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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   

  



  

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