Much is written about the dangers of mixing teenagers and social media. Rightly so. With the area of their brain with is responsible for judgement a good five to ten years shy of being fully developed, teens are fully capable of making mistakes. Some of these are errors in judgement, they have failed to look ahead to the consequences of their actions. And when this lack of good judgement mixes with social media, the implications are instantaneous and far-reaching. We know the stories. They are not pretty.
But what happens when they do think ahead, when they do use good judgement? Well, here is where the picture brightens considerably. Across the country, and the world, teenagers have used the power of social media to create movements for good. The YouTube video A Sincere Compliment is just one example of how one person, in this case teenager Jeremiah Anthony, used the power of Twitter to spread compliments. Well, the idea took off and soon hundreds of people were tweeting compliments using the @westhighbros idea.
We don’t tend to hear much about these things. Good news travels slowly, while bad news is like a wildfire. Perhaps we need to actively consider the positive power of social media. Perhaps our time is better spent considering and promoting positive messages through such avenues as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Perhaps in so doing we can create a more collaborative, less competitive culture which celebrates cooperation and the ability to compromise.
As educators we can use this powerful medium as a force for good, a light in the darkness.
