PEA RIDGE — Essay contest winners were awarded by the Pea Ridge Optimist Club recently.

There were two categories - the first, for students from 15 to 19 years of age and the second for students under 15 years of age. The elder students were awarded college scholarships. Theyounger received gift cards to Wal-Mart.

Winners were: Dane Connell, 17, first place; Kimberly Cribbs, 16, second place; Lauren Meyers, 16, third place; and Beth Ash, 17, fourth place.

The younger winners were: Lorrie Klein, 11, first place; Ashtyn Mondy, 12, second place; Nicole Henson, 11, third place; and Casey Jarding, 14, fourth place.

ESSAYS

Kimberly Cribbs, 16, second place

When Newton Minow ended his speech in May, 1961, he warned that, “The power of instantaneous sight and sound is without precident ... an awesome power. It has limitless capabilities for good - and for evil.” With this said, the real question becomes “The Internet: Today’s Evolution or Tomorrow’s Menace?”

Think back to the preinternet days when every kid around was familiar with Space Invaders, VCRs, and it was customary to see men in short shorts; those were some good days, huh? But, also back then a research project meant a long, strenuous visit to your local library where it was likely you would be spending your next several hours fine combing through as a rather intimidating pile of books. As opposed to the modern-day method in which a mass of information equivalent to thousands of libraries is a mere double-click away.

Quick, easy, and efficient is all there is to say about internet at this point, sounds like evolution to me.

Evolution is not always a good thing; just ask the scientist tracking the evolving, antibiotic-resistant bacteria that they say could eventually terminate all humankind. I’m sure they consider evolution quite menacing. So, just because the internet is an instant window to a plethora of knowledge; the information it produces can not always be considered grade-A. I wish it was not so, but there are people out there with menacing thoughts, ideas, and ambitions causing it to not be uncalled for to find distorted realities, peopleteaching hate, or trying to lure in an unsuspecting victim via the internet.

But just because there are menacing people out there that use internet as an outlet for their heinous interests, is that really enough justification to consider the internet menacing? Does the saying “one bad apple ruins the bunch” really work in this scenario? In my opinion no, it is one’s responsibility to distinguish between that which is beneficial and that which is debauched. The internet does not brainwash or corrupt anybody; itis a person’s serious lack of integrity and character that drives them to take advantage of the temptations the internet allows access too.

Because of this the internet can not be pinned as menacing, it is the user himself that takes this adjective.

Internet is an awesome power, whether it is used to abused does not undermine the fact that it is today’s evolution. It is in constant developing force which continues to increase in size every day. It was one of the greatest advances of the twentieth century and continues to be a non-faltering variable in everyday life, still bringing with it a promising future.

Beth Ash, 17, fourth place

Each and every night, where do you find today’s youth? They’re at home on the Internet. Whether they are visiting a social networking site, researching a homework assignment or watching videos on YouTube, kids seem to have an inner tie to the Internet. What are the risks involved, though, in simply double clicking on your web browser?

A simple risk that you take is the chance of compromising your security and morals. Through networking sites, we are miraculously taken to tearooms in London, cafes in Paris, and even the home of an online predator. It is too easy for those with shocking intentions to get away with them on the Internet.

Even online ads are not appropriate for children’s eyes. You can literally look up anything on the Internet, including the disgusting and dirty. The Internet has been a main contributor to the pollution of the minds of today’s society, especially the young and impressionable.

Social networking societies make up the largest part of today’s online attractions but it can also be one of the most developmentally harmful uses of the Internet. Besides the online predators, Facebook and MySpace are harmful to the social development of today’s generation.

You do have the ability to meet people from around the world and create new relationships, but true communicational skill diminish. Today’s childrendon’t know how to verbally communicate with others or how to read nonverbal communication. On Facebook and MySpace, you can’t read tone or facial expressions to make certain that the person talking to you is telling the truth. This is one reason why it is so easy for predators to find victims and convince them of their innocence on the Internet. Relationships that are built around two people talking in person are much deeper and stronger.

All in all, the Internet contributes to the pollution of the mind and mental laziness of children in general. Instead of researching a topic through encyclopedias, newspaper articles, and other resources, the Internet is the primary form of research. This can be dangerous because anyone can create a website and say anything they wantto say, even if it’s not the truth. Kids today love this method, though, because it is fast, easy, and simple.

It just might do kids today some good to research things out of books instead of taking the first two sites that the search engine pulls up. All of the information is available in books, which are much more reliable and provide more mental stimulus.

Children are our youth today, but they are our adults tomorrow. If we affect their social development, their mental work ethic and the purity their minds, what will tomorrow be like? The Internet is definitely tomorrow’s menace because its negative effects on tomorrow’s adultsfar outweigh the positive.

Maybe that’s why society is the way it is today. What will it be like in twenty years?

Nicole Henson, 11, third place

Click, Click,Clicking away is what almost everybody does daily.

Americans are constantly on the internet doing work, research, shopping, and communicating instantly. The Internet can be good, but also horrible to both kids and adults.

Let’s see how?

How can the Internet be good for kids? First, kidscan play education games like Jedi, Kid Rocket, and Math Brain. Teachers can determine if the games are education or not, if kids can begin on a level and work their way up to harder levels as they learn more. Second, kids can do research for projects on the Internet. Before the Internet kids would spend hours upon hours just trying to find information, now they can locate information instantly. Another great thing about the internet is that kids can communicate with family, friends, and teachers. This is really important if kids are being bullied or just don’t want to talk out loud. I think the most important reason yet is that the Internet can held kids do their homework. Examples of homework sites are: Rhyme Time, Dictionary, and Google.

Now, lets move to how the internet can be good for adults. First, just like kids the Internet is helpful by letting adults communicate with other adults, their kids, or their kid’s teachers.

This is important because if their kids are failing they can contact the teacher or if the parent is going to be late they can communicate with their kids to let them know. Second, adults can shop online for birthday or holiday gifts to save time and money. I think the most important reason is that adults can check what the latest weather conditions are. Just imagine if we didn’t have the Internet parents would not know if their kids had school because of bad weather.

Moving to how the Internet can be horrible for anybody. First, people can get addicted to the Internet, which causes them to be on the computer for long periods of time. Some sites people get addicted to are: Facebook and MySpace, which are communication sites. Second, being on the computer for long periods of time can cause bad eye site, because people tend to stop blinking. I think the worst thing about the internet for anybody is the online chat room. In the chat rooms people can pretend to be younger than what they really are. Sometimes people even go and meet in person then end up getting kidnapped. One last reason is that people search or put unclean things on the Internet. I don’t know why people would do this, but they do.

The Internet has become a way of life that most Americans cannot live without. We must learn how to block all the bad stuff and use the Internet for what it was intended for. As you can see, the Internet can be helpful or harmful for you, it just depends on how you use it.

Casey Jarding, 14, fourth place

It is the human element of the Internet that determines its occupation as an evolution or a menace. The Internet is just another luxury sitting in the man-made hall of fame in a glowing spot of honor surrounded by video games and iPods.

All of these conveniences have one thing in common: they cannot think because they don’t have a brain.

Because of their lack of any cranium action we cannot label video games an evolution and iPods a menace because it is the human in this equation that determines the outcome.

You want to find out what the main dish is for dinners for the Falkland Islands. Do you bombard people as they are innocently walking out of the grocery store? Do you get out a phone book and call people one by one disturbing their day? Do you head down to the library and look through every ounce of information in their encyclopedias? Do you go to the islands and find out yourself? Those were pretty much your options before the dawn of the Internet. You would belucky if you are victorious in the first two options, and the people who you invade would probably hurt you or threaten to call the authorities because I don’t know about you but I don’t want some person cornering me asking me about some foreign country that I didn’t even know existed when I just wanted to buytomatoes. The third choice might get you what you are looking for but who knows how long it will take. The fourth option will probably answer your question but unless you have money to spare it probably isn’t doable for most people. Today we can just sit down at our computers and Google Falkland Islands and chances are you will find the answer to your questions.

Don’t have a computer?

Look around, odds are your friend has one or you can go to the library.

To everything good there is a dark side. Low lives use this melting pot of information to check out the latest pornography, find out how to make an explosive in a timely manner, scam and ruin people financially, stalk people, and steal someone’s identity. Violating the rights of individuals using the Internet has seemed tobecome a sport with many categories. You have that handful of pedophiles stalking innocent children, you have those creeps who stalk celebrities and believe that these stars communicate to them through ESP and that they will get married have wonderful children in private schools, a house by the lake complete with a picket fence. You have that scammer who steals people’s identity and leaving them without a cent and the occasional terrorist whose hobby is making explosives and being a threat that sends the nation into a panic.

The Internet is nothing until it is touched by human hands. It can be a super-highway evolution of information or tomorrow’s haven for the menaces of society. It is all in how you use it.

School, Pages 10 on 02/24/2010