Okay; I admit, this threw me for a loop when I saw it on the news this morning, but then I paused.
I have phases where I'm slightly addicted to my FB feed....or scrolling through Twitter, or even IG. I get bored or have too many eye-rolling moments, I shut it down and go do something else. But then again, I'm 58 years old. If I'd been 40 years younger.....might have been a different story.
Teenagers (most of them) aren't emotionally equipped to handle rejection/bullying. Truth be told, I don't even like it. Hell, 14 years ago when I joined social media, I made some blunders, stewed about it, got angry at people who dared criticize me, and even bent over backward to rectify the situation. It took me another 5 or so years to learn to keep my fingers quiet on certain hot button issues, even when I'd post them in the middle of the night! I lost FB friends, received PMs about how dare I express MY OPINION on my own page (gasp....can you imagine what might have happened if I'd posted it on someone's WALL? Yes, I'm being sarcastic.,...); and even beat myself up over it.
Now I'm over it.
Yes, I like to be included in drama, as long as it's directed at someone else. I'll find an interesting discussion and lurk, then come here and post my view.
But I digress.
The question should be, at what age should we allow our kids onto social media? I allowed it at 14, but monitored my kids activities, until they joined SnapChat or some other obscure site. I saw my oldest post some questionable content during his 1st year of college....I started to call him out, but then stopped myself. I didn't want him to block me, so any time I took issue with something he posted, I'd PM him quietly, just a 'are you sure you want to post that?' statement. Sometimes he'd delete it; sometimes he'd keep it. BUT HE NEVER BLOCKED ME.
To my knowledge, none of my kids have experienced bullying on social media. But there are others out there who can't handle the pressure. So yeah, I get why those in the media are calling it a Mental Health Crisis.
When the pandemic hit, a friend began broadcasting on YouTube, and soon he had a small group of loyal listeners who would pop in and comment. The show grew from an hour to 90 mins to 2 hours to nearly 3! He'd do this three times a week, and we could keep in touch.
I don't have the gift of gab, so I will NOT be doing this. I'm better in writing than on camera!
Yes, it drove my husband crazy, It still does. But it was a way to connect while social distancing.
So what's your opinion?
No comments:
Post a Comment