Social Media: Shrinking the World One Post at a Time

I remember a time. A time before technology had latched its’ fingers onto practically every portion of our lives. Back when correspondence happened with letters and stamps, bills had to be paid in person or by mail, and darn it! If you didn’t get to the bank by 5 pm, well, you just weren’t getting money that day! It was a time when that harrowing research paper had to be typed on a typewriter (and you best not make a spelling error or the whiteout would give it away!) A time when thumbing through the encyclopedia was your best (and only) source of information, the theater was the only place to watch a movie, and telephones did not travel outside of the home. So much simpler were those days…

Today is a much different time than that. Children of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s are lucky that their formative years were not caught on video and placed onto the internet for the whole world to see. They are lucky that those immature musings about junior high crushes or high school rivalries were not forever engraved on the walls of Facebook or Twitter, and that they could stumble through adolescence with only VHS and Kodak as their nemesis. Who knew that those would be the “golden days?” 

Today’s children are being raised knowing what a selfie is, that to “google” is a verb, and that any piece of information they seek can be answered immediately by the small rectangle in their hands. They will never know the panic about getting to the library in time to finish their history report. They never have to miss an episode of their favorite program because it can be pre-recorded on their DVR (what?! I had to wake up early on time Saturday mornings to see my favorite cartoons!) They will never know the dial-up tone while waiting in agony for the computer to finally allow you on the internet. And you’d best hurry, just in case someone needed to use the phone!

The internet and social media allow us instant access to real-time photos or videos, all which are viewable worldwide. As a parent, that’s a scary thought! Considering how little I thought my parents knew in the 90’s, I can only imagine what battles lay ahead dealing with my own kiddos. Even colleges and universities are weeding out scholarship candidates via social media postings and photographs. That's intense.

Perhaps the best we can hope for is that, as a generation of parents who ushered in the age of the internet, we are able to successfully educate our children on the dangers and longevity of things they put online (seriously, it’s probably easier to get Congress to work together than to every fully remove something from the internet!) and how a seemingly harmless photo can come back to haunt them in their adult years. Show them how posting a “cool pic” of them doing something dangerous can hinder their opportunity to land a good job in the future, or how a skimpy swimsuit picture can land in the hands of someone with less-than-stellar intentions. It’s a big, scary world, and the internet is shrinking that world smaller and smaller every day.

So stay involved. Interact, investigate, and stay interested. Let them know that perhaps auditioning for the cast of MTV’s The Real World (is that even still on?!) may not be the most desirable way to advance their own popularity, and that in twenty years…do they really want video of themselves doing a kegstand, surrounded by inebriated classmates, showing up on their children’s YouTube feed?

Technology has certainly put a spin on childhood, that’s for sure. Adolescence will never be the same…

~A

**Our Army Community Service offers classes on how to read and understand teen texting, as well as how to keep you child safe on the internet. Feel free to call them at 703.696.3510 to find out about upcoming classes!