I recently finished Tom Peters new book, The Little Big Things (affiliate link) which was awesome. I'm rereading it again. In his often sarcastic, pointed style Peters in this video articulates how our world is changing into a creative culture and will reward students who have been educated for creativity.
What’s Next For Kids and Social Media?
March 18, 2010 By 3 Comments
Even
MORE Video—Youtube is the world’s second largest search engine. We’ll see kids
moving from texting to sending smaller video files through wider and faster
channels. Currently this takes a long time and usually involves a third party
host such as Youtube, or my new favorite Viddler.
More
Mobile—advances in mobile technology will make devices like iPhone, Droid and
iTouch even better at web navigation, using applications and filming and
transmitting video. This will make parental oversight even more challenging.
Global Positioning—we are growing more and
more transparent as a culture. Telling people where you are is already popular.
It will get easier with GPS on mobile devices with apps such as Gawalla which
with the touch of a button notifies your friends of your exact location. For
young people, I don’t have to tell you why this is dangerous.
Livestreaming—Sites such as Ustream and
others are now enable an average person us to stream (broadcast) live video and
interact with an audience via chat. I believe we’ll see a popularity shift from
the Reality TV coming into our living rooms toward live real time TV streaming
out of our child’s bedrooms before unknown audience. In fact this is already
happening to some degree.
Sites
such as Chatroulette enable you, with the click of your mouse to connect live
(video and audio) to some unknown person in an unknown part of the world. The
more celebrities who engage on this site, the more popular it will become.
What can we do about it?
Here
are some suggestions. You must tweak them to make them work in your home
setting with your child.
1. Move computers to public
places.
2. Regularly check browser
histories.
3. Ask your child to turn in
their cell phone at night. (this enables them to get a good nights sleep
instead of being awakened by texts all night long)
4. Read their text messages and
have prepared consequences for inappropriate content. Pay attention to cleared
conversations and deleted contacts on text logs.
5. Create accounts on Facebook
or whichever social media sites your child is on and insist that they add you
as a friend. For younger children it may not even be inappropriate for you to
demand their password to inspect their account.
6. Enforce privacy settings so
that posts on sites like Myspace and Facebook are not publicly logged on
Google. Remind your child that what is posted in public forums is logged
forever—like luggage—on the internet.
7. Limit internet use. Create
designated times where everyone “disconnects” and engages in face to face
communication.
8. Most importantly—teach
healthy boundaries. Reinforce why it is appropriate to shut “it” down at times,
what types of people a child should not be “friending”.
If you would like a copy of this article formatted for printing and or emailing to your group, email me at roypetitfils@yahoo.com.
Related Posts:
Would Jesus Use Facebook?
March 11, 2010 By 2 Comments
I
am fascinated by a growing number of people throwing Facebook under the bus, claiming it to be an unhealthy and
evil enterprise.
In
their defense I’ve witnessed young and old, disclose too much personal information,
lie, and lose themselves in a crowded and complex virtual society.
But
Facebook is not the problem.
We
are the problem.
Facebook
is a thing. And as tempting as it is, we should not hold “things” responsible
for our inclination to sin.
Its
not the thing. It’s us.
It’s
not the alcohol, it’s me overindulging.
It’s
not the gun, it’s me not dealing with my anger.
And
its not Facebook, or Myspace or any of the others.
It’s
we who are not setting and maintaining healthy boundaries. We are the creators
and members of a culture that has difficulty balancing its needs for transparency
and connection with our competing needs of privacy and solitude.
Making
Facebook the problem enables us to avoid taking responsibility for my actions.
And it fails to address the real problem.
We’re
exerting too much energy demonizing the thing and not enough helping people
understand their basic human needs and the boundaries necessary to keep them in
balance.
I
don’t suggest that its virtuous to have a Facebook account. There are good reasons
for not using it and/or disallowing others from using it. But lets be clear that we are not scapegoating
Facebook for our problem—especially in the name of Christ.
So,
would Jesus use Facebook?
I
don’t know. You’ll have to ask him.
I do
know that he wouldn’t demonize it or make it the problem. He’d see beneath the
symptoms to the deeper needs giving rise to it and spend his energy meeting
people where they are, and calling them to more. We should do the same.
I am currently conducting In-Services (including Safe Environment) and Workshops for teachers, ministers and parents entitled "What Every Adult Needs to Know About Facebook, Myspace and the Cyber-Social LIves of Today's Young People."
My presentation for teens is "Find Me, Friend Me and Follow Me–But Please Don't Hurt Me–Tips for Having Fun and Staying Safe in Cyber-Space" (email me for more information or to have me present to your group at roypetitfils@yahoo.com)
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