Unfortunately, our teenage years are the ones when our mood is most volatile due to raging hormones, and that thought we can receive or transmit in an instant can be the one that causes a rapid mood swing for better or for worse. We can say exactly what we're thinking in a public forum, and people react accordingly.
For teens, a benefit of social media can be that it takes the pressure off of a face to face interaction. There's no need to interpret body language or non-verbal signals, and teens can combat anxiety about how they look as their body changes by hiding behind a screen. Teens can also take a minute to pause before responding to an email or Facebook post, whereas a face to face interaction would demand an almost immediate response.
The problem is that most people, teens included, tend to have a rapid relationship with technology where they respond right away to texts, emails or posts instead of sitting with it to determine an appropriate response. Social networking sites can also contribute to a kind of "group think" where we are easily susceptible to following the opinions of others without taking our own values into consideration. Developmentally, our teenage years are about relying more on the influence of our peers than much of anything else. So what does this mean when a teen starts bullying another teen online? In a lot of situations, it means that their friends follow suit.
This generation of teens has more access to technology than any one before it, and I (Courtney) don't think we know the implications of that yet. However, with studies that indicate that teens are more likely to be depressed the more time they spend online and ones that show how common online predators are toward teens and children, it is important not to lose site of the value of technology-free times every single day, where we can connect with each other face to face, authentically.
No comments:
Post a Comment