As a young person, I enjoy social media, music, and occasionally having a “mom’s night out”. I have seen the rise of this amazing thing we call “Social Media” and it is an amazingly powerful tool, no doubt. How is it being used by today’s youth though?
As a mother in today’s society, I do not expect my children to boycott any technology or to not want to be current on the trends. I expect them to want and do what’s here and now. The question here is, how much freedom do we allow them to have? I am a social media butterfly and I have seen the gritty underbelly of the internet. I have seen what not monitoring your children online can do. Its plastered all over news, radio, newspapers, and websites all the time.
My solution to this is talk to your children early. Explain to them before they start using social media/the internet, why its important that they be monitored. Show them real life examples of why you shouldn’t post certain things like: nudity, drugs, guns, ect. Explain to them, and this is important, that not everyone online will like you, people will try to say nasty things to you… You don’t let what some stranger says online hurt you… They are behind a screen and probably way more worse off then you.
Our children offline, our very materialistic beings now. They are expected to dress a certain way, have certain things, and do certain things to “fit in”. I’m already telling my son at 6, if people pressure you to do things that in your heart you are unsure of, then they aren’t worth being friends with. Kids need to realize that actions they take now, will/can affect their futures for the rest of their lives. Its up to us as parents to be honest, raw, and real with them. We all know children feel like they are indestructible.
Let me tell you, I am scared to death of raising teenagers, but growing up in this society myself, I have knowledge about what they may face, more then my grandmother’s of father’s generation did. I can only hope that practicing early intervention will be a good thing for my children. I want the best futures for them.
#ParenthoodMysteries 