I seem always to be behind on media, social media, and whatever is hot in pop culture. I'm sure that's true for most of us middle agers. Wow! Gen X is getting old... So, a year after it aired, I watched this Frontline video about "Generation Like."
The video was thought provoking and left me feeling even more wary of kids' relationship with social media. It clearly illustrated how kids are manipulated by marketers to market for them and feel like they are "empowered" at the same time. What appears to kids/teens to be transparent, organic, grassroots movements online are actually finely orchestrated marketing campaigns, planned down to the second. Kids become "famous" online and become the marketers. And probably the craziest thing to me is that because the goal for them is to get sponsorships while being famous they have no idea what it means to "sell out!" They are not (jaded) idealists like their parents, they are the ultimate consumers and sell outs...
It's rather scary to think how shallow the whole social media world is (I say as I type a post to throw out into cyber space), and how it's influencing our kids. Although I've let Hummingbird have her own website to do book reviews, I am more firm in my resolve that the kids will not have Facebook, Twitter, or other accounts for a long, long time. And even though I lurk around Facebook and have a barely used Twitter account, I'm so proud of DH for still avoiding the bandwagon (although he has been known to peek at my Facebook news from time to time).
I used to shun facebook but I agree that it is addictive especially when there are lots of news around the world and things you might not otherwise know. But, then, I do admit (with guilt) that it does take a lot of my time and also being another Gen X, I'd ask kids to stay away from social medias until they are old enough to work.
ReplyDeleteJust my 2 cents worth of thoughts.