and social activities.
Many parents simply can't provide for all their kids'
wants and young people learn social responsibility and
useful life and work skills through paid employment.
So, while our young people are proving to be industrious
and hard working people, which bodes well for the coun-
try's future, they are also experiencing undue stress at a
time in their lives when they should be a little more care -
fee and fun loving. They may learn the valuable lesson
that a lot of hard work and increased stress does not lead
to happiness.
The message in the study is that young people need to
learn to balance their lives as much as their p®.
School is important and paid work is also an integral part of
growing ups but priorities must be established and parents
should iosure that their kids are not overextended.
All in all, the findings suggest the country is in :. $ • s hands.
God .4ch
Face it, Facebook is here
to stay, despite criticism
I've had it with what pass-
es for informed coverage of
Facebook these days.
The immensely popular
web site - sixth most traf-
ficked site in the U.S. with
more than 24 million users -
got a lot of coverage recent-
ly when it announced it
would be opening up to let
outside companies develop
features for the site.
That's not the coverage I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the coverage of the site as a
social phenomebon.
I've been "on Facebook" for about six
months and most of the criticism I've come
across just doesn't ring true or is actually
offensive.
The tone in a radio journalist's voice as she
mocks 'news bulletins' members post about
their lives, the `expert' talking about use.rs
posting personal information for everyone
with a computer to see (not true) and the
columnist freaking out over the potential for
predators to infiltrate a teenager's Facebook
network (unlikely) all tell me the same thing:
they don't get it.
Not only do they not get Facebook, I think
they may even be afraid of it and the world
their kids occupy.
If your kids or grand kids don't use
Facebook yet, they probably will soon.
Listening to and reading what's out there, I
wouldn't be surprised if you don't get it or
even if it alarms you. I wouldn't blame you.
So I'm going to try to
put your mind at ease with
this and my following two
columns. I'm going to
explain what Facebook is,
what it means to those of
us who use it and what the
real concerns are about it.
Because there are some
concerns, just probably not
what you think.
To understand Facebook, you don't need to
know a thing about computers.
That's because, like any good computer pro-
gram, it mimics tasks people can do in real
life but makes them almost magically easier.
So, to describe Facebook, I'm going to ask
you to imagine a building that runs on magic.
This building has a seemingly infinite num-
ber of rooms. Most of these rooms are people's
offices.
On the office doors are a picture of the per-
son who occupies the office, a profile they've
filled out about themselves and a bulletin
board so you can leave them a message. Some
people have left photo albums attached to the
door. Some write notes and leave them on the
door so you can read them.
There are also lists of the person's friends
who have offices in the building and,a list of
friends the two of you share. That second list
is different for everyone who looks at the door.
If you want, you can go directly to those
friend's doors to see what's new with them by
See FACEBOOK, Page 6
Ron & babe
1 What is this?
I have no idea!
What a stupid
testi I give up.
That test we
had today was
really hard.
by David Lacey
Well, you know what they 'That's not true. Quitting is
say...."Nothing that's real)
worthwhile is easy." y
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