Our parents had it so easy…a letter was theirs to be
sneakily read, a phone call, to be eavesdropped. But we live in a world
of pinging secret text messages. Codes, acronyms and apps never to be
translated – or even known. It’s another shift. A new vocabulary
with apps that are missing vowels (tumblr), and acronyms that are meant to
leave us out of the story (PIR: Parent in Room).
Where is Benedict Cumberbatch (a.k.a. Sherlock, Alan Turing)
when you need him?
Welcome to the new reality. But what feels like a tidal
shift to us, is just a new software update for our teens.
When I bring up teens and social media with my friends, we share
the eye roll; the heavy sign; the shaking of the head. And, inevitably,
one of us gives voice to the old lament – the refrain of generations past,
“What’s to become of kids today?”
In this, “Growing Up Female and Social - Part II,” I reveal my Digital Daughter
Ambassadors answers to what they think we don’t get about
social media and what they would like us to know.
Bottom line, most felt like 14-year-old Page from
Philadelphia, “They don’t get the importance of it!”
According to 16-year-old Jamie from New Jersey, “My parents don’t
get that social media is just another part of our lives, the same way the
Beatles were a part of theirs. They don’t get how casual a thing social media
is in the lives of teenagers. They don’t get that it’s all but another aspect
of culture.”
Technology has put our culture on an accelerated path, and the
truth is, you don’t have to be 80 to be confused by the social media onslaught.
Slate Tech Reporter Will Oremus – a Millennial who, “Like any
self-respecting member of my generation, whiles away my days tweeting, snapping
selfies, watching Vice TV, and voting for Barack Obama” – admitted
that Snapchat, the fastest-growing app in the world, remains elusive. In his
story, “Is Snapchat
Really Confusing or I am Just Really Old?” he says, “Every
time I try to use it, I feel like my father must have felt when I was 9 years
old and challenged him to a game of Sonic the Hedgehog. I end up
flustered and sweating, haplessly punching runic symbols in a doomed bid to
accomplish the basic task of viewing my friends’ messages before they expire.
Snapchat, in short, makes me feel old….and, that might be it’s greatest
appeal.”
When I asked my own Digital Daughter Amanda about
the allure of this teen-only haven she said, “Snapchat keeps your friends
close. And, you can be thoughtful. If you see something you both like, you can
instantly share – whether it is screen shot of a beautiful Project Runway
design or an exasperated Selfie with a caption “Ugh! Homework.”
And, I can’t help but think that Snapchat must be ideal
for flirting. No confrontation. No accountability. Just fun.
Fifteen-year-old Maia from New York shared this honest
answer, “I don’t really care if my parents understand social networking or not
because I do and I’m the one using it. I don’t have the time to explain it to
them unless they ask me questions which, when they do, I am more than happy to
help them understand.”
For those social-media-savvy parents, please know that
many of the girls did feel that we understand social networking…to an extent,
anyway. More moms than dads, and mostly Facebook.
More insight from Jamie, “I don’t think they
understand it and value it in the same way I do. However, I think they know
what it means and what the overall point of it is. I mean, they kind of have to
considering our life is surrounded by it.”
What is it that you don’t get? What do you wish our
girls understood?
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