JOHNNY: As I thought about our last episode I thought one thing. At times I felt like I was a little too hard on our youth. To be clear, the things I said I really do believe I do believe that our youth are focused too much on the adulation and the “likes” of social media but as I was driving home from recording the podcast I asked myself who is leading our youth? As adults are we setting a good example for our children? I think it’s a mixed bag. I do see adults doing things for likes as well. I do see adults pretending to be things they aren’t on social media. Their real lives are drastically different rom the rosy picture they present on social medial. If adults do that isn’t it natural that kids would follow suit? Mayne that’s a topic for another podcast, but it is something that I thought about. As I said there is no handbook in terms of how and when to give your kids social medial. It’s still very difficult to know when your kid is ready for it but the one thing we can do is set good examples for them. We need to show them we don’t need the adulation from social media so they shouldn’t either. We need to show them that love from our real friends and family is more important than a stranger online. If we as a society can do that, maybe we will have an easier time with our youth and social media.
SUE: There were a few roads I didn’t pursue in our social media discussion, purposefully, because I knew they could each be pretty robust discussions and we promise to get you in and out in an hour. One of them was inspired by Johnny’s comment that he uses social media for INFORMATION; my mind immediately went to the amount of DISINFORMATION that also spreads like wildfire, and someday if you see an episode of our show called JUST BECAUSE IT’S ON THE INTERNET IT DOESN’T MAKE IT TRUE, this is what we will be talking about. Fake News has got to be the biggest evil that has come out of this era of social media. Maybe on the other side of this election season, Johnny will take on that topic with me.
But just as I neglected to mention what I believe is an evil, I also didn’t delve fully into what I think is good.
Yes, the ability to self-publish or self-promote is amazing. To create your own following and platform is a powerful thing – Johnny and I are working on doing that right now with all of you – (please like, leave a 5 star review and share by the way) and it opens doors for people that may have remained closed 20 years ago.
But how could we talk about the GOOD power of social media without talking about harnessing the power of our youth to organize, persist, and resist? Teens on social media have protested school budget cuts, spoken out about cyberbullying, organized a NATIONAL school walkout day to protest gun laws! Nurturing politically active, socially conscious minds who (unlike how many of us middle-agers were raised) should be SEEN and HEARD is what I consider one of the greatest responsibilities I have as a parent. And social media can be such an effective tool in achieving that objective.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a special shoutout to my amazing son for allowing me to share the story that also became the title of this episode. Thanks, love. I appreciate you.
Two Friends. Two Mics. 