Understanding Children’s Use of Social Media
A digital citizen? What is that? Most parents have no idea; they have never heard of the term.
Our children may well have more experience than their parents in using social media and online technology. Why not learn from our children, why not ask them to show us and explain what it can do and why they choose to use it?
‘A digital community. That is where we are living now,’ says Dina Alexander, founder and president of non-profit Educate and Empower Kids. So how can we teach our kids to be honest, productive, and safe in this digital community? Dina offers her advice and reminds us why it’s most important that we, as parents, model good behaviour.
When it comes to monitoring our children on social media, Dina recommends being prayerful about it every day: ‘Ask Heavenly Father what to do. I’ve done all this research, all this studying—I go around to speak to parents—but almost every single time that something has gone amiss, it has been the Spirit that has told me. It has not been me monitoring or filtering. It has been the Spirit,’ she says.
Elder David A Bednar is a big advocate of using social media to further the work of the Lord. In a future article we will look closer at this and see how we can reach so much further when we share the gospel online.
At the same time, he also warns us of the dangers and harmful effects that digital technologies can have on our souls; he invites us to ask ourselves two questions to see if we are using these technologies properly.
Having an open and honest discussion about ways in which we can change our practices so as to protect ourselves will greatly help our spiritual wellbeing.
This article is part of the ‘Gospel Technology’ series which focuses on the use of technology in our gospel-oriented lives.
To watch the video clips in this article, for more articles in this series or to watch more episodes of ‘Gospel Solutions for Families’ read the article online by scanning the code.