Monday, April 6, 2015

The upside of selfies: Social media isn't all bad for kids

Article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/living/social-media-positives-teens-parents/

Selfie!

In this article by Kelly Wallace, it talks about the positives of social media for tweens/teens. Wallace interviewed 13-year-old Amelia, 8-year-old William, and their parents about their views on social media. In the video, the mother told the interviewer that she monitors Amelia’s Instagram account 24/7, but in part of the agreement she is not allowed to post anything on her daughters’ page. Amelia says social media can give individuals more of a confidence boosts to their selfie pictures that they post to the public. As it turns out it may be true. A report stated that “one in five teens said social media makes them feel more confident” and that social media is helping individuals to become more outgoing.


These comments actually surprised me, but at the same time it makes sense. Teens spend a lot more time on social media than I did when I was a teenager. Their lives are being built around social networking instead of more social interaction. A lot of teens take selfies of themselves to build up confidence from the comments other people post about the picture. As Amelia points out in a mathematical way, “If one person says this thing, it brings them down, but if this (other) person says the equal amount just as good, it evens out to a zero.” 

The article even showed examples of teens sharing videos of themselves performing songs on social media. Even though these individuals were singing off-key, they still had plenty of support from others. I was really happy to read this. Teens especially need to hear these encouragements from others and to give them that confident boost. It takes a lot of courage to post something like that on the web and it is so rewarding for those individuals to read the positive feedback!  

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