Tag Archives: social media

Live from the Living Room: 20 tweets ripped from real life

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I didn’t spend much time on social media before I delved into the blogging world.  Facebook?  Sure, I was all about the Book, but I hadn’t touched on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or Pinterest.  Or anything else, for that matter.

Like most things, though, once you dip your toe in the waters you’re in it to win it.  You find a platform or two that are most appealing and focus your attention there, then slowly but surely you find it sinking into your subconscious.

This is why I’ve started spontaneously thinking in tweets.

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parenting in the digital world

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As we inch closer and closer to T-man’s 13th birthday – and since he’s begun to dip his toe into the Instagram world – I’ve been grateful to find resources with some parenting advice.  Something a little more concrete than buckle up and hold on tight.

“[After studying social media posts what] these researchers found was largely consistent with recent reports from the Pew Foundation, which suggested that most teenagers 13 to 17 were generally happy with their connected lives online, and believed that hanging out virtually strengthened their offline relationships.

‘Being 13’ provides an asterisk of sorts to that rosy outlook: These teenagers, at the youngest end of the spectrum, valued their online connectedness but also described in more detail the ways the specific online interactions affected them…social media had great power to affect their day-to-day emotions in ways a parent might regard with suspicion.  One child said she took 100 to 200 pictures of herself to get a good selfie; another regularly posted images on Instagram seeking specific forms of approval only to receive silence in return.  Many spent hours scrolling through the images of their peers’ lives online…

Here’s how to guide, help and monitor your child as she joins social media.”

Seven Ways Parents Can Help 13-Year-Olds Start Their Social Media Lives Right – The New York Times

put a little shock and awe into your parenting

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I dropped one of these on T-man and Bear in the car and they fell out.  In a good way.  But that was probably because it was only our family present.

I’m pretty sure they’d prefer I use my own generation’s language in front of their friends, lest they seem less lit.

“Here’s the thing – I don’t know what a story is.

It’s on Instagram and SnapChat.  Right?  Maybe What’sApp, but that’s less likely.  Anyway, I know it’s like a place where people can, I don’t know, write something like a blog post?  It’s kind of a big deal, I gather.  Yet, no, I don’t know its parameters.

That’s okay – I’m 45 after all.”

5 Words I Know (That My Kids Know I Shouldn’t Know) – Coach Daddy

because so many of us have postgraduate degrees lying around

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For people who whine about having their privacy invaded, teens know remarkably little about their privacy rights on social media.  Though, to be fair, the same could be said for many adults since those terms of use agreements read like Sanskrit.

One lawyer decided to break down Instagram into plain English for us.

“Afterward, the teenagers said they understood very little about privacy rights on Instagram, despite getting through the terms and conditions.

‘I don’t know due to the sheer amount of writing and lack of clarity within the document,’ a 15-year-old said, according to the report.

The group ran Instagram’s terms and conditions through a readability study and found that it registered at a postgraduate reading level, Afia said.”

A lawyer rewrote Instagram’s terms of use ‘in plain English’ so kids would know their privacy rights – The Washington Post

anyone else up for social media limits?

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I am this mom.  (Well, maybe not with the pink boa and countertop dancing, but I’m solidly on board with minors and social media.)  It’s remarkably hard to be the mom who says no when so many parents around me are saying yes.  To hold my own against request after request, seeing the disappointment in the kids’ eyes each time, knowing they think I’m a shrew.

Parenting.  Sheesh.

“Sorry, Charlie, but I don’t believe any child under 13 has any business on social media.

There.  I said it…

As much as I know I can lock down my kids’ accounts and keep their internet sharing private, here’s the thing: I know what I post on my social media accounts, and I don’t want them seeing what I do in my grown-up space on the internet.  And I don’t want your 11-year-old to see what I post either, thank you very much.”

Why I’m Not Accepting Your Kid’s Social Media Request – Scary Mommy

TBT with all the loves

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For someone who was slow to jump on the social media train, there’s one particular facet that I’ve been an enormous fan of from the start.

Throwback Thursday.

It’s a perfect fit for me, really.  Photos, flashbacks, remembering the good old days (because all memories of the kids at those perilously young ages are filtered through the kindness of time).  Love every single bit of it.

And then I came across this.

momTVad

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that good old W2

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I might be in my forties, but I’m hip.  I’m fly.  I’m on point when it comes to what is and isn’t trending.  (I published my #squadgoals already, right?)

Which is how I know Twitter recently lit up with #7jobs.

I had to kind of squint a bit – I mean, it’s been quite a few years since my first paying job (though it might not have involved a W2) – but eventually I figured it out.

#7jobs
babysitter (I can’t believe anyone trusted me with their kids that young)
Baskin Robbins
movie theater (concessions and box office)
Ben and Jerry’s (see a theme?)
camera shop/Hallmark store
Subway
summer camp counselor

Oh, the stories I could tell about each and every one of these (along with the dozen or so that followed), but today?  Today we’ll focus on the magic of the movie theater.

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6th grade is looming

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We’re wrapping up fifth in a couple of months, and if we’re juggling this kind of drama in elementary school I shudder to think what awaits us next year…

“…As a former school guidance counselor, and a current national life coach and teen expert, I can recall several instances where teens either met someone online via an anonymous social media outlet, sent and received sext messages believing that they were going to be for the eyes of only one person, but we all know that isn’t true…

I can also recall a time when a young 13-year-old girl asked me, ‘Is sex really like what it looks like in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie?’  

Yes, that happened.  

This young lady received a few clips of the movie via text messages that had been circulating around her school.  She asked me this question because she was considering losing her virginity, and she wanted to know if she should expect to be whipped and tied up when she has sex for the first time.

Welcome to the Fifty Shades of Middle School.“

Dear Parents, This is What Your Kid’s Guidance Counselor Wants You to Know About Sex and Middle School – For Every Mom