This week we take a look at all forms of social media. How technology has changed how teens interact with the friends and parents. We'll analyze some interest statistics about social media and the impact it has on today's youth. We look at the good and the bad aspects of social media and discuss some common forms of etiquette to keep in mind when using social media. This week is a cautionary tale to both teens and their parents on how social can be a valuable tool in our technology arsenal if used properly.
An original podcast by a husband and wife team of self professed pop-culture geeks. It is a discussion about all things entertainment from movies and music to television and pop culture. We examine some of the more obscure aspects of the entertainment industry.
This week we take a look at all forms of social media. How technology has changed how teens interact with the friends and parents. We'll analyze some interest statistics about social media and the impact it has on today's youth. We look at the good and the bad aspects of social media and discuss some common forms of etiquette to keep in mind when using social media. This week is a cautionary tale to both teens and their parents on how social can be a valuable tool in our technology arsenal if used properly.
An original podcast by a husband and wife team of self professed pop-culture geeks. It is a discussion about all things entertainment from movies and music to television and pop culture. We examine some of the more obscure aspects of the entertainment industry.
Insightful podcast by informative post insights into a podcast network.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:welcome to insights into teens, a podcast series, exploring the issues and challenges of today's youth. Your hosts are Joseph and Madison whale is a father and daughter team making their way through the challenges,
Speaker 2:the teenage years.
Speaker 4:Welcome to insights into teens. This is episode 25. Social media. I'm your host, Joseph Waylon, and my talented, an inspirational cohost, Madison Wayland. Hi everyone. How are we doing today? Madison? Pretty good. So we are recording a little off schedule today. We typically record our podcasts Saturdays, usually Saturday mornings, uh, will be otherwise occupied this weekend. Yep. So we're actually recording this on Wednesday evening this week. Yep. And will release my podcast on Monday as usual, which is kind of weird for us. Yes. It'll still be released on schedule. Uh, but this will give you time to get the editing and everything done on it. Yup. So social media, do you use it? Um, I guess yes. Okay. To next sense. So that's the topic for today. Yep. We will define what it is like we normally do in relatively broad terms this week. Okay. We will talk about why teens use social media. I can think of a few reasons why. I'm sure you could. Um, we will look at the good and the bed aspects of social media cause there are that, cause there are many aspects or there are, we will look at the statistics or some statistics on social media that I thought were kind of interesting is a six, six, we haven't heard about them in a while. Yeah. I haven't pulled out the statistics in awhile. Yeah. Then we will talk about some important things to remember when using social media. And then as usual we'll finish up with our reviewer closing remarks and shout outs. Yeah. So questions, comments, snide remarks, bad jokes. Philly? No, no. I'm going to show you the one was bad jokes but I think I'm ready. Okay. Let's get into with that. What is Social Media[inaudible]? So this, um, definition comes from a website called tech target and it says social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community based input, interaction, content sharing and collaboration websites and applications dedicated the forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation and wikis are among the different types of social media. Some examples of social media include Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, linkedin, reddit and Pinterest. So when we talk social media today we're going to be talking pretty much anything that has to do with interacting with other people online and specifically a few[inaudible] social media networks. So any questions or anything that add to that? No, not really. Okay. So let's, uh, let's get right into it. We'll talk about why teens use social media in, in. What I'm going to do is bounce some of these off of you and, and get your feedback on them. Okay.
Speaker 5:All right.
Speaker 4:So what I have here is just a list of social media sites. Okay. Or, or reasons I should say. And this comes from an Australian company called reach out.com. So the number one reason that they have on here for using social media is talking to your friends. So do you use social media to talk to your friends?
Speaker 6:Well, if like there's no other way, like if I don't actually have the number like they have like a certain other account. Yes. But normally I have my friends numbers. I've never actually had to go on like any real social media. I mean there's this, there's this one app I use called Kids Messenger where my mom like makes sure I have like people who I know and I can name and I'm able to talk to them by texting or video calling.
Speaker 4:Okay. So, so when you talk to your friends, you usually actually call them on the phone then? Yeah. That's interesting. You don't hear, most kids do that. So we signs the kid's messenger. How else do you communicate with your friends outside the phone?
Speaker 6:Um, like outside the phone. Like with no other apps or,
Speaker 4:well, I'm saying if you're not calling them and you're not using social, the kids messenger, how else would you communicate with them?
Speaker 6:I don't normally actually just talk to them in person because we all know each other. Most of my friends are actually some of my neighbors and I go to summer camp and scored some of my friends. So you don't facetime with them? I mean I do facetime with them occasionally.
Speaker 4:That's what I'm talking about. So you, you'll facetime with them and you'll do you text message them? Yeah. Okay. Um, the next thing, next reason that they have is joining in on group conversations. So do you participate in any kind of group conversation through social media?
Speaker 6:Not really, no.
Speaker 4:So you don't do legs, Skype chats or um, any kind of forums or anything like that where multiple people are contributing to it?
Speaker 6:I mean, to be honest, you would, we normally do Skype to act. It's chance when you're like far away or like get work and you can't like be here to see us or you're like on a business trip.
Speaker 4:But those are typically person to person at that point.
Speaker 6:Yeah. I mean me and mommy are on one side and then you are on the other side. But honestly, I've never actually had anything where I've basically just like talked with another group.
Speaker 4:Okay. So the next thing that they have here is learning about Karen Events and staying up to date with online content. So I think, I think what they're kind of referring to here is h on Facebook. For instance, on Facebook you have your news feed. So your news feed is a collection of updates that your friends on Facebook may post, and it's a curated collection of news articles that Facebook generates for you. Do you use that for anything? And I'm not talking, it doesn't have to be necessarily like world news or anything like that, but do you use it for keeping up on gaming news or anything going on with schools or any other activities?
Speaker 6:I'm just saying, I really don't think so. I honestly don't even have Facebook. Randy is a news website, so it's on for social media. I don't want to actually real, even though I have like snapchat and Instagram my that don't use them as much, I don't really use them.
Speaker 4:Okay. So do you actually keep up with, with news of things that you're interested in, like new games that are coming out or new toys or, or TV shows or anything like that? How do you normally consume that information?
Speaker 6:Honestly, normally I just actually watch the commercial on TV. Otherwise you normally like tell me some of the new stuff because honestly I don't even bother to like go on social media for that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4:Okay. Well there's nothing wrong with them. The next thing that they had on here was meeting New People. Have you ever met anyone, not necessarily face to face, but how you've been introduced to new people through any of the social media channels?
Speaker 6:Um, well my mom, mommy, she has a bunch of friends and some of the friends are in my age group and on Kids Messengers. She actually put some of the kids on my messenger who had them. And like, I mean I talked to them. I've never like, I don't think I've seen too many of them face to face, but I've seen some of them face to face as well.
Speaker 4:Okay. Interesting. One. One example I could give for that would be my gaming group. So you know, I play a, an online MMO video game and we have a very large community, over 700 people from around the world or in our particular community. And uh, a lot of those people I've been introduced to online but not met face to face. Um, but there's a lot of them that I have met you and met some of them face to face when we've done our guild meet and greets. So that's kind of a classic example of doing something like that. Yeah. So the next one that they have is you use social media because you don't have anything to do or you're feeling bored. So is social media a alternative to being bored for you?
Speaker 6:I think like, um, whenever I'm sort of bored I would um, go see if like my friends are online and I try to text them and talk to them, see like what's up and like if they're, what they're up to, if like they're a lot able to talk to me. So,
Speaker 4:so it's a good way of keeping in touch with people and you know, finding out if they're available to, to maybe do something social event. Yep. Okay. I think that that kind of fits the bill there. The last thing that they've got on here is, uh, they use social media. Teens use social media because they feel like they might miss out on something if they aren't always up to date with social media. So like that's their primary way of getting, I don't know, social feedback at that point. You know, we're normally for you, how would you normally keep in touch with your friends? Is it school? Is it camp? This time of year
Speaker 6:it's normally camp this time of year because most of my friends I'm able to see a camp and like the friends that don't go to my school, I'm still able to see and I'm able to keep in touch with Mariah even though she doesn't code a camp, I'm able to keep in touch with her because we have each other's numbers now and we're going to the same school. And, um, I normally just talk with them like see what's up to date and like if it's like one of my friends who I haven't seen in a while, um, um, oh my, we would just talk on the phone and just say like, what's up to date.
Speaker 4:So it sounds like you're more of a traditional media type of person, like talking on the phone and, and you know, unlike a lot of people today, you're really not a slave to social media. Well that's good. I think that's, that's a healthy take on things. I think a lot of people today tend to immerse themselves too much in social media.
Speaker 6:Yeah. Honestly, I don't actually really see the point of showing these strangers about you're showing like random people online about your life. Honestly, I'm just okay with just sharing it with the people I know
Speaker 4:except for this podcast of course. Cause you're gonna you're talking about incredibly intimate things in this podcast that goes out to the entire public.
Speaker 6:Yeah. Honestly, I think if this will be as far as I can go.
Speaker 4:Okay. All right, well that's good. That's, that's, that's an interesting take on things. So when we come back, we'll talk about the good in the bed.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 4:So this information comes from the Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry. So we have a list of good and we have a list of bed. I'll let you choose which one we go first.
Speaker 6:Um, I guess we can start with the bad and then we can go on to the good for better? Or do you want to you, I mean bed first. Should we just like say the good so it doesn't really blind the bad?
Speaker 4:Well, I think if you do the bag, we'll feel better if we do the good after the band. Okay, fine. Okay. So the band, so the first thing here, and I think it's probably the most obvious thing, but a lot of people don't realize all the things that phone that has category and that is exposure to harmful or inappropriate content. Um, sex, drugs, violence and so forth. Uh, you know, how protective I can be at times and how I'm, I'm constantly trying to regulate what you're exposed to. Um, so it sorta terrifies me. What is out there on social media and knowing that you've gone to their computer and you've got, uh, a cell phone and stuff like that and what you're potentially exposed to.
Speaker 6:I just want to say I normally just use my laptop for like the podcast and like, um, my homework for school and stuff. And honestly, I really rarely ever play any games on there.
Speaker 4:And that's true, you know? And, and I guess I'm fortunate that that's, you know, the limit that you use it for now, but you know, things change. So the next thing that they have here kind of goes hand in hand with the first and that exposure to dangerous people. Um, so you, you understand what they mean by this. Yeah. Basically like people who want to harm you, people who like are like dangerous in other ways. Yeah. I mean, you have, there's a lot of people that are out there that want to corrupt you. They want to do, want to get you to do bad things. Um, you've got a lot of bad people, child molesters, for instance, who want to do bad things to you. Uh, there's a lot of, a lot of sick people out there, um, who pray on, on children, um, and, and gas. That's true for the world in general. Um, I think the threat from a social media standpoint is probably a little bit different because of the veil of anonymity. People feel like they have on the Internet. You know, kids may get on the Internet and play around and talk to people. You don't know what the person that you're talking to on the other end of the connection, you know, they may say they're 15 years old and may turn out to be a 35 year old pervert who's trying to get you, trying to lure you out of the house to do something. Um, it's a lot different trying to combat that. Then someone who's trying to stop you on the street, you know, they pull up in a car and they try to convince you to get into the car. Uh, there's a much more, um, obvious danger to that than how people can try to manipulate you through social media. So there's a real danger there. What are the other ones that we have here? And this is a big one too. Um, but this happens war more or less from people your own age. And that's cyberbullying. Um, you know, the, some of the factors of cyber bullying, and we talked about this a little bit in our bullying special, um, a few months ago. Um, cyber bullying itself happens all the time. Um, and it's a risk factor for depression and suicide because people feel exposed, they tend to take the internet too seriously, really. And people can be very cruel and it has a significant psychological effect on people. So again, it's another one of these things where somebody might not come up to your face at school or on the street and say things to you that they'll say to you on the Internet because they're hiding behind some kind of anonymous user name. And they think that that gives them some level of, of immunity to any kind of consequences. So they're more likely to engage in, in cyber bullying. So that's something that just to be aware of there. Um, so the first three things are things that are out there that can hurt you or they're external threats, whereas the next one here is really one that you control yourself and that is over sharing of personal information. Um, IX. Tell me, tell me some of the things that you talk about with your friends when you talk to them on the phone or, or elsewhere. Is it, is it personal information or is it just the stuff that you would normally talk about in school?
Speaker 6:I'm going to stop. I would normally talk about, unless I've been having a really bad day, then I'd like tell them about the cause and like they told me calm down and stuff. Other than that, nothing really personal. I mean, if they have something personal going on, they'd of course let me know and I try to help them through it.
Speaker 4:Right. And so, but it's more like personal conversation type stuff. Um, not critical information. Like, like one of the things that always comes to mind to me, um, because all of our devices track us now. Like all the apps track us and they report back to servers and stuff like that. Um, like mommy and I recently started playing the Harry Potter game. Yup. Well in order for the Harry Potter game to work, you have to allow it to turn on location awareness. Well, every time it pings where you are in order to play the game, it sends it back to a server somewhere. Now there's permissions, controls and stuff that you can turn off there. But people like to check in where they're at. You know, this is one of the things that that mommy used to do and unfortunately doesn't do anymore. You know, she would check in when she went to the grocery store or, or do a concert or something like that. And that kind of information when it gets out there could be used for harmful reasons. Like for instance, if you post, oh well we're, we're on vacation, you know, the last week of July. Well, anybody can get into that information if they compromise a friend's account so they get burglarized your house, you know, they could, you know, pick up packages, you know, rob your mail, whatever. But um, it's that kind of oversharing of information. It's not like, you know, talking about your feelings with your friend. It's like saying, Oh, you know, we have a doctor's appointment Tuesday at six and you know, my mom and dad are taking me to the doctor's appointment. Okay. That might be innocent to talk about. But that's also telling people that nobody's in the house at that time period. So that's sort of how big some of the information that you want to guard. You know, you don't want to give away. Obviously passwords. You don't want to give away social security numbers. You don't want to give away any identifying information. Um, and you don't want to give away anything that may indicate a vulnerability that you might have. So that's kind of what they're talking about there. Um, the other thing, and this is another external threat and that's exposure to excessive advertisements. Uh, and it's funny that, that this is one of the concerns with social media cause you know how I feel about, you know, watching TV and the commercials on TV. Right. I hate watching live TV because of the advertisements. So tell me when you use the Internet, um, for anything, it doesn't necessarily have to be social media. Do you find that you're bombarded with advertising in your games, your apps that you're on?
Speaker 6:Yeah, a lot of times in this one game I look like to play, Gosh, the life, there's always some type of ad and I always have to close out the app to get rid of it. But the sound's always there. If like I turned the volume up. Same with Youtube, there's always ads that pop up and they always annoy me, especially when they can skip ahead and it's super annoying.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that is very annoying. Unfortunately. That's usually how most people monetize. You know, they give you a free app and they have to make money somehow so they sell advertising. Um, but I think the risk that they're referring to here is when you get over exposed to it, you know, you may be tempted to buy things that you shouldn't buy. Um, a lot of times ads on the Internet aren't legitimate ads and they're what are called phishing attempts where they try to get you to give them information. When you click on it, for instance, they may say, oh, ah, here's a five, not$500 gift card to the apple store. Click here to, to redeem. And you'll click there and it'll look like it's the apple store when you go in and asks you for your username and password. But it's really not the apple store. It's um, what's called a man in the middle attack and they'll capture your information, they'll pass it over to the apple stores so it, you can go through and do whatever it is that is trying to do usually, but them trying to get you to give them that information, they can then store it and then use it for something else. So it's,
Speaker 6:it's a clinic like cat fishing
Speaker 4:kind, kind of like that. But from a financial side of things. Yeah. Um, you know, and it exposes you to malicious software to sometimes you'll get an ad up there that, you know, you click here to close the ad and it doesn't really close it, but it download software to your computer and can cause a problem. So the overexposure to ads, whether they're good ads or bad ads, you know, it's not necessarily a good thing. The next one that we have here, and we've talked about this one in the past, is, uh, privacy concerns, including the collection of about teams, which we kind of talked about already. Um, but a lot of times what you'll get are websites that are portrayed as, um, hobby websites or fun websites. Like you've seen these ones where, Oh, find out what your jet I name is, and it'll be like, oh, well, it's your first name and your mother's maiden name and this and that. And, and what they're doing at that point is they're, they're trying to get information out of you that are elements to other security questions you'll run into for banking and stuff like that. And they'll catalog that and they'll start putting the pieces together so that they can compromise your other accounts. Um, and it's great for for brute forcing passwords to, cause a lot of people make the mistake of using common information in their passwords, you know, um, uh, kids' birthdays or, uh, dogs, name, pets names, you know, stuff like that. Things that, um, people can get out of you just through what's called social engineering where they can just talk to you, you'll, and they'll play you for that information. Then they can go back and try to hack your account using combinations of that information. And it happens quite frequently actually. And that leads into the next one, which is identity theft. Now have you ever heard of identity theft? Yeah. So explain to me what your understanding of identity theft is.
Speaker 6:Well, from my understanding of identities of identity theft is that someone, um, wants to take your information and pass it off as if it's them. So basically my idea of it, it's basically like someone gets information out to you like personal stuff and like knows your account. I'm one, you're not on it. You go on the account and they can probably like say mean things about their friends causing you to have trouble with your friends. They can also say stuff that you would never say and like you would eventually probably have like consequences happening to you.
Speaker 4:And that's a, that's generally what it is, I think. I think that's a more polite description of it. I'm in the really bad aspects of it. What they tend to do is they'll collect enough information on you to compromise your bank account and steal all the money in your bank account. Or they'll compromise your credit card account and they'll report your credit card stolen. They'll change the address, the known address, and have a new credit card sent to them on the urinate or the open a credit card under your name with their address information. So there's a lot of consequences that when these sort of things happen, it's very difficult to turn things back in and get this stuff straightened out. So that's one of the reasons why you need to be very conscious of your own privacy, what information you put out there. Um, the way that you're using social media, it's probably not that big of a problem if you start using something more frequently like Facebook or Twitter or um, Instagram, you know, when you're putting information out there that stays forever. That's one of the biggest concerns out there now is that you don't have control over your data once it hits the Internet. So any statements that you make, any pictures that you put out there, that stuff stays forever. You know, there are sites out there that archive the Internet. So even if you put a post up today and delete it tomorrow, chances are some site has spidered that and archived it and it's out there forever and people can use it for various things. Identity theft being one of them. So just things to keep in mind. The last thing that we have on the list here is more of a health concern. Really. Um, it's interference with sleep, exercise, homework, more family activities. Oh, basically just like an over consumption of it. Exactly. You know, Internet addiction, we've spoken about that before. Yep. Um, so that's, that's another one of the harmful things. And a lot of people get very addicted to social media and for a number of reasons, but a lot of times it's because of the sense of satisfaction that people get from the exposure. You know, when I, when I say something to you, you hear it, you might react to it. When I post something on the Internet, on my Twitter account and it trends and I get 10,000 people that are liking it, there's a psychological effect that has, and it's almost like a drug, you know, people get that sense of, of satisfaction and they get a self, a sense of self worth out of how people react to them. And that can cause them to have, you know, certain symptoms similar to drug addiction and then they need more of it and they're staying up until three o'clock in the morning trying to get this stuff and they're not sleeping right. And you know, it has an adverse effect on their health. So it's very important to, to keep a handle on that stuff. Let's talk about the good things. Yeah. Okay. You got all the bad stuff follows bringing the good news so that the ass, that was all the bad stuff that we had here. So the good stuff is pretty one, which you use it for. Staying connected to friends. So not all your friends live nearby, like how many of your friends, um, do you connect to on social media that live within a two block radius of you?
Speaker 6:Um, Mariah being one of them. Prevalent Italia. Um, I guess Steven Savio would be them as well. But none of them live close to you as well. I'm saying, well Mariah lives close by, I don't know about Natalia or Stevens. Sophia. Right. Well, but you can't walk in the Italians House. Yeah. You know, you can walk
Speaker 4:to, you know, your next door neighbors house and interact with them. So social media is less critical. Yeah. But in a situation with someone that you need to get a ride to or set up, you know, a play date with or something like that. Social media allows you to stay in touch with them, which is nice. Um, meeting new friends, um, with shared interests. I know you haven't used it for this yet, but I'll go back to my example of the gaming group. You know, I've been in the, I've been running the gaming group for seven years now almost. And I've met, met, I say, you know, mostly in a virtual sense, but you know, it's people that I hang out with online and we talk and we, you know, we talk about each other's kids and how was your day and stuff like that. I mean, just like you would socialize with your friends. Well over 2000 people from this, you know, people come, people go. But had I not been part of that gaming community, I would have never met any of those people. So it's a great way to meet new friends, even if it's not face to face, it's still qualifying this, um, finding community and support for specific activities. Now I don't want to keep going to the well and the gaming community, but what do you think, what kind of, uh, support groups or social groups do you think you could find that that might be out on social media?
Speaker 6:Yes. Summer. Um, I really don't know cause I don't have that much exposure to real social media cause I don't, let me ask the, so what are some of your, your interests? Um,
Speaker 4:we just had a recent experience where you met a new friend at camp. Yup. Because of it shared, shared, um, Abi. Yep. So what was, what was the hobby? Right. A drawing. Right. So you may find a kid's Facebook group out there, dedicated the drawing were you're, you know, they may talk about different drawing techniques. They may share their drawings. You may collaborate in storytelling. One of the things I did with my gaming group, you, you know, I'd to write was I had a collaboration with seven different people. You know, from Wisconsin to Bangladesh to a very, I think one was in Europe somewhere, you know, I would never be able to collaborate in a writing project like that if I didn't have that kind of social environment. So you may be able to find a group like that that works very well for your drawing hobby or your little pet shops, you know, if you're still into that or painting or you know, whatever interests you might have playing the trumpet, you might find people. I know, uh, my boss who also was a music producer, he's collaborated with other artists around the country on music projects. You know, they have an online community they collaborate through, they'll send samples back and forth. He'll mix them together. So it's pretty amazing. Some of the things you can do if you want it to, um, sharing artwork or music. Okay. I think we just talked about that one. Um, when my space used to be around years ago, one of the things I was into at the time was photography. So I would publish my, you know, my artsy-fartsy photographs up on my, my space. And you know, people used to enjoy looking at them. Uh, and the last one that they have here is exploring and expressing themselves. Um, and this kind of goes hand in hand with some of the bad stuff I was talking about with anonymity. So for instance, if you're a shy person, social media is, is ideal for you because you can have a voice without having the exposure. Cause you can do it anonymously. So I don't know, pick a topic, whether it's politics or religion or news or whatever it is you want to talk about. You might not feel comfortable talking about that with your friends. Um, cause it may be some controversial topics, but you can do that on the Internet anonymously and still express yourself. So that was what we had four. I know it sounds like we had a lot more bad than good, but you know, this is more cautionary podcast than anything else. Uh, anything to add to the good of the bed? No. All right, let us move on.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 4:So statistics, you know, I love my statistics and this, these in like a while we haven't had topics that really lend themselves to statistic. So this actually comes from one of the most recognized, um, statistics companies, compilers out there, the Pew Research Center. So I want to get, I'm going to give you these statistics and then I want to get your feedback on what you think. Gotcha. So 81% of those you who use social media feel more connected with their friends. Uh, do you agree or disagree with that? I agree. You agree? So it does help you feel more connected. Yep. 69% think it helps teens interact with a more diverse group of people.
Speaker 6:Um, my to do that even though I haven't been exposed to it yet, but I'm pretty sure eventually I will and I'm British and I know from talks that I'm pretty sure that's true.
Speaker 4:Okay. A 68% feel as if they have people who will support them through tough times through social media. I agree. Okay. 45% feel overwhelmed by all the drama on social media. That's a chance. Well. Well are you exposed to a lot of drama on social media though?
Speaker 6:No, but I know like there is drama on there. I've been, I've never been exposed to it. But if those drama in real life, there's probably going to be drama on social media.
Speaker 4:Well that's true. I mean drama, drama persists everywhere. You really can't get away from it.
Speaker 6:Yup. Unless you literally lock yourself in the room and all you do is, and all you do is basically just sit on your floor drawing comics.
Speaker 4:That's awfully specific but okay. Just saying, uh, yeah, just saying has nothing to do with anything you've done, right? Yeah. A 43% feel pressure to only post, um, that which makes them look good to others. Hmm.
Speaker 6:Never had that happen to me, but probably happens to other people.
Speaker 4:Now let me ask you, in non social media social situations, do you feel pressured to say and do things that are designed to make you look good to others?
Speaker 6:Honestly, no, because I guess consider that sort of bragging and telling people, Hey, I'm good, I'm, I'm really good. But like honestly, I've never actually been pressing to do that. I've actually never really ever been pressure to say I'm good at stuff. Honestly. I kind of don't even say that. Some, some of the things I do are kind of bad.
Speaker 4:Well yeah, and I don't think is healthy. I would, I would agree with your assessment there that you are generally a pretty modest individual. Um, you don't do what I like to refer as end zone dancing. Okay. In a, when you score a touchdown and you go and do a little dance in the end zone, well that's your job. You're not supposed to, I'm not supposed to dance. You're supposed to score touchdowns. So yeah, you don't really toot your own foreign that often we'll say. Yeah. The last one that we had on here was 37% feel pressure to post con, uh, content that we'll get a lot of likes and comments.
Speaker 6:Never had that happen because I don't actually use real social media that happens with SAP and I'm pretty sure people who do that, Aka the people who crave it and do and are addicted to it probably do that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I would agree. I mean that feeds into that narcissistic personality where you need some kind of a vindication or, or you know, exposure. You know, you need to have those eyes on you and to make you feel better. Yup. And you're usually not a glory hound like that either.
Speaker 6:Honestly, I don't actually really care if people like, um, like something I post even though I have like never posted anything.
Speaker 4:Yeah. You, you tend to take that from me I think.
Speaker 6:I mean if they do like it, I'm thankful. But I honestly don't know.
Speaker 4:You don't care. Yep. I'm with you. I'm really 100% there. That was all we had with statistics. I didn't find too many statistics. Wah Wah Wah Wah Wah Wah. So we show, move on.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 4:So I said earlier, this was a cautionary podcast of social media. So the last thing that we have, the last segment we have here that I'm put together was important things to remember when using social media. And it's sort of a basic etiquette, you know, just like you have etiquette when you're eating out of the Nice restaurant or you go to a party or certain ways your you should act. Okay. Uh, this comes from the site that we've used many times in the past. Kids health.org. Oh yeah, I remember that one. Yeah. So the first thing that they have here is be nice, right? Yup. So mean behavior is not okay. Make it clear that you expect your kids to treat others with respect and to never post hurtful or embarrassing messages and ask them always to tell you about any harassing or bullying messages that others post.
Speaker 6:Honestly, I think not only does that go with social media, it also goes with life.
Speaker 4:I agree. I think that's a, that's a good philosophy to have across the board. Um, and usually the litmus test that I go by is if I'm going to post something on Twitter or whatever, even an email that I sent, I'll write it and then I'll read it back. Yup. And if you read it back as though it was sent to you, you can figure out how someone else is going to feel by reading. And you know, not all the time, but the vast majority of the time, you can usually catch things that you put in there that probably shouldn't go in there. So be nice. Um, and this feeds right into the next one here, which is think twice before hitting. Enter a remind teens that what they post can be used against them, like the, your Miranda rights. Um, when you get arrested, they say, you know, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you have no right to an attorney, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. So before you say anything, think twice. Same thing here. Um, for example, letting the world know that you're off on vacation and posting your home address gives Woodby Roberts a chance to strike teen should also avoid posting specific locations of parties or events as well as phone numbers. So again, any identifying information you want to not put out there. Yeah. Um, let's see. Next is, and I've already said this once it's on the Internet, it's there forever. Don't share anything on social media that you wouldn't want your teachers, college admissions officers, future bosses, friends or family to see. Once it's on the Internet, it's there forever. There are no take backs. So I don't think I can emphasize that enough. One of the things that employers are doing now. Even my own employer, you know, I was recently hiring for a position at my company and our HR director informed me that a couple of the candidates that I had asked her to bring in, uh, she had gone out to their social media sites because they listed them on their, on their website, on their resume, which, because it was a, the nature of the job, people would do that to show off some of their portfolio work. And a couple of the people there had some what would've been considered inappropriate posts on their website and it immediately disqualify them from being interviewed. Uh, cause there's certain strict policies that we have because of the nature of our business. Uh, they were clearly demonstrating violation of those policies, so we couldn't even bring them in for an interview because of that. Um, but a lot of people tend to post silly things out there and you have to be very careful because anyone can see that information. Yeah. Use privacy settings. So privacy settings are important. Uh, go through them together to make sure your kids understand. Each one also explained that passwords are there to protect them against things like identity theft. They should never share them with anyone. Even a boyfriend, girlfriend or best friend. So passwords probably are the single worst level of security ever invented by man because the, for people who have to use passwords tend to use passwords. They can remember. Okay. And passwords that you can remember generally are easy to remember. They're common words. Uh, I couldn't tell you how many people at work use a combination of password and some kind of number. It's, and that's what people use all the time. Um, it's certainly not unique to my, my company, uh, but what you really should be using for passwords are complex, random combinations of letters, numbers and characters. You should be using a unique password for every site. Don't do not reuse the same password on multiple sites and use password managers like I use and you know, they're not sponsoring the podcast, so it's not really a plug. But I use lastpass and, uh, last pass is fantastic. You can do auto fills, it works on mobile devices, it works on all your browsers and you can keep all your passwords in there and keep them unique. So you never have to remember any passwords for many of your sites. You just need to remember the master password to get into last pass and you make that complicated. So gotta secure yourself. And the last one that they have here is really pretty obvious and it's not social media specific and that's don't friend strangers, so you don't know them, don't friend them. Uh, it's plain simple and safe. Rule of thumb. Now friending them on social media is a lot different than friending being friends with someone in real life. And that rule is fairly simple, but I need to expound on the concept of friending someone to begin with. Just because someone friend you on social media doesn't mean they're your friend. Um, so when they unfriend you, it doesn't mean they're mad at you or it doesn't mean that you're not friends with them anymore or something like that. The term friend has no meaning whatsoever in social media.[inaudible] think of it more like associate or connect, when I checked the box to friend you, I'm just connecting to you. Um, a lot of people tend to get bent out of shape if they get unfriended by people. So just a word of caution on that. Um, I think that was all that I had. Did you have any questions or anything to add?
Speaker 6:Well, I do want to put on this one thing now. I think, so those, this one TV show I watched and one of the episodes was about one of the main characters getting addicted to something similar to Facebook called faster pack as what they called it in the episode. Okay. And basically, um, instead of likes, like in Facebook they were hards and when they got you a certain amount of fast friends, he eventually got turned put into the app, a k addicted[inaudible] probably. Right. And then his friend had to come, had to join him in the app and tell him that nothing in there was real and that not none of the best make friends were actually his real friends and that their real friends were waiting in the real world.
Speaker 4:Right. So it was kind of a, an analogy to becoming addicted to social media is what it sounds like
Speaker 6:and how like you shouldn't know that none of the people who aren't are not really, your friends are actually your friend are actually not your friends. Like even though they friend you, they're not really your friend up. They're not actually if you don't actually know them.
Speaker 4:That's a very good point. All right, well we'll come back, we'll get your closing remarks and your shout outs.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 4:Can I turn it over to you my dear?
Speaker 6:So I just want to say social media is good to a certain extent, as long as you don't use it. And for bad reasons, like putting out too much information, making sure you check over what you're writing and try to only talk to people who you know. If you have been cyber bullied or someone is telling you to do something that you know is wrong, I'm immediately telling them no adult is someone you trust so they can help you deal with the situation and don't try to deal with it on your own or or do it or do it the way they want you to do it. Basically just makes sure you have someone you can trust and someone who will be there to help you. Like I say, in pretty much every single one of my close friends remarks, make sure you have someone there to help you. Social Media, I definitely say it's good to a certain extent. I'm not too much exposed to it, but I just want to say for people who are addicted, just know I'm a thumbs up and a friend doesn't really mean anything and please don't get addicted because it'll ruin your sleep schedule and your way of living.
Speaker 4:Okay, well that was a, a nice rambling closing remark there. A shout outs.
Speaker 6:I guess I'll have a shout out to all my friends who are not able to see very often who I have to connect on the Internet with because I'm just glad that I can trust them and that I know they won't do anything to hurt me. And I'm also happy that I'm still able to stay in touch. And that's only the real reason why I actually use social media, not really for any other major ones.
Speaker 4:Okay. That's awesome. And I think that's it for this week. Um, in an ironic twist of announcements, I do want to make mentioned that, uh, you can now find us on Facebook. We now have a podcast page on Facebook, on their insights onto thing, insights into things.
Speaker 6:Yeah. More social media.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Yeah. So I don't want to encourage people to use social media if they don't feel comfortable. Um, so, uh, checkout, well it does, but check out the, uh, our website, www.insightsintothings.com. You get all of our podcasts, video, audio, you can subscribe, you can offer feedback to us. Um, and I think that's all I had. Positive, negative or positive. We take it all. Um, and I think that's all we had this week. All right. Bye.
Speaker 6:Bye.
Speaker 5:[inaudible].