social media and our children
"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."
-Socrates
"It has become exceedingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."
-Albert Einstein
Kids' behavior and technology: Neither is a wholly new set of conundrums, but the increasing availability of social media makes this an important time to talk about them both.
Take a sheet of paper. Crumple it up. Now try to smooth it back out again. The wrinkles won't ever completely come out, will they?
Think of this as a metaphor for information we post about ourselves on social networking sites; once it's there, it's very hard if not impossible to remove. And it's about as easy to share material this way—even very personal material—as it is to crumple a sheet of paper.
This is just one of many reasons that parents need to be aware and involved in their children's social media lives. The NYU Child Study Center's Yamalis Diaz, Ph.D., Lori Evans, Ph.D., and Richard Gallagher, Ph.D., gave a panel discussion cosponsored by Parents In Action NYC at the Nightingale-Bamford School on November 14, 2011. The topic was "Anti-Social Networking: How do texting and social media affect our children's development?"
Below is an overview of the material presented in their talk. An edited transcipt of the question-and-answer portion of the talk is also available.
Kids are growing up amid a sea of electronic media. It's important for parents to consider how this may impact social life, development, academics, and adjustment, and how parents can serve as a buffer from some of the potential negative consequences.
How much are kids using media?
The total amount of media use by youth ages 8 to 18 averages 6-plus hours a day—more than any
-Socrates
"It has become exceedingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."
-Albert Einstein
Kids' behavior and technology: Neither is a wholly new set of conundrums, but the increasing availability of social media makes this an important time to talk about them both.
Take a sheet of paper. Crumple it up. Now try to smooth it back out again. The wrinkles won't ever completely come out, will they?
Think of this as a metaphor for information we post about ourselves on social networking sites; once it's there, it's very hard if not impossible to remove. And it's about as easy to share material this way—even very personal material—as it is to crumple a sheet of paper.
This is just one of many reasons that parents need to be aware and involved in their children's social media lives. The NYU Child Study Center's Yamalis Diaz, Ph.D., Lori Evans, Ph.D., and Richard Gallagher, Ph.D., gave a panel discussion cosponsored by Parents In Action NYC at the Nightingale-Bamford School on November 14, 2011. The topic was "Anti-Social Networking: How do texting and social media affect our children's development?"
Below is an overview of the material presented in their talk. An edited transcipt of the question-and-answer portion of the talk is also available.
Kids are growing up amid a sea of electronic media. It's important for parents to consider how this may impact social life, development, academics, and adjustment, and how parents can serve as a buffer from some of the potential negative consequences.
How much are kids using media?
The total amount of media use by youth ages 8 to 18 averages 6-plus hours a day—more than any