If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Though permanence will continue to be one of the assets of the digital age, with an influx of technologies that make it so you don't need to be haunted by your past, it's likely that soon most Millennial consumers will demand to choose how long a digital property should exist for.
What you post/text/Tweet matters. You should assume what you do in public is going to be recorded. Educate your kids on these consequences...some of which may be life-changing, in addition to embarrassing or even illegal.
Parents need a cursory understanding of the complex, virtual world in which we live in order to provide guidance. Don't let a stranger educate your child the hard way about such technologies.
Who doesn't love their electronic gadgets? Of course they are brilliant at relaying information. But when we engage in electronic communication, it's important to follow some basic e-etiquette rules.
Many parents have 'the talk' about drinking and driving with their kids, but in today's digital world, are you having 'the talk' about what they are posting and saying on their social networking sites?
If there is subtext in all texts, it's amplified in sexting. Just as you wouldn't move from a batted eyelash to a roll in the sheets, there has to be some heavy ePetting before you can climax to sexting.
How many of us have handed over a mobile device that gives our children complete access to the world, with all of its lures and dangers? Many of us feel helpless when faced with youthful demands for technology and our own inability to understand how it can be used -- or misused.
Reflecting on the evolution of youthful mischief and behavior over the last 60 years, one item which has seems to have survived the test of time has been the double-dog dare.
A Parent's (and All Boys') Worst Nightmare: Meet Lulu, the New Fast-growing Social Network for Girls
It only takes one girl with a Facebook account to put your son up for the global female population to rate his looks, humor, kisses, sexual performance, body and personality (although personality seems quite unimportant in the Lulu world).
I'm intrigued. And horrified. And curious. And incredulous. Twitter, that lolly-bag of random ideas, just led me to a story on the website of Cosmopolitan magazine about a new Facebook app called "Bang with Friends."
If the only thing I told my kids about sex was to use protection, would you think I was a good parent? If I had never said more about drugs other than "don't," would that have been OK? Then why is it alright that the only thing I told my kids about social media is "be careful?"
Whether it's unsolicited pictures of body parts or disgustingly naughty little descriptions of what they'd like to do to you, many men experience super-human increases in gall online.
Children can make regrettable decisions more quickly, be caught in badly-conceived acts more readily and be more publicly humiliated before a far broader audience than ever before.
It seems that whenever anyone talks about divorce, the C word comes up -- commitment. The problem with couples today, the typical comment goes, is that they just don't know what commitment means.
Although Snapchat is meant for fun, it can be construed into dangerous actions. Just keep your wits about you when using this app and be smart.
What explains these teenagers' inability to think about sexuality at the same level of cognitive sophistication they so capably bring to practically every other subject matter?
