| Level: Primary, Junior Secondary Sue was the only child in her family. Both of her parents had to work long hours, and could spend little time with her.
In primary school, Sue had been a hardworking student, achieving good grades at school. She had been shy and was an introvert. When she was promoted to a good English-speaking secondary school with few of her former schoolmates, she found that she could not understand what her teachers were talking about in class. As a result, she became afraid of making mistakes in class, and felt ashamed when her teacher and classmates corrected her English pronunciation. She dared not make friends, as she believed her classmates would not like her. She became very sensitive when talking amongst her classmates. She thought they teased her, as she had "baby-fat" and acne was beginning to break out over her face.
Her new school encouraged the use of computers. She began using the Internet more frequently, and found out how to chat over ICQ and in chat rooms. She created the identity of an 18 year old female, based on a pretty, slim, popular idol that could play nearly all kinds of sports, had good results, was very popular with friends, and had many boyfriends. She found that she attracted a lot of attention in ICQ and in chat rooms, where she could speak freely and use Chinese. She became more confident, as people responded and seemed to treat her with respect. Her habits gradually began to change and she started to surf all night on the Internet. Her academic results got worse, especially around mid-year exams when she began to skip classes. Her parents began to notice the changes taking place within her. They demanded she stop using the Internet, so Sue began to quarrel with her parents, forcing her parents to threaten to take away her computer.
[PDF file] |