What’s
interesting is that introverted people seem to be very attracted to social
media and some of the success stories for bloggers seem to be people who are “shy”.
Ditto, so there is hope for me yet.
There
is Lauren Luke, a make-up artist, who began giving tips to young women on how
to get glam looks. Her YouTube Channel has more than 135 million views. She
confessed to being shy. She went on to launch a cosmetic line among other
achievements. She’s a great success story.
So
what’s the attraction to social media for the “introverts”? Is it that it is so
much easier to create some persona so different from your regular self – rather
like a Jekyll and Hyde?
At
the other extreme take the example of “Goth Model” Autumn Meadows (Paulson 2013). It’s jaw-dropping the ease with which a 14-year-old can create an online
persona unknown to her parents. How could a young teen even think of
transforming into an “Autumn”, to lose her identity – and then use that raunchy
image to become “famous”?
Is
it the old marketing mantra that “sex sells” with glossy images of
sexily-dressed women (they don’t need to be clad in an “itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny”
swimsuit anymore to have sex appeal) that perpetuates this thinking?
Or
is it the popular entertainment industry that promotes the same notion. So, in
order to be “popular” this teen creates an identity as a model and she knows
the kind of images to post consistent with that persona. How many parents would
even think that their 14-year-old can create sex appeal? But Jessica Hunter
(Autumn’s real name) did!
It
also shows why online predators prey on young people, who are looking for someone
to build their egos. This child (for she
is a child) was not popular among her peers but through Autumn, she becomes “famous”.
Again, it calls into question the “wannabe” appeal of popular culture.
So clearly, there is
a dark side to social media and for young people/children, parents must be
particularly vigilant. Fortunately, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has
provided a Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety that is a useful starting point
for parents as it identifies the characteristics of a child involved in risky
online behavior such as locking himself/herself away in their room, not
allowing parents to see what’s on their screen, receiving gifts or phone calls
from strangers and being secretive about them, being withdrawn. Imagine how much more scope there is now with
the advent of smartphone technology as parents will need to find tools to
monitor their children’s activities. Luckily there are apps available (Tom’sGuide) and of course there is the age-old wisdom of keeping the lines of
communication open with your child so s/he is aware of the dangers and don’t
look for love in all the wrong places.
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