Three Doctors' Common Antidote to Social Media

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“Because Sax was speaking with a group of parents at a coed K-8 school, he spent time talking about the different challenges girls and boys have. As he was talking about the use of social media by adolescent girls, Sax mentioned how, until only a few years ago, girls used to keep diaries. They were private affairs, often kept secret under lock and key.”

This article talks about the effects of social media, and segues into Walker Percy, but the above quote struck me. It’s true that girls used to keep diaries, and that they were kept locked and no one was allowed to see them, because everything in them was personal and private.

Now I know a girl who still does keep a diary even today, but she calls it blog, and every one in the whole world can read it. That worries me, because it makes her vulnerable to more people than she can possibly imagine—everyone from foreign criminals to local predators to to emotional voyeurs to scam artists looking over her shoulder. They all know more about her than strangers should, and more than she realizes—her home life, her work life, her fears, lots of personal details that can be used against her. The internet should have a Miranda warning.

Three Doctors’ Common Antidote to Social Media
 
As my boss told us: “Everything you put on the internet can and will be used against you.”

Ed
 
the solution for parents is simple, yet hard—set rules and focus on teaching kids humility, which he calls the “most un-American” of the virtues. Here’s his definition, from Collapse of Parenting: “Humility simply means being as interested in other people as you are interested in yourself. … You’ve heard it before: humility doesn’t mean thinking less of yourself. It just means thinking of yourself less.”
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:hmmm:

I don’t know… it seems that parents are often the ones with the social media and internet addictions.:o Some people post TMI, but it seems for many people, part of the problem with internet addiction is that they are interested in other people, wanting minute-to-minute updates about people they know. While some people spend their time on social media posting, many more spend their time lurking, reading about other people’s lives and taking their opinions into account. People are often more interested in reading what strangers and distant acquaintances share rather than reading a book.

Rather than just teaching humility, parents need to themselves practice personal discipline and set a good example. That means I should probably get off the internet right now and follow the guidelines I established for myself on internet use.
 
gardenswithkids said:
:hmmm:

I don’t know… it seems that parents are often the ones with the social media and internet addictions.:o Some people post TMI, but it seems for many people, part of the problem with internet addiction is that they are interested in other people, wanting minute-to-minute updates about people they know. While some people spend their time on social media posting, many more spend their time lurking, reading about other people’s lives and taking their opinions into account. People are often more interested in reading what strangers and distant acquaintances share rather than reading a book.

Rather than just teaching humility, parents need to themselves practice personal discipline and set a good example. That means I should probably get off the internet right now and follow the guidelines I established for myself on internet use.
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all so true and it is the easy "relationships"without any commitment or inter-personal responsibility and the voyeurism also

Had a “serious” meeting on chat with two church leaders once ages ago; when it was over the higher official, said, ah well I will go and get dressed now…" In her dressing gown!
 
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