Children in the Social Media

 

Why they are there ?

 

Studies of children and media – children and television, children and social networks, etc., have revealed that children feel that media – of all varieties – is an additional compensating sphere where their needs are met.

 

Children feel that social networks

 

• Expand their ability to form communication with others

• Empower a sense of social connection.

• Provide a feeling of belonging,

• Provide the experience of close friendships and of being socially accepted, as opposed to feelings of loneliness and alienation.

 

For children, such interactions create a sense of self-worth, and being needed, being a major contributor to their environment. It also provides them with an opportunity to express their skills and receive feedback and appreciation from their surroundings. Children feel that social networks expand their adjustment skills and help them develop skill that are appropriate to the new surroundings and the society in which they live.

 

Children watch reality programs, because they find that the programs provided an additional – at times alternative – source for understanding the society in which they live and the process of socialization they are supposed to experience.

 

Reality programs is the arena on which there are many permanent and transient characters with whom the child creates para-social interactions; these “like social” interactions provide children with an opportunity to examine “how to behave” in various situations. For children, television programs provided essential social learning, and present models for each and every social role, without exposing children to criticism or feedback that could make them feel attacked or exposed. Reality programs broadens children’s horizons, and they feel that the media open new horizons for their development.

 

They operate in an environment that gives them a feeling of a vast space, a space without boundaries that offers infinite possibilities

 

However, while being in the social network, children  are exposed to greater complexities with which they have to deal, and there complexities are greater than ever before. They face blurring of boundaries between private and public, intimacy and sharing, and between adjustment to environmental norms and autonomous choice.to many sources of information and to more complex situations than ever before.

 

The risks have grown

 

With the new opportunities, new risks have arised. It is easier to hurt people online than it is to do so face to face. Being invisible – “I’m online but no one can see me” could lead users into risk situations. Users who were not previously defined as being at risk could reach – given frequent use many hours a day, and without clear boundaries or supervision – severe situations of risk and hurting others. Information on social networks is open for all to see, and therefore the impact and scope of injury are severe, especially when they involve children. Children have a low ability to contain broad and frequent injuries.

 

The way out

 

children feel that their immediate surroundings do not manage to provide them with enough information on how to manage in today’s world, and these feelings are enhanced through using media and viewing their content.

 

Children feel that the interactions they experience in the media are significant, but such interactions do not provide children with the feedback that is so essential to their development – The feedback received from significant people who care about these children and their emotional wellbeing.

 

More than ever, communication media and social networks exposed children to various models of parenting, human behavior, and children’s and adolescents’ behavior, and these models affect the shaping of children’s personality.

 

More than ever, the role of the significant adult is more complex and less clear cut.

 

As adults who are significant to the children, the change in children’s environment requires that we take a path that would empower us and our children and fulfill our role as significant educators who shape the next generation and shape it.

 

The Elements Way is providing effective tools, so that children will want us to reach them, will want to reach us, and will want us to help them grow and develop.

 

• Positive communication

• Acceptance

• Connecting to strengths and to free will
   

These three elements are the tools we have when we want to educate our children. When we speak about “educating a child” we actually mean “mentoring a child” – helping children develop their strengths and deal with difficulties, while connecting to their free will and finding their equilibrium.