I was sitting at the computer the a couple weeks ago - wasting time checking my Myspace account and instant messaging friends on AOL Instant Messager (AIM) – when I decided to create an avatar character of myself. To my character I added features, clothes, and a picket sign in support of Senator John McCain for the presidency as a finishing touch. I thought that no one really paid attention to these details. I saved the changes and got off the computer for the night.
Yesterday while I was signed in to AIM, one of my friends sent me a message that read, “You like McCain? He sucks!” Now me being of strong Republican sentiments went into a rampage about how he was the most qualified to be America’s next president and how he would bring an end to the war faster than the Democrats were falsely promising people. As we argued, both of us would visit credible websites that provided plausible examples for our arguments. To make a long story short, I ended up arguing intricately with this friend for an hour before I was ripped away from the monitor. I had argued with a person who barely answered two words - if at all – whenever I tried to spark a conversation in the past. This made me think.
If teenagers used simple things online to express their views in life and politics, conversations would involve a lot more than just what your friends are going to wear the next day. Of course people may already do this, but if more people learned they could do this, these conversations would spill into the classroom. Teenagers would be more interested in what occurs in the world they live in and what they want to do to contribute to it. I learned more about our current presidential candidates than I would have in any government class at my high school. Not only that, but I learned to use reason in my statements and to consider every point my friend presented as well. As Aristotle said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”