Parents and Students Express Thoughts About Social Media

Principal Bjorn Paige’s first book club of the year which was centered around social media and teenagers, ended with a discussion about prominent rapper Nicki Minaj. Paige held his book club in the learning commons from 6 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 18.

Unlike the previous year’s book club which brought in a large crowd, this time around there were six people, three students and three moms at the event. Two of the students showed up with their moms.

The discussion surrounded “It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens” by danah boyd, a book about how teenagers in the 21st century approach social media. The first things the group noted about this book is that the author had a clear bias towards the positives of social media and that the book was a little outdated as it referenced MySpace.

Then, the conversation spiraled from there. It tuned towards what type of social media the participants had. Everyone said they had a Facebook even if one student only uses it for National Honors Society. The other two students said they had a variety of social media accounts and the parents said they have dabbled in other things as well.

Next, the topic of bullying and privacy came up. The adults including Paige came to the conclusion that the biggest difference between now and then is that before everything was a slow paced rumor and now everything is spread so fast and has visuals to back up the claims.

The next point was college in relation to social media. The parents were wondering whether colleges check students’ social media accounts or not. The seniors in the room were pretty confident that schools do check even if there wasn’t solid evidence. One of the moms who has a kid who is very uninvolved in social media was worried if that might affect him. There wasn’t a clear answer to that question however.

Then, the conversation turned to whether parents should check their child’s social media or not. The general consensus was that parents should be able to see their student’s accounts. From that there was a discussion about what is public versus what is private. The parents asked if the kids minded publically sharing things in their lives and the students answered that they didn’t really mind.

The parents then decided that technology isn’t going away and both the over 30s and the under 30s are going to have to deal with it. This led to a conversation about all the positivity that is spread on the internet, even though there is still negativity. There was a short interruption where the conversation was turned towards the rules each family has about technology. Every family had different rules and some even changed from kid to kid.

Then the conversation shifted to the classroom and what rules teachers have versus what rules they should have. Everyone decided having phones out during class was wrong and, while some thought the teachers should take phones, some thought that the students should have their phones and know when it is and isn’t appropriate to use them.

Parents then brought up the fact that they have “aw c’mon” moments when they see their Facebook friends post political opinions. The students seemed to have similar moments but not so much when it came to politics but more with PDA and pictures with alcohol.

This led to a conversation on body positivity because one of the moms had an issue with girls posting pictures in bikinis. The students then countered that this type of stuff ties back to positivity and most of the time the pictures in bikinis are spreading body positivity. This is when Nicki Minaj came up as the students used how she spreads body positivity to young women and empowers them.