Sexting.

To say that we, in America, are heavily reliant on technology is a massive understatement. Imagine going a day without your cell phone glued to your hip. Imagine going a day without *gasp* checking your email! Or worse, your Facebook! How on earth would we manage to get through? I honestly do no know. I am just as dependent on technology as the rest of the world. If I lost my cell phone and all those programmed phone numbers, I'd probably have a panic attack. Technology is a great tool at our fingertips. It's extremely helpful and has brought us forward in leaps and bounds. Yet, like most things in life, it also has it's drawbacks.

We have less face-to-face contact with people. We've lost the personal touch in many aspects of our day to day lives. We've also made it incredibly easy to be cyber stalked. Or, for those of us who have a lot of free time, it's easier to do the cyber stalking. It has also made it easier for predators to get to children. Just look at shows like "To Catch a Predator." Twenty years ago, we wouldn't have dreamed of seeing a show like that on tv. Now we have Chris Hansen intimidating pedophiles in a model home. Must be a Wednesday.

This leads me to the point of this week's first blog: the negative impact of technology on our future generations. Namely, sexting. Now you may be asking yourself "exactly what is sexting?" Well, according this CBS news article, sexting is the act of sending nude pictures via cell phone. It's become quite common in teens. In fact, information can be found in this article that states that about 20% of teens admit to sexting. Did your jaw just drop? Because mine certainly did. A few months ago I had never even heard of sexting. Now I'm reading that 20% of teens these days are sending nude pictures to others via text message.

Of course there are obvious consequences involved with sexting. One is that, should a teenager choose to "sext" there is now a nude photograph of that teenager in circulation. We all learned long ago that teenage boys cannot be trusted. We must assume that, if a teenage girl sends a nude picture of herself to a teenage boy, he won't be the only one to see it. That's exactly what happened to this teenager, Jesse Logan. She ended up committing suicide over the torment she received after sending a nude picture to her high school boyfriend.

Not only are there social ramifications to sexting, but legal ones too. According to this CNN article, Philip Aplert will now spend years on the sex offender list for forwarding nude pictures of his then 16-year-old girlfriend to several of her friends and family members. Sexting is considered child pornography, and that's because it is child pornography. Sexting is done by regular teens and famous ones as well. Several nude pictures of a High School Musical star began to circulate a couple of years ago. Kids these days look up to these celebrities and look at the example they are setting!

Sexting is not only dangerous but incredibly stupid. And while technology has put is forward leaps and bounds, it has also set us back just as much with the dangerous consequences of the easily accessible Mutli-Media Message phenomenon known as sexting. I think we should all stop and think about what kind of world we're facing where any high school student can become a pornographic sensation overnight. Our world is a crazy place.