Skip to main content

Social Media and Doubt


Social Media and Doubt:
What Our Kids are Thinking?

Have you ever wondered as a parent what your kids are struggling with when they are on social media?  This could be any kind of social media.  Not limited to just one app or one type.  I have often wondered what my kids are truly thinking.  They are living in a different era than I lived in.  Back in the day, we didn't have phones and electronics like we do today.  This might age me, but my first cell phone was when I graduated from high school in 2000.  I had one of those Nokia phones.  Yikes! That makes me really old.  However, maybe some of you "parents" can relate.
Now that we got past these old looking phones, I want to share with you some of the information I found online that some of our kids are thinking while participating in social media.  The top answers that I found with how children think when they are on social media were:

Struggling to stay afloat-

Often times social media can bring overwhelming feelings to our children that don't allow them to ever feel like they can keep up with everyone. 
 

Hiding imperfection-

For children who are suffering from depression or anxiety often hide these things on social media because they are afraid of not being perfect.

Other people’s perfection-

While viewing other kid's social media feeds, our children can do a lot of comparing when seeing others "live in perfection."  Is this true?  Of course not, but our kids haven't learned the logic to this yet.  We as adults struggle with this.  Can you imagine how hard it must be for them? 

Difficult to resist-

Even though our kids might know that social media isn't good for them, especially those who might be facing some of these problems, they still can't resist.  It's an addiction.

I think that if you can talk to your kids about these issues, you can have a better understanding of what they are going through.  If you can understand that, then you can help them.  If you don't know that they are struggling, you aren't any help.

I know in my own life, this has been a hard thing to relate to with my kids.  First of all, I don't know what I am doing.  Second, we never faced stuff like this when we were young, so I feel like I don't know how to help.  I can't even ask my parents because they didn't have these issues when they were young.  Third, it can be challenging to get your kids to talk about it.  You can't really help if your kids won't talk about it. 

Gosh, why didn't anyone tell me how hard parenting can be!  Please use this blog to share tips and thoughts for other parents.

-Sara   

  



  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Do You Think Social Media Means?

Hi Guys! Social media is a phrase that is used all the time, but do we really understand what we are saying when we say it? What about our kids? Do they understand what the phrase means? I feel it is important for us parents to understand the definition of social media and understand what your child thinks it means. Both parents and children might have a completely different idea of what social media means. How can we help our children know the effects of social media if we aren’t talking about the same thing? Watch this movie to see what I mean……. Definition of Social Media “Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.” Websters Dictionary “Interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and network.” Wikipedia “Social media includes any of these features: Personal user...
1 comment
Read more

Screen Time Matters

Why would screen time matter when relating it to social media?  The majority of the time spent on screens usually involves social media in some way.  When trying to control how we manage our children's social media networking, I think screen time needs to be evaluated. First, I want to share with you some statistics I found about what the average screen time is here in the United States.  Average time spent in front of a screen Age Teen 7 hours a day Age 8-12  4 hours 36 minutes Age 0-8  2 hours 19 minutes This is the Recommended amount: The recommended amount of screen time for Children: AAP Recommendations For children younger than 18 months , avoid the use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing.  For...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Can We Help?

How Can We Help? So far, we have talked about the issues our kids face with social media.  Some have been positive and some have been negative.  I think it's time we talk about what we can do to help our kids by handling the different platforms of social media.  This might get a little difficult to do with all age groups, but let's talk about some general things we can do as parents to help our children.  According to different resources that I studied these are some recommendations that could help you as you guide your children.       Educate yourself about social media   As a parent, it’s important to familiarize yourself with what sites are out there and which are appropriate for your child. Here are some of the most popular social apps and sites for kids and teens: WhatsApp Snapchat Instagram Tumblr Pheed Kik ask.fm Reddit Yik Yak Establish an age limit for your child to start using social media While you’re familiarizing ...
Post a Comment
Read more