A study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows how the average kid really spends their day. The average kid spends 2.5 hours listening to music, almost 5 hours of television and movies, 3 hours of internet and video games, and only 38 minutes of good old fashioned reading. This right now adds up to about 75 hours every week of media usage. But this also doesn't include 1.5 hours of texting and 30 minutes of actual talking on the phone every day. Add all of this together and your child is using a mere average of 356 hours to the average month and almost 4,700 hours every year. What does this mean? This means that on average they are spending over half of the year using some sort of media/technology.
Ever wondering what your kids are doing after they ask to get onto Facebook and you allow them? What apps are they using. There are many kinds of apps that our children love to use. You might recognize a few of these apps that you might use as often as they do. There are texting apps, micro-blogging apps, live streaming, self destructing/secretive apps, and chatting/meeting/dating apps.
Some of the common texting apps are Kik, ooVoo, and WhatsApp are all very common texting apps. Some things that parents need to know about Kik is that its loaded with in app ads and purchasing and there is a need to be cautious of stranger danger. Kik has been linked with some high-profile crimes. OoVoo and WhatsApp can be a bit better than Kik because you can only chat with people who are in your contacts and have the app too, but ooVoo can become very addicting because of video chatting and WhatsApp becomes very pushy for your child to start adding other friends who don't have the app.
Common micro-blogging apps are Instragram, Tumblr, Twitter, and Vine. These are like online scrap-booking apps that allow teens and adults to share pictures and videos with others. Many times, things can be search using a hashtag and things shared are often open to the general public. Many things can be raunchy, pornographic, or can be related, to drugs, gangs, and other worldly things.
Live streaming apps aren't nearly as common as other apps, but one come app is YouNow. YouNow allows kids to stream live and watch things live. The main focus with this app is to get the most followers and have the biggest fan base.
Self-destructing and secretive apps are actually very common and some of the top apps are BurnNote, Snapchat, Whisper, YikYak. These apps allow people to send messages, videos, or pictures, and allow them to disappear after a small amount of time. Parents need to realize that these apps allow sexting to happen more often. Since these pictures and videos often only last "a few seconds" the chances of sexting and cyber-bullying happening, are much higher than people would honestly think that they are.
Chatting, meeting, and dating apps are much more common with people in their late teen years and in their 20's. These apps allow young people to meet and get to know other people who are their age, without having a real commitment. People need to realize that this can often be a very dangerous way to hook up with people. Some of the common relationship apps are MeetMe, Tinder, Omegle, and Skout.
I think that as we are having children who have phones, Ipads, and tablets, we need to know what apps it is that they are using. We need to be informed of the the things that they find fascinating and things that they are interested in. I know from my personal life, I often don't know somethings, even though, I am a part of the generation who uses technology all of the time. Can you even imagine, what could be happening with your child or teenager and you don't have any clue what is going on? This I feel is what most parents feel is happening to them.
Lets be the parents who can be their child's friend, but also be their parent too! We can't honestly expect them to listen to us, if we are just being their friend, but we also can't expect them to trust us, if we can't be an adult about things going on with them either. If you feel like your child or teen is spending a bit to much time on their social media, stand up and make a change. Go do something that you know they will honestly love! They will thank you for it later in life.
ABC news. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/WN/kids-electronics-study-shows-kids-spend-hours-day/story?id=9616699
Elgersma, C. (2016). Common Sense Media. Retrieved from https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/16-apps-and-websites-kids-are-heading-to-after-facebook
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