·
Both TIME magazine and
the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on some dangers surfacing behind
the many hours that teens are spending in social networking. Here are a few
quotes from the San Francisco Chronicle article that relayed the results of a
poll of 1,000 teens and 1,000 parents:
“From
behind their bedroom doors, more than 1 out of every 10 teenagers has posted a
nude or seminude picture of themselves or others online—a “digital tattoo” that
could haunt them for the rest of their lives.
A
quarter of the young people polled had posted something they later regretted,
made fun of others or created a false identity online.
While
teens are spending more and more time on social networking sites like Facebook
and MySpace—with 22 percent saying they check their sites more than 10 times a
day—they don’t seem to be aware of the long-term personal havoc they could
create with a click of a button.
And
their parents generally have little idea about what their children are up to,
the poll found.
[Social
Networking] feels less personal; it’s easier to do mean things… It’s almost
simulated behavior. You can be risky and do riskier things in a digital
context.
Yet
there can be enormous consequences: That alcohol-related post-prom
picture? Someday an employer or college admission officer might come across it
with a quick click on Google. Hitting delete to get rid of a questionable photo
won’t help. The digital imprint never goes away and could be flitting across
computer screens around the world.
Whether
we like it or not, kids live in the 24/7 digital world… It affects virtually
every aspect of their lives.
‘It’s a
playground with no parental supervision,’ said Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis,
George Adkins Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington, who
found in a study released earlier this year that 54 percent of teens
demonstrate risky behavior online.
[Among
parents] there’s definitely a not-my-kid syndrome.
Technology
doesn’t create new behaviors, it just may exploit them.”
Teen
social networking by the numbers:
·
51 Percentage of teens
who check their sites more than once a day.
·
22 Percentage who check
their sites more than 10 times a day.
·
39 Percentage who have
posted something they later regretted.
·
37 Percentage who have
used the sites to make fun of other students.
·
25 Percentage who have
created a profile with a false identity.
·
24 Percentage who have
hacked into someone else’s social networking account.
·
13 Percentage who have
posted nude or seminude pictures or videos of themselves or others online.
In a TIME magazine
article entitled “What Facebook Users Share” recent studies point to lower
grades as a common trait among people who use Facebook extensively. It’s not
that Facebook would be the cause, but that extended time and use of social
networking could impact attention span and other factors that influence
grades and relationships.
The quote that most
arrested my attention was from UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small:
“He warns
of a decreased ability among devotees of social networks and other modern
technology to read real-life facial expressions and understand the emotional
context of subtle gestures. Young people are particularly at risk for
these problems, he writes, because young minds tend to be the most
sensitive, as well as the most exposed, to digital technology.”
The article warns of the
tendency of teens to obsess over these technologies, giving too much time and
influence to them. Amazingly, research continually reveals that parents have
little knowledge of what their kids do online.
In the next week or so I will be posting two articles for
parents and spiritual leaders related to controlling media—including social
networking. May God give us wisdom to train up the next generation to be
guarded and discerning in these areas!
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