Once a person has mastered the digital world and developed the necessary skills to milk the Internet of its treasures, he or she will scarcely be able to imagine life without it.
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INTRO - TODDLERS - PRESCHOOLERS - SCHOOL DAZE
Media for Teens and Adults
Adults generally use one or two simple channels of social media, such as Facebook and Linkedin, plus maybe a weather app and a news app, and that’s it. On the other hand, teenagers define themselves through the use of media. They use many different online platforms in many diverse ways. Their knowhow opens doors to new friendships on which they build and base their identity.
We of the older generations differentiate between the online and offline world. We strive to keep our privacy. We try to keep a healthy digital distance between ourselves and our jobs, politics and the economy. For young people, whether at work or mealtime, with friends or relatives, they are often online. They may spend some offline private time with their parents and closest friends, but that may also be disturbed by the receipt of and replying to messages.
While attempts at asking a youth to cut back on digital activity are usually unsuccessful, most describe their media free vacations as relaxing and regenerating.
The New World of Teenagers
It is not so easy for us older folks to understand the online world of today’s youth. When they wake up in the morning, some have up to 50 WhatsApp messages. No wonder they have to use meal and transit times to process them all!
Young people often know what’s happening in the world before we do. A lot of information runs through their field of attention. The question is, how much sticks. Whatever touches their inner values will most likely find a niche in their memory bank. That is where parents come in. The importance of the standards we instill in our children is on the rise. If parents allow their youngsters to form their own principles or let the media do it for them, they are taking a huge risk.
Some positive values to promote are honesty, truth, kindness, authenticity, helpfulness, a forgiving spirit, a love for knowledge, intrinsic motivation (BLOG), self-esteem, self-confidence and emotional intelligence (BLOG).
In the challenging digital future in which young people must prove themselves, the question becomes even more important: How can these principles be integrated into their world? For teens, they must be understandable, worthwhile and cool. Everything that’s cool will be immediately accepted. How can we promote values such as creativity, the youths’ own identities and a healthy lifestyle through the use of media?
A Case Study – Peter
Peter, 14, wakes up every morning to the sound of his cell phone’s alarm. After breakfast he leaves the house with earphones attached. He checks his mailbox, Skype and WhatsApp messages simultaneously in the bus and forwards messages to his friends. In class he continues, working on a group presentation with his friends and photographs his schoolmate’s notes for his records. He uses his cell phone for everything.
After school in the afternoon, he goes directly to his soccer practice and then home. On the bus he practices his French vocabulary with a language-learning app on his phone. At home, he starts his PC and continues work on his presentation. Afterwards he checks to see whether his whole clan of friends is online so they can continue their battle. Two are missing. He sends a WhatsApp message. An hour later, his mom announces dinner and he knows he only has a half hour left. He sends a chat message that he will soon leave the battle. After 15 more minutes, he exits the battle and spends the last 15 minutes Skyping with his girlfriend.
Letting Go – Step by Step
Your child is already quite independent in Internet use. It’s a good idea to look into the different forms of media your child uses and become informed of the risks and opportunities presented there. In this way, you can guide your child’s use of media through safe waters. Avoid over-monitoring, while at the same time, taking your child’s world seriously. What is he or she interested in? Why? What gets on his or her nerves? Is it you? What areas provide good experiences for your child? What does he or she worry about?
Whatever fascinates adults is also attractive for the younger set. Children with unfulfilled emotional needs like acceptance and appreciation are especially at risk.
Risks and Opportunities in the World of Media
Risks
To completely shelter children and youth from digital media is neither possible nor judicious, because in many ways it can be helpful in the accomplishment of diverse tasks, and offers an array of positive opportunities.
However, wherever opportunities present themselves, danger is also present. Internet can be addictive, children and teenagers can be mobbed in social networks, and personal data can be misused, which can lead to sexual assaults. Teens share a lot of their personal information. A survey of over 600 teens from 2012 found that nearly all shared their real name and photos of themselves, and most shared their school name, birthdate, and the city or town where they lived. (hhs.gov - Office of Adolescent Health)
It is of vital importance that young people learn to evaluate content critically, recognize dangers and know how to protect themselves. Parents and teachers are key players in this game.
As they accompany the young, they must adapt to their needs, sometimes being a trusted listener, at other times a helpful conversationalist or an interested co-learner.
Here is a summary of some of the risks:
Violence – happy slapping – cyber bullying – pornography – sexting – sexual assaults via Internet – Internet and computer gaming addictions – data abuse - extremism – fake news and manipulation – loss of concentration – social incompetence due to isolation – loss of work quality due to multi-tasking – negative influence on the brain (frontal lobe - BLOG ) – negative language development – loss of respect for authority – loss of values
An Addictions Specialist Report
More than 2 billion people use Facebook at the risk of being contaminated. Every year we treat 30% more youth with online addictions. In 2017 we had 400, mostly women. Men tend to be more addicted to gaming. Anyone who spends up to 19 hours daily grooming his or her social media contacts is profoundly addicted. These young people are afraid of missing something. For them, the virtual world has taken the place of the real world. The emotional rewards and feelings of happiness produced by social media can quickly result in addictions. Fear of loss is also continually stoked.
Especially during this challenging time we call puberty, the brain is undergoing a radical change. While the search for excitement attraction and thrills is very strong at this time, the need for parental bonding diminishes. If the parent-child bond has not been well developed, the youth is in danger of chasing after any excitement, regardless of the cost involved.
Additionally, the youth’s attention curve unfortunately does not develop in the same direction and at the same pace as the amount of information. While the latter steadily increases, distractions also increase, preventing the information from being processed. The brain, and thus the whole person, suffers under the load.
Opportunities
Digital media has become a regular part of school, work and free time. In the meantime it is no longer a matter of entertainment; it is a useful tool, used to accomplish many tasks. It also has much to offer in the way of development and education. This potential can and should be positively exploited by parents and schools.
Profession
The demands of the professional world have changed with the evolution of information technology. Very few jobs are still in existence in which the computer is not an important tool. Media competence has become just as important a skill as reading, writing and arithmetic ever were. For many professions, a knowledge of technology, as well as an understanding of current content and the competent use of media are key qualifications and often important requirements for survival. When digital media is used carefully, it can help promote certain competencies that are important in the professional world, like structured thinking, solving problems and developing strategies.
Parental and Scholastic Guidance
It is the duty of society to prepare children and youth for a career and, therefore, for life in a community driven by media. Parents and schools should guide adolescents into a positive use of media and provide opportunities for learning where they can develop the skills they will need to be successful in life.
Modern working spaces and home offices have changed. Let’s hope that socialization and humanity will not suffer, but be enhanced, as a result. Then it would be a blessing.
Socialization
Digital media influences the attitudes and behavior of users.
Getting One’s Bearings Amidst a Flood of Information
One important motivating factor for the use of digital media is the acquisition of information. The Internet offers the opportunity to satisfy one’s curiosity, understand the environment and learn amazing new things. However, in order to be able to navigate in the flood of opinions and information and form one’s own opinions, one must have developed the skill of analyzing media contents with a critical eye. This is a form of media competence that parents can actively cultivate in their children.
Media Socialization
Adolescence is the time when young people begin to turn away from their parents and more toward their peers. Youth use digital media to build and maintain social relationships. They present themselves and receive feedback from their virtual friends. In this way, their youthful identity is essentially developed and formed. For this reason, media is described as a powerful entity for socialization, along with family, school and peers, if it is used in a balanced way.
Playful Learning
Digital media promotes the development of cognitive and practical skills. It is a great advantage for young people to be active learners rather than passive consumers. They can create their own content, formulate their opinions and solve problems. Learning processes are stimulated that promote creativity, dexterity, logic, and competence in verbal expression. But, of course, digital media is not necessarily needed for that.
Creativity Needed
Young people often post contributions in social network platforms such as blogs, forums and newsgroups. Some produce and publicize their own audio or video recordings several times a week as podcasts. Web 2.0 challenges Internet users to participate in designing content, and in networking and communicating with each other.
Computer Games
Computer games can promote cognitive and social skills, for example the ability to think, spatial orientation and creativity or improve reactions, as well as hand-eye coordination. An example of this might be to be able to recognize and avoid an obstacle in one’s path. Solving puzzles and riddles in adventure games is a way to improve one’s logical skills. Strategic thinking can also be practiced in games where foresight and planning is needed.
As long as no emotional dependence develops, it can be a good thing, but how many parents know exactly what their child’s emotional condition is? Since these games generally override the frontal lobe and activate the amygdala, the more they are played, the stronger the negative influence they have on the development of the brain.
An old German saying says, "You have to start practicing young if you want to master a skill.” That is still true for some things, but in the case of our children and digital media, it is quite doubtful. Children should grow up in balance with real people and nature. Then starting at about 10 years old, they can be carefully introduced into and guided through the world of digital media (BLOG). That will produce the best results.
In order to avoid excessive challenges, negative experiences and damaging influences in adolescents, it is important to ensure an age-based use of media.
Meeting Friends
Meeting friends is a favorite pastime of young people. No wonder they spend so much time in social networks, mostly in Snapchat (79%), Facebook (76%) and Instagram (73%). Seventy-one percent of teens say they use more than one social media site. They frequent social networks daily or several times a week to look at and like photos or profiles of friends, to chat or comment on friends’ posts. (The Statistics Portal)
Social networks offer a platform where children and young people can try out and present their ideas and thoughts and get a reaction to them. This is especially valuable to teenagers, because for them the most important thing is to build social contacts, feel like they belong and are respected. They want to be 'IN' and 'COOL'.
According to the James Study of 2014, it seems that social activities on the Internet and on cell phones are more important for girls than for boys. Generally, girls communicate more often with digital media and cell phones and spend more time in social networks than boys.
Dear Reader, I’m sure you agree, we cannot afford to let our identities be dominated by the media business. As parents and teachers, we are challenged to meet this danger with wise decisions to ensure that our children have a fighting chance for a positive future. Please join in the battle.
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