Just a note to the parents of teenagers: If you’re not paying attention to what your kids are saying on Twitter and Facebook, you might want to consider tuning in.
I’ve become a follower of my 16-year-old son’s tweets, and I’ll admit most of it is pretty unexciting.
There’s a lot of the usual teenage angst. I read about things like the amount of homework assigned by a particular teacher or about popular music.
Now and then, there’s a tweet about the latest bit of gossip at school.
I see lots of tweets about how clueless parents are. It’s a scientific fact, after all, that the average parent loses at least 25 points off his or her IQ the minute a child turns 13. And this same parent’s brainpower continues to diminish for the better part of a decade before he or she begins to regain a bit of wisdom.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that stupid parents take up at least a small amount of the teenage chatter on social media.
Almost all of what I read is harmless. Every once in a while, though, I see something that makes me cringe.
I see a teenage boy dropping the F-bomb in every other tweet, and I wonder if his parents have any idea what sorts of comments he’s sending into the ether for everyone to see.
I see another teen who has adopted a rather suggestive handle, and I wonder whether he ran that one past Mom and Dad.
These sorts of things are troubling to me, but even more, I fear they might be troubling to a college admissions officer or a prospective employer surfing the Internet.
Many of us forget, I think, that what we say on Facebook and Twitter isn’t all that private. I can assure you that in keeping up with the posts of the people I care about, I end up reading comments posted by people I’ve never heard of.
And it’s just a fact that these things can come back to haunt us in a job interview or a college application.
It is possible to limit access to these posts through the privacy settings on social media sites, but I’m guessing that parents might be surprised at how many of their kids are putting comments and pictures out there with no filter whatsoever.
Things like Facebook and Twitter can certainly be fun, but it’s not a bad idea for teenagers to keep in mind the sort of impression they’re leaving with some of the comments and photos they’re posting online.
Beyond all of that, though, there are other things parents can learn by taking a look now and then at the things their kids are saying and doing on social media sites.
No one wants to be accused of spying. We all want to give our kids some privacy, and we hate to have them thinking we’re constantly looking over their shoulders, but when I see a teenage girl say she hopes she doesn’t wake up in the morning, I have to wonder whether her mom and dad wouldn’t like to know she’s expressing such thoughts.
Is the child really suicidal, or is she just being overly dramatic? The odds are it’s the latter, but wouldn’t most parents want to know just to be sure?
Being a teenager isn’t easy, and every day, it seems, has its share of drama.
A teenager has very little perspective. A devastating day in the life of a 17-year-old can seem like the end of the world. Because a kid at that age hasn’t experienced the healing of time, he or she might not know that a broken heart really will get better.
And so, maybe, parents really should be keeping an eye on what our kids are saying on the Internet. So that we can help to steer them away from trouble and maybe even provide some encouragement at a time of heartbreak or disappointment.
After all, isn’t that what parents are for?
• Kelly Hawes is managing editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at 574-732-5155 or kelly.hawes@pharostribune.com.
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