Category Archives: Social Media

Monday Musings: For Teens, Texting is Tops

Posted on March 20, 2012 | 2 Comments

If your house of teens is like mine, than you are certainly not surprised by the findings of the latest poll from the Pew Internet Research Center:  it shows that texting is the #1 way teens are communicating.  

Other highlights from the survey:

  • 75 percent of all teens text
  • The median number of texts (midpoint) on a typical day for teens 12-17:  rose from 50 in 2009 to 60 in 2011
  • Largest group seeing an increase: 
    • Older teens, ages 14-17
    • Boys
    • Black teens
    • Largest text users:  This remains the older teen girl group, with a median of 100 texts per day in 2011 (compared to 50 texts for boys of the same age)

So how do teens communicate on a daily basis?   The following is a mix of communications methods a teen will use on an average day:

  • 63 percent – Texting
  • 39 percent - Cell phone
  • 35 percent - Face to face socializing outside of school
  • 29 percent - social network site messaging
  • 22 percent – instant messaging
  • 19 percent - Talking on landlines
  • 6 percent – Email

And what about the technology?

  • 1 in 4 teens owns a smartphone
  • 77 percent of teens – ages 12-17- own a cell phone
  • 16 percent of teens have used a table computer in the last month to access the internet

 

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Posted in Monday Musings, Parenting, Social Media

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Am I Pretty?

Posted on March 5, 2012 | 1 Comment

I’ve been following the “Am I Pretty?” phenomena that hit the news last week. It’s mighty disturbing on many levels:

  • It’s disturbing to see that young girls need to ask an unknown group of people for reassurance.
  • It’s sad to realize that teens are forgetting that the celebrities they so want to look like were once teenagers themselves – and they looked like normal teenagers
  • It’s unnerving to know that kids as young as 11 are gaining access to YouTube and posting such videos, unbeknownst to their parents
  • And it’s unsettling that so many angry, nasty venomous comments are posted in response

Image Bombardment

When we are bombarded with more than 5,000 images per day, younger girls may not be able to filter out some of the images.

What does that look like to a tween or teen? A few years ago, Dove did their take on it:

YouTube Preview Image

So what’s a parent to do?

According to Renee Hobbs, EdD, associate professor of communications at Temple University, “the average teen girl gets about 180 minutes of media exposure daily and only about 10 minutes of parental interaction a day.”

To can help combat the imagery that our children are being bombarded with each day:

  • As mothers, we’re the first line of defense, but we’re all guilty of not watching what we say around our daughters. How many times have we all made a remark about not being happy with our bodies or needing to go on a diet? We need to remember to keep our comments about our   OWN body images in check around our daughters and reflect a positive body image. Our daughters are listening, even though we don’t think so.
  • Dads play an important role, too. Remarks can play a role in her interpretation of what she should look like too.  Keep body image remarks on a positive level.
  • Emphasize healthy eating and exercise.
  • When you’re watching a TV show together, talk about how the celebrities and actresses look. Emphasize fit models.
  • Develop a closer on-line relationship with your daughter. Discuss what sites she visits and her social media habits. Discuss the “Am I Pretty?” story and get her take on it.
  • Reassure her about her body and help build her self-esteem.
  • Most of all, just love her for who she is.

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Posted in Parenting, Social Media

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A Terrifying Side of Social Media

Posted on February 26, 2012 | 4 Comments

I’m pretty careful about what I do in the Land of Social Media. I’m careful about what sites I visit and I’m careful about what I download. If I think a site is remotely suspicious, I won’t go there.

As I was checking the news this morning via my twitter feed – which is how I get most of my news these days – a journalist that I follow alerted me to an article that appears in the January 2012 Look Smart/Live Smart feature of GQ magazine, “The Hacker is Watching.”

I opened it and read it.

And it absolutely terrified me.

It terrified me so much so that I sit here with a postage stamp sticker over my webcam. I have also made sure my teens now have one on their laptops, too. Although it’s probably slim that a hacker is going to find us and catapult into their bedrooms or my office, I don’t care. I am not taking chances. That little sticker is providing me with some reassurance.

Although this particular tale does have a happy ending, it’s still unnerving to know that there is a new type of hacker out there.

 

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Posted in Safety, Social Media

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Top 10 Social Media Tips for Teens

Posted on February 25, 2012 | 5 Comments

The world of social media seems to be moving at a ridiculous pace. It started out with just email. I can still remember the “early days” of AOL.  Now just about every middle schooler has a smartphone or blackberry attached to his or her hip and the only way teens communicate is through texting (if you really don’t believe me, take away the before mentioned smartphone or blackberry.  You can offer them the house phone  – if you still have one – but they are not going to use it).

Now we have Facebook, Twitter, YouTube  and Tumblr … among others.

And we’ve all heard the horror stories of cyber bullying and teens arranging to meet people they have met online.

So how do you keep your kids safe in this era of social media?  Here are my “Top 10 Tips for Teens”:

  1. Talk to your teen (or pre-teen) and discuss social media and its responsibilities. Most teenagers are ready for social media (as are most tweens, but kids as young as elementary school are venturing into sites like Facebook). Discuss real life examples of what can – and has – happened in the world of social media.
  2. Also discuss the longevity of social media. Questionable and inappropriate posts or videos DO live on, and you don’t want your son or daughter to suffer down the line when a college admissions counselor or potential employer discovers them (you can demonstrate this one by pulling up a few of their friends on Facebook. Undoubtedly, you will find a few that do not have their sites locked and can find some material to demonstrate). Abide by the rule:  If you aren’t proud to show it to your grandmother or in front of your whole school, then you shouldn’t have it posted.
  3. If your teen already is on social media, make sure all privacy settings are secure and set “for friends” where they can be.
  4. NEVER arrange to meet anyone you don’t know. For ANY reason.
  5. Don’t post your personal info for everyone to see.
  6. Don’t post anything when you’re mad or upset.
  7. Do not engage in angry or hurtful discussions. If it doesn’t directly affect you, don’t comment (this can lead to cyber bullying, which you can be held responsible for).
  8. Location services are cool, but do you REALLY want everyone to know where you are? Turn them OFF (You can still participate in sites like Foursquare – and earn those cool badges – but can limit those who see your location). And speaking of which, do NOT announce when you are going on vacation or leaving your house. Let people know what a great time you had AFTER you come back.  There is a site called www.pleaserobme.com which used to have a running twitter feed of those who entered tweets announcing where they were (obviously not home). They have since altered the site so now you have to put in your social media account and it will tell you if you have logged in a location.
  9. The subject of “friending family” always seems to be a touchy subject for teens. My take on this matter is that as a parent, you absolutely should be a friend of your teen. If they don’t want to friend you, that should be a red flag. For younger teens, I even recommend adding relatives, too. This is a great way for out-of-town relatives to be part of their lives, but is also an additional way to help provide safe usage on Facebook.
  10. For younger teens, the computer should be in a central location, like a living room or kitchen, so you can help monitor the sites they are visiting. As the teen gets older and more independent, this gets harder to do. I then recommend regular talks with your teen. Ask them to show you what sites they’ve been visiting, what they’ve been doing on their sites (if they have a Tumblr account) or ask them what’s the most popular YouTube video this week (they will know).

The more we can educate our teens, the more we can help them to stay safe. These are just a few of my favorite tips. What are yours?

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