Controversial topic for me but in short, we can not stop the train that is now moving along at high speed. Social media in its various forms exists and it feeds out the information that we feed into it. It knows the sites you look at and if you have shown an anti viewpoint it will keep feeding you information about that viewpoint from an anti perspective. We are feeding the machine every time we use it so how can we possibly make it good.
Well I believe this, hence why I set up my cause Sunshine People but also why I believe what we teach our young people about the emotional effects of social media the stronger our youth will be.
So my tips are -
• By ensuring that they see the goodness, the video that depicts good behaviours and so forth.
• Spend time with them discussing social media
• Deploring bullying and trolls of social media
• The more kindness you see on your childrens social media the more kindness will automatically pop up into their news feed.
• Make sure you have put on child protection on your internet exposure.
The internet has more information and hints on tips on life than anywhere else in the world. Reading books and other peoples stories is a wonderful way to learn. If a child who is able to have social awareness (as taught in emotional intelligence) they are able to weed out the lies and negativity for themselves.
The invention of google helped support me in very challenging times by reading ways to help myself and watching videos that fed me positivity and motivation. The internet is not bad but it is how we use and what we gain back out of it that is key.