From: Ally
To: coopermunroe
Subject: Newspaper Interview
Date: February 10, 2007

My name is ALLY TENENINI. I am a junior at Fox Chapel Area High School. My main interest is sports. I am also a representative for student government. In my free time I do admit that I like to spend time on the computer daily. (My parents claim I get online before I even say hello to them sometimes.) I always check my e-mail and research sites for projects and presentations. I am always on AOL instant messenger, if I am not at the computer I put an away message up.

My favorite part about being online is Facebook. Currently I have 252 friends at my high school and an additional 147 at other schools. I feel very safe on Facebook. My brother is at college and his roommate's sister is my age. She lives in Ohio and we correspond regularly on Facebook. We plan our weekends when we are going to be visiting our brothers at the same time. Through this I make a lot of new friends and they become friends on Facebook as well.

From: coopermunroe
How about phones? I just read that 1 in 4 teenagers gets calls ever hour -- even between midnight and 5 a.m. Do you use the phone more than the computer?

From: ally
I do use my cell phone a lot. I have unlimited text messaging in my plan so I do take advantage of that. I don't know anyone that doesn't have a cell phone of their own. I started out sharing one with my siblings, but now we each have our own phone. I was in eighth grade when I got my own cell phone.

Cooper, I never thought in such detail about things I use in my everyday life. It is amazing to me how much people communicate back and forth, but are never face to face with each other.

And, yes, people use their cell phones at all hours. Most put them at their bedside at night.

From: coopermunroe
It sounds like Facebook is a world many people my age would not even begin to get their heads around! What do you and your friends wish people understood better about being on a site like Facebook?

From: Ally
I definitely feel that adults misunderstand why computers are so important to our generation for communication. When they grew up their main means of communicating with their friends was the house phone. With this their parents knew every call that was coming in. With the computer they may feel that they don't always have control of who you are talking with. As far as safety goes for Facebook, you just need to be smart about who you accept as a friend.

From: coopermunroe
The age-old problem between teenagers and grown-ups is that teenagers live "in the moment." What advice would you give to my daughter (and me) as we begin to enter this Internet world?

From: Ally
The advice I would have for parents is to place your computer in a location that you can monitor. Keep checking on what sites and with whom your child is corresponding with. They also need to know that they never give their password out to anyone, even their closest friends. Never give personal information out, just as you would do with any stranger. They must know that if the break the rules, they will lose their online privileges. These rules were pretty much the ones I grew up with.