Life Strategies for Teenagers: Positive Parenting Tips and Understanding Teens for Better Communication and Happy Family by Bukky Ekine-Ogunlana

Author:Bukky Ekine-Ogunlana [Ekine-Ogunlana, Bukky]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: T.C.E.C Publishers United Kingdom
Published: 2019-01-18T00:00:00+00:00

5

Teens And Technology

We know, we’ve already discussed technology extensively in this book already, with issues surrounding technology cropping up throughout the various topics we’ve already honed in on. But, quite frankly, technology today has a much more significant impact on your teenager’s behaviour than it would have done ten years ago, or twenty years ago, and is wildly different from thirty years ago [8]. This is why technology deserves its own chapter.

Let’s take your first trip to the shop as an example. Your parents likely gave you a very long, well-thought out speech, listing the many guidelines you needed to follow in order to stay safe. Stop at the traffic lights, wait for the green man, don’t talk to strangers, follow the yellow brick road. Okay, maybe not the latter, but you get the gist.

Why, then, if we are so cautious about our child’s first steps of independence in the real world, are we not even nearly as bothered about their first digital steps on the internet and beyond? It seems baffling that with the growing importance and dependence we have on technology today, that people still don’t see that technology and the internet is just as dangerous as the big bad world.

Technology, as we have mentioned, is an ever-changing, ever-developing beast that grows in popularity, usage and accessibility with each day that passes by. Meaning, there are just so many people using internet-enabled digital devices that you can’t just assume everybody is a good person. We hate to be the people to break it to you, but the chances are, at least one person you’ve either communicated with or seen in some form on the internet is likely to be doing something at least slightly illegal. It’s weird if you don’t come across a weirdo on the internet every now and then. That’s why it’s more important than ever that both you and your teenager stay safe when trawling the digital realms.

It’s not only disingenuous people who have the potential to harm that you need to be careful of either, there are many threats on the internet that don’t lead to physical harm - there’s emotional scarring, and aspects of the internet that will hurt your purse strings too!

Many young people don’t realise that what they see on the internet may not actually be true, not truly understanding the power and strength of sponsored posts and other such marketing ploys. Particularly relating to those where a reality television star from Love Island or other related programming like Jersey/Geordie Shore, is involved. Many teenagers don’t learn to read between the lines until their later teenage years, this is especially the case on social media, where everything you see, on the face of it, appears genuine. As a parent, it can be very harmful for your purse strings if your child is asking for the latest bubble face scrub because Charlotte from Geordie Shore is using it on Instagram. Unfortunately, the teenager doesn’t understand that Charlotte doesn’t actually like the product, nor does she believe it works, she’s just being paid to use it.

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