Contrary to how they're typically represented in the news media, "few teens embrace a fully public approach to social media," Pew Internet reports in a major new study, "Teens, Social Media and Privacy." Yes, they share more about themselves than we did as teens (publicly, anyway), but "they take an array of steps to restrict and prune their profiles." Pew turned up a lot of intelligence on … [Read more...] about Major update from Pew on teens’ privacy practices in social media
Why not a gazillion ‘likes’?: Getting wise to gamification in social media (& life)
Likes in Facebook and Instagram, +1's in Google+, (potentially) "HISCORE(s)" in Snapchat are fun to get (though there isn't much evidence having a HISCORE is a big deal for Snapchat users yet). They're a great example of gamification, a word that's increasingly heard in pop culture as much as education. There's nothing wrong with liking likes and other gamification forms (more on this in minute). … [Read more...] about Why not a gazillion ‘likes’?: Getting wise to gamification in social media (& life)
TMI for parents in social media – for now, anyway
A lot of unusually thoughtful points about parenting in our collective, global social media environment are made in this recent New York Times article: "Cyberparenting and the Risk of T.M.I." Pamela Paul writes that, for this generation of teens, it's not Big Brother so much as Big Mother and/or Big Father. "Yes, we know contemporary parents are hyperinvolved in their children’s lives," she … [Read more...] about TMI for parents in social media – for now, anyway
‘Noodz,’ ‘selfies,’ ‘sexts,’ etc., Part 3: Bias in the news coverage
Sexting is the latest subject of "intersecting panics about technology, youth, sexuality, raunch culture and celebrity," Australian author and research Nina Funnell wrote me after I heard her speak in Sydney in March. "While these panics all pre-existed the phenomenon of sexting, they have found new life and form" with it. Along with her qualitative research on sexting among 16-to-25-year-olds, … [Read more...] about ‘Noodz,’ ‘selfies,’ ‘sexts,’ etc., Part 3: Bias in the news coverage
‘Noodz,’ ‘selfies,’ ‘sexts,’ etc., Part 2: For better youth education
Social norms – the expectations and cues that govern behavior in a group or a society – are protective. There hasn't been much reference to them in the Internet safety field, but they're a pillar of individual and collective wellbeing wherever there is community. You may've noticed that, at the end of Part 1 of this series, I quoted Sydney-based researcher and author Nina Funnell where she touched … [Read more...] about ‘Noodz,’ ‘selfies,’ ‘sexts,’ etc., Part 2: For better youth education