Social Media Presentation Takeaways

From Peets F. Guice, MA, MSW, LCSW
MPHS Dean of Students

 

On April 18th a small group of parents attended the Tuesday's Teen series  to hear from Southeast Psych clinician Ryan Kelly PhD regarding social media issues.   Southeast Psych has partnered with MPHS for the past 2 years. We are in the planning stages for an offering with them involving the transition from high school to college which will have a student component as well as a parent component.  More news to come on that.

Should you have any parenting, mental health, substance abuse or other needs they are a great resource.   Click here to access their website and look at some of their online resources at this link. Great stuff for parents here as well.

Here are some of the highlights of the presentation:

2. Teenagers spend, on average, around 10 hours a day in front on a screen. Let that sink in. TEN hours! How many hours do we adults spend in front of a screen?

3. Social media has a direct impact on school performance. Check this out Well duh! Like we didn't know that. But did we know the impact was that much? Wow.

Who is footing that bill for that phone, internet, social-media access, etc.?  In most cases, it is you, the parent who does. We parents pay the bills, own the cars, pay the insurance; we are liable. Having the use of these things is a privilege and not a right. If your child is not meeting your academic or other expectations, why should they get those privileges? Food for thought.

Since you are footing the bill, you need to know what is going on. Know your kid's passwords and log in information. Knowing them now saves time in the event that a crisis warrants immediate access. It is a safety concern. If you are concerned about something or are seeing symptoms of issues, take a close look. This is one that I think needs to be well thought through. Do I really want to know everything? Could looking every day and knowing everything be healthy for a teen to develop and grow?  How a parent responds to disappointment also is important. If I looked every day and found disappointment every day, how would that help? Food for thought.

Here is the most important message that I heard from this talk. Talk with your kids. Talk about your expectations regarding online behaviors.  Focus on using appropriate language, photographs, and healthy boundaries.  Just today, I had a student's phone on my desk when a "group text" came in.  In the title of the group was a word that 99.9% of the world would find appalling. What your teen might think is "cool" or "funny" at 16, might not be so cool or funny at 25, 35 or 56. Everything you post will be there forever, including that Snap Chat.  What you believe is private, is stored on a server (probably many servers) somewhere and can be accessed by law enforcement. Nothing you post or say ever goes away. Some of those pictures that you think are cute, could be a violation of state and federal law, specifically child pornography laws. Be safe and be smart.  Have this conversation. It might just help you child make better decisions. Food for thought.