In today’s world, with youtube, smartphones and facebook, raising a kid is different than it used to be back in the days of Leave it to Beaver, The Brady Bunch or even Full House. Parents want to know:
Is it OK for me to let my kid have a blog?
How young is too young to have a cellphone?
What’s the difference between Myspace and facebook?
What the heck is Twitter?!
If you’re a typical parent, and you have these questions, I will try to answer a few common modern day parenting questions for you.
Blogging is just like keeping a diary, except you do it online and other people can read it. The owner of the blog can usually restrict who can and cannot read their blog. So, they may block you from reading it, Mom or Dad! The danger in blogging is that the child may share sensitive information which could lead her to getting bullied or stalked. But don’t freak out! Most blogs hardly get read by more than a few readers. Unless your child invests A LOT of time into their blog, they probably won’t draw that much attention to themselves.
A cellphone is a double edged sword. You want to give it to your child so they can use it for emergencies (i.e. In case they’re stranded somewhere or someone gets hurt or something), but before the age of 21, you’re 90% sure they’re using that cellphone to call friends and people you probably wouldn’t approve of them talking to… or are they? The fact of the matter is, if they’re going to use the cellphone to disobey you, they’re probably already disobeying you in other ways too. Maybe it’s the underlying trust issues that need to be dealt with.
Myspace is for kids and facebook is for everybody else. That’s all I know. Actually, Myspace has a huge network of people, but facebook’s format is more geared towards networking on a more professional level. It was, of course started as a networking tool amongst college students. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t immature people on facebook, though. There are probably just as many “weirdos” on facebook as there are on Myspace. If you want your child safe on social networking sites, just add them as a “friend” on that site. That way you can monitor what they’re doing (i.e. who their friends are, what pictures they put up, etc.). Keep in mind that they can always restrict your access to their page on certain sites (e.g. facebook).
Twitter is just texting on crack. Twitter is a tool that allows you to post a 140 character message to the world. Like a mini-blog. I think people like it, because of the instant gratification and the mass messaging aspect of it. You reach a large group of people (instant fame…we all love it) and unlike regular blogs, people actually read them because they’re concise. I would be careful of Twitter, because it’s easier to get a following on twitter than a lot of other sites and you can get people who are a bad influence on your child along with bullies and stalkers, etc.
In summary, in this day and age, there are many ways to raise a child. There have always been many ways to raise a child. It may look more complicated, because of the technology and the drugs and the fact that the kids are also drinking coffee and energy drinks, but underneath the surface they’re still just kids looking for love and attention and it’s up to us to give it to them. How you choose to do that is up to you. As long as what you’re doing is not outside of the law and is done in the spirit of love and mutual respect, that’s good parenting.
What do you think? How do you parent your children when it comes to new technologies?