There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

Sea Speed said:

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There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

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Let us know how that works out

Sea Speed said:

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There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

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absolutely. Not saying it was a factor here, I don't know, but either way it is proven to be damaging to children. TikTok should be banned outright, and all others (FB, Instagram, etc) should be 18+ only, no kids. They are profiting off the exploitation of children and should be brought to heel.

Sadly teens committing suicide was going on when we were in school too. One difference is back then the schools tried to hide what happened. At my local HS when a student died due to an accident or health reason there were memorials at the school for those students. When a student died due to suicide they were effectively ignored and wiped from the history books. Perhaps it was an attempt to avoid students becoming aware of suicide.

I imagine it can't be any easier to be a teen these days due to the fact that with social media you are essentially connected to your classmates even outside of school hours. We had the internet and AIM when I was in school but your social life wasnt posted for the world to see, talk, and judge.

schmellba99 said:

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Sea Speed said:

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There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

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Let us know how that works out

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It's not that difficult.

cajunaggie08 said:

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Perhaps it was an attempt to avoid students becoming aware of suicide.

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That was back when we recognized the danger of evil as social contagion.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Sea Speed said:

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There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

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Let us know how that works out

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It's not that difficult.

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Guessing you don't have a teenage daughter

schmellba99 said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Sea Speed said:

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There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

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Let us know how that works out

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It's not that difficult.

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Guessing you don't have a teenage daughter

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So because they are difficult teenager daughters you just allow them do things that are proven to be bad for them?

P.H. Dexippus said:

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cajunaggie08 said:

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Perhaps it was an attempt to avoid students becoming aware of suicide.

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That was back when we recognized the danger of evil as social contagion.

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There have been quite a few teen suicides in my area (The Woodlands) in the last few years. I find that usually not much is said about it. I can't help but think parents/families don't want people to know it was suicide. There is a still a huge stigma attached to that, and some parents may be in denial (especially if drugs were involved).

It's not a matter of not allowing them. Unless you lock them in their room, take away all cell phones, computers, iPads, etc, and never let them come in contact with anyone who has one of those devices, they will find a way. And the more you try to shelter them from it, the more curious they are and the more they hide their behavior.

schmellba99 said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Sea Speed said:

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There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

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Let us know how that works out

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It's not that difficult.

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Guessing you don't have a teenage daughter

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That would be incorrect. I also know plenty of other parents that have kept their teenage daughters off of social media as well. Sure, we wouldn't say we have done it with 100% because kids will be kids but I search often for evidence she has a social media account and haven't found any.

Lastly, suicide has always been an issue with teenagers and blaming it solely on social media doesn't help. Numerous variables cause this. Talk to your kids, get involved in their lives, and remind them that there is nothing more important to you than them being in your life. Remind them that the brain can be a scary thing and they will probably have scary thoughts.

That is just my experience and each child/family is so different.

Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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Lastly, suicide has always been an issue with teenagers and blaming it solely on social media doesn't help. Numerous variables cause this. Talk to your kids, get involved in their lives, and remind them that there is nothing more important to you than them being in your life. Remind them that the brain can be a scary thing and they will probably have scary thoughts.

That is just my experience and each child/family is so different.

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exactly, unfortunately teen suicide has always been an issue. What's new is what society blames. Now it's social media. Before it was rock music and\or violent games. That being said, social media is terrible and mostly pointless but I digress.

On the plus side, there's more help readily available now. Hopefully we as a society can learn to see the warning signs. But it starts with the parents.

Any parent of a teenager who thinks they are successfully keeping their kids off social media are probably wrong, unless their kid is locked in the house 24/7. Teens are very savvy with these things.

WES2006AG said:

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Any parent of a teenager who thinks they are successfully keeping their kids off social media are probably wrong, unless their kid is locked in the house 24/7. Teens are very savvy with these things.

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Always possible and in the back of my mind. Regulating phone usage is pretty easy and limiting apps on phones isn't a challenge either. They could use the web-based version. I'm not naive enough to think "not my daughter" but so far, there is no evidence to suggest that my child has any social media.

TXTransplant said:

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P.H. Dexippus said:

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cajunaggie08 said:

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Perhaps it was an attempt to avoid students becoming aware of suicide.

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That was back when we recognized the danger of evil as social contagion.

---

There have been quite a few teen suicides in my area (The Woodlands) in the last few years. I find that usually not much is said about it. I can't help but think parents/families don't want people to know it was suicide. There is a still a huge stigma attached to that, and some parents may be in denial (especially if drugs were involved).

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There used to be big concern about students watching a classmate getting a big sendoff after a suicide, then doing the same thing, too, for the same attention.

redag06 said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Sea Speed said:

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There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

---

Let us know how that works out

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It's not that difficult.

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Guessing you don't have a teenage daughter

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So because they are difficult teenager daughters you just allow them do things that are proven to be bad for them?

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I defer to your absolutely 100% perfect parenting skills because you obviously have a perfect methodology of parenting and your children are 100% behaved 100% of the time and never once have done anything to go behind your back or keep something secret or have wanted to do anything based on peer pressure from their friends, etc.

I'm not that guy though, we can't all be super parent. So sometimes I decide that it is not a battle to pick and I choose to allow things that perfect parents like yourself would not allow or have to even worry about.

If you have a class or a tutorial on how to be the perfect parent like you for the rest of us, I'd be interested in taking it though.

I dislike social media as much as the next parent, but the fact of the matter is that it is here to stay no matter what. And it does have some good benefits to go along with the garbage.

I also live by the philosophy that forbidding something is a sure fire way to have my kids find back channel methods of doing it, because, well, they are my kids and I know for a fact I did that very thing growing up with my parents.

So we allow certain social media apps and monitor them quite frequently. Putting kids in a protective bubble isn't the answer IMO, but one that a lot of folks think works and then find out their kids aren't the angels they think they are or when they get older and parents can't really control them anymore, they don't know how to handle a lot of situations. I prefer to let my kids learn how to deal with things under my and my wife's supervision and guidance. I'll do the same thing with drinking when they get to the age that drinking a beer becomes something that piques their interest, and whatever else we come across.

Until there is a broad sweeping national movement hammering into the masses over and over again just how destructive and DEADLY social media is to young people (particularly girls), nothing will ever change. This is a REAL crisis...up there with Fentanyl...maybe worse just given the complex nature of it.

To make it political...Desantis seems like the once-in-several-generations type of leader that might possibly bring real issues like this to the forefront, even if the social media moguls hate it and fight tooth and nail against it.

EVERY PARENT SHOULD KNOW THAT THEIR TEEN DAUGHTER IS XXX TIMES MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER FROM SEVERE DEPRESSION OR SELF HARM/SUICIDE IF SHE IS ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

schmellba99 said:

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redag06 said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Ghost of Andrew Eaton said:

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schmellba99 said:

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Sea Speed said:

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There is no reason whatsoever for a young girl to be on social media. I'll be keeping mine off indefinitely. Don't even care.

---

Let us know how that works out

---

It's not that difficult.

---

Guessing you don't have a teenage daughter

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So because they are difficult teenager daughters you just allow them do things that are proven to be bad for them?

---

I defer to your absolutely 100% perfect parenting skills because you obviously have a perfect methodology of parenting and your children are 100% behaved 100% of the time and never once have done anything to go behind your back or keep something secret or have wanted to do anything based on peer pressure from their friends, etc.

I'm not that guy though, we can't all be super parent. So sometimes I decide that it is not a battle to pick and I choose to allow things that perfect parents like yourself would not allow or have to even worry about.

If you have a class or a tutorial on how to be the perfect parent like you for the rest of us, I'd be interested in taking it though.

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Easy, sneezy. Nobody is saying we're perfect parents and nobody said that you aren't a good parent. We all take parenting seriously and are doing the best we can but we recognize that we're sort of making this **** up as we go. My kid is pretty good but I also recognize that she's a kid and they do stupid ****, so I try not to take that for granted.

But you got snarky and dismissed our views because you believed I didn't have a teenage daughter.

My wife and I have told our daughter no social media and honestly, it wasn't a big deal. She hasn't asked since we talked about it but we still snoop around just in case because kids will be kids. Her not asking for an account has actually raised my suspicion levels.

Again, nobody was attacking you as a parent. Do what works best for you. I don't know **** about anything that goes on in your house or who your kids are and you don't owe any of us an explanation.

The social media genie is out of the bottle and is never going back in. The government can't be expected to step in and "regulate" it anymore than we can expect the government to regulate pornography or alcohol consumption.

I think the best things parents can do are 1) Teach their children to value their own privacy and respect the privacy of others. The applies not just to social media, but to phone numbers, texting, photos that people share with you, etc.; and 2) Teach kids that the vast majority of what they see on social media is not real. This goes for photos, videos, comments, posts, etc.

When it comes to body image/appearance you cannot trust any pictures or videos you see posted. I have a 40-something year old ex-friend. She is constantly posting on social media (Facebook is her site of choice) and EVERYTHING is photo-shopped...her face, body, hair, nails, and even her physical location. Every single photo is digitally altered. It's gotten so bad that the people in our friends circle think she's completely lost her mind. If this woman is posting mostly altered or fake photos/videos, then I think it's safe to assume anyone who is a "content creator" is, too.

Comments aren't real, either. I use IG, and literally just scroll through for the pictures. I don't even bother to read comments because most of them are posted by bots. They are spam. And just like Twitter, I think a large percentage of IG accounts are fake. When I receive an unsolicited message or comment from one of these fake-looking accounts, I block it.

No one should be giving any credit or placing any value on anything they see on social media, and we need to teach our kids that. Treat it like a horror film - enjoy it for what it is but don't let it give you nightmares (and if it does, then stop watching).

I don't disagree with you, but it's just not realistic to expect women to keep their teenaged girls off social media when the mothers themselves are using it to be attention wh*res.

When you start talking about the mental health aspect of it, it's not just young girls who are affected. I know women in their 40s and 50s who are getting their highs from social media. When those same women are mothers, it just compounds the problem.

I may be in the minority but I'm not going to blame social media. Does it help? Of course not. But for as long as people have communicated they've bullied each other and caused depression and other issues. It's just the new tool people have. And unless this data is just not right, doesn't seem like you can isolate social media, either.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6630a6.htm


https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/health-of-women-and-children/measure/teen_suicide/state/ALL