Hi, 

Here is an article written by one of my 'youngsters' , Shalina, which was published in the New Straits Times. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Niexter- New Straits Times

Oct. 10,  2013

A youngster’s lifeline

By Shalina May Kumar, 12, Selangor 

Shalina (L) and her sister, Shanita (R)

Can you imagine, right now, a world without the Internet? Gasp, you say, the horror! I know, right?

Being a “youngster” myself — as my grandparents like to say — I can understand what you mean. My everyday morning schedule is: wake up, go to school, learn, and come back home. My everyday afternoon schedule is: eat, take a bath, and use the Internet (not necessarily in that order!). So you see, it’s kind of hard to imagine a world without the Internet.

So now I’m going to list down a few of the things that make the Internet such an attraction to us “young folk”. Here we go.

Facebook is convenient (being able to use it on your iPhone, iPad, etc. etc.), user-friendly, and, well, just fun. Apart from keeping in touch with old friends, making new friends, and discovering pages of your favourite celebrities, Facebook also offers a wide variety of fun games to play, and it’s free. 

Twitter is also widely known mainly for the same reasons as Facebook. It’s a website where you can post the goings-on in your life within the limit of 140 characters. It’s a good way to keep track of what your favourite celebrities are up to, too, once you follow them.

 Blogs! Blogs are everywhere. Crazy names, normal names, wacky names; you have to try all these names if you intend to start up a blog because almost all of the names you planned to use have already been taken. Here’s where creativity hops in to get your blog a spot on the humongous 

World Wide Web. Blogs can be used for any purpose.

 Personally, my favourite thing about the Internet is the freebies. With a mere click of a button (and a downloading process… what? Nothing’s perfect), you can download free movies and free eBooks from certain websites. The only risk is, of course, viruses and such, but if you’re confident in your choice of website, go ahead. If you’re not particularly fond of downloading things, just go to 

YouTube and key in the movie you want to watch. Unfortunately, only some movies are available on YouTube as it depends on whether people recorded and uploaded it or not. Also, a word of caution: this usually counts as copyright infringement so don’t count on those movies being up there for very long (unless you’re really lucky). As for books, you can just go to my favourite website,

 Wattpad (wattpad.com). Hundreds and thousands of eBooks ONLINE for FREE. Yeah. Awesome, isn’t it?

 Finally (phew), the Internet provides an endless wealth of knowledge right at your fingertips. One of the most popular websites to get information on people, places, music, books, movies and anything else you want to know, is the famous Wikipedia. 

Anyway! That concludes my article on the fabulousness of the amazing Internet! You see, we couldn’t possibly live without it. Now, time for yours truly to get back to that video I was watching.