Happy New Year everyone :-)
I don't know about you, but every time I switch the TV on to watch international news, I watch stories about wars here, there and everywhere. If not war, it's a murder here or someone assaulted there or teen binge drinking that is getting out of control or some multimillion dollar drug bust ..... midst all these stories there are inevitably innocent children suffering.
One of the things I have been noticing on Facebook are the comments from people I know trying to impress, trying to shock - we have the tremendous influence of peer pressure and now it seems social networking pressure is just as bad.
What a sad reflection on us as parents, even on educators. What worries me is that my kids will read comments from someone trying to provoke or be smart and maybe, just maybe, a comment will be directed at one of them and they might take it too personally?
Will they talk about it? Will they share their feelings with us or will they simply fasten on to the comments and be negatively affected for a period of time?
Being in their early 20s and no longer living at home, my kids have to learn how to deal with this stuff. As parents it is just another development of the technological age we have to think about, especially those of us who are parents of teens journeying through the confusing and impressionable years.
One young guy I know posted his thoughts about his relationship with his girlfriend on Facebook. I sent him a private message suggesting that that was not the way to grow and develop a meaningful relationship. He was good enough to acknowledge that he had erred and I hope removed the original message.
In addition to that will be all the text messaging that is going on ... that's yet another story, isn't it? The dangers of bullying, negative text peer pressure ....
I guess it continues to underline for me the importance of teaching teenagers social skills, effective communication skills and so much more.
Let's hope 2009 has many more positives than negatives - time to look at the half-full glass again.
I don't know about you, but every time I switch the TV on to watch international news, I watch stories about wars here, there and everywhere. If not war, it's a murder here or someone assaulted there or teen binge drinking that is getting out of control or some multimillion dollar drug bust ..... midst all these stories there are inevitably innocent children suffering.
One of the things I have been noticing on Facebook are the comments from people I know trying to impress, trying to shock - we have the tremendous influence of peer pressure and now it seems social networking pressure is just as bad.
What a sad reflection on us as parents, even on educators. What worries me is that my kids will read comments from someone trying to provoke or be smart and maybe, just maybe, a comment will be directed at one of them and they might take it too personally?
Will they talk about it? Will they share their feelings with us or will they simply fasten on to the comments and be negatively affected for a period of time?
Being in their early 20s and no longer living at home, my kids have to learn how to deal with this stuff. As parents it is just another development of the technological age we have to think about, especially those of us who are parents of teens journeying through the confusing and impressionable years.
One young guy I know posted his thoughts about his relationship with his girlfriend on Facebook. I sent him a private message suggesting that that was not the way to grow and develop a meaningful relationship. He was good enough to acknowledge that he had erred and I hope removed the original message.
In addition to that will be all the text messaging that is going on ... that's yet another story, isn't it? The dangers of bullying, negative text peer pressure ....
I guess it continues to underline for me the importance of teaching teenagers social skills, effective communication skills and so much more.
Let's hope 2009 has many more positives than negatives - time to look at the half-full glass again.
1 comments:
Nice and informative blog for thous who use facebook....
Post a Comment