For a parent and teens, learning to use social media together responsibly, negative cases of teens becoming victims of cyberbullying, and others would be minimal. An educated parent in matters to do with responsible use of social media can help the teenagers have a good online experience and reduce any negative impacts on their mental health and well-being.
According to a recent study than involved adults and young people found out that three in every four teenagers were more engaged in social media with 79% higher than adults 54%. The study further shows teenagers are spending most of their time using social media, averaging over 3 hours every day.
Social media is an avenue for family and friends to socialize and stay connected. But let’s see how parents and teens can work together to reduce the impact.
Self-Esteem
Social media plays a vital role in many people, but according to a recent survey, too much of it, especially teenagers, affects their self-esteem negatively. Many teenagers, daily, look at their social media before going to bed. The same survey says that about 15% of teenagers were reported to have been approached by strangers daily through their online experience. It is serious and something to concern the parents to get involved and walk hand in hand with the teens to prevent negative experiences happening to their children.
The study shows that around 60% of parents rarely monitor their teen’s social media accounts and are not sure what is too much for the young ones. Most of the parents are willing to offer support but not sure how to provide proper guidance to their teens. But many parents and teenagers have benefited through Facebook’s efforts to limit the content that may negatively interfere with young people visiting social media. Although a lot needs to be done, parents are required to be in the front line guiding their children and ensuring their self-esteem is not affected due to excessive use of social media.
Work Together
Sometimes teenagers use social media as an escape, especially where parents do not pay attention. For a positive impact of teens on social media, parents have to be involved and encourage their children to use it wisely and positively. Together you can visit their social media accounts, see their posts, their favorites, and channels they have subscribed to YouTube can help give you more information about the type of content they interact with online.
Engagement
Rather than you as a parent remain there as a supervisor of your teenagers, ask them to teach you so you can join their world. You can ask their guidance to help you understand how to use the internet and together make decisions about the best approach to use social media. Turn your experience together like a game, and that gives your child confidence to trust you with their activities without hiding or engaging in negative stuff.
Conclusion
The most important role parents can take with their teenagers is to have an ongoing conversation about the use of social media. Accepting the challenge to talk about social media use, then it will also be easier for you to have difficult conversations about risks and ways to handle them.
