"I just don't understand today's young people." I bet you've heard that before, perhaps many times. I know I have. Having served as an educator of young people since 1977, I have encountered Generation X, Millenials, Post-Millenials and now, the generation known as EPICs. Strangely, I think I understand this last group better than all the rest. Or maybe I just THINK I do. Whatever, here is what I mean by the EPIC generation.
1. Today's young people are Experiential. They want to try new things and are willing to go outside their comfort zones (and to our dismay, their parents' comfort zones) to try the "latest and greatest". Often their discretion is lacking, maturity weak and common sense not very common. But if we can help them learn these things they can impact many people because they lack the fear to stretch beyond their zone.
2. They are Participatory. More than any generation in recent decades, today's young people are not content to sit on the sidelines and let other people get things done. They want to be involved. They want to be in the game, actively involved in things that are important to them. These things that interest them may be either positive or negative, wholesome or otherwise, amoral, moral or immoral, but whatever they are passionate about will drive them to participate.
3. They are Image driven. Never in the history of man have we been able to have so many images flashed before our eyes, so rapidly, from so many sources. TV, video games, iPods, iPads, smartphones, electronic billboards...the list goes on and on. Today's generation of young people will be totally disengaged if their classroom activity doesn't include a significant degree of visual imagery, and I don't mean seeing the teacher standing at a podium talking.
4. They are Connected. Do you remember the days when the only connection we had, outside of snail mail and face to face conversation was a phone with a cord attached to a wall plug with a loud ring, a phone that was limited to one thing....talking? This generation Skypes, Facetimes, Facebooks, Instagrams, Tweets with dozens of people every day, some of them from the other side of the world in real time! Never has man been more connected with hundreds, even thousands of people every day and this generation has grown up knowing nothing else.
SO, how does that affect our parenting? How does that affect the world of education and how we adjust our teaching styles? How does that affect the way we hire people? I will attempt to address some of these questions in the next blog post so stay tuned!!
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
The Dangers of Social Networking
First, yes, it's true that you haven't seen a post on this blog in a long time. My goal is to begin to write a weekly blog post instead of trying to write one daily. This will be the first of what I hope will be a weekly post.
As a school administrator I have come to see the pros and cons, blessings and curses of the internet. I am an avid reader and researcher so the internet opens the door to a myriad of opportunities to have information at your finger tips. The worldwide web has literally made the world less wide and much smaller when it comes to information accessibility. Certainly, in that way, the internet is a blessing. But, as in most things man uses that are amoral in nature, Satan finds ways to use the internet as a tool to entice people into areas that can be immoral, illegal, unseemly and dangerous. This is never more true than the area of social networking.
Let me state right up front that I am not opposed to things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc. I think all of these are tools that can be used for good things. The purpose of this post is to address the dangers that lie buried within sites likes these, dangers that people, especially immature people, simply are ignorant of or aren't concerned about. I work with Christian school students everyday and I am often incredulous at things I see and hear about that are being posted and written by some of these students. I have become convinced that many of our parents are paying very little attention to the activity of their children on these social networks. Here are some things to keep in mind.
1. There is truly no real privacy and security on the internet. People make a career and hobby out of hacking into people's social network accounts seeking personal information, images, clues to your habits and patterns. They are often seeking bank information, clues to when you'll be at work or on vacation. There are predators looking for images of your children, where they go to school, where they may be at any given time. They are looking for phone numbers, addresses, things you like and groups you join. Sadly, if you post that kind of thing it is always "hackable" and you are always vulnerable. Be wise and circumspect in the images, comments, groups you join and dialogues in which you engage.
2. Keep your testimony in mind with social networking. As unbelievable as this may seem, I have seen people talk about the church they attend, how faithful they are and then in virtually the same post use coarse, vulgar language and talk about getting drunk at a party. I am sure their pastor loves that! I have told people many times, if you are going to act like a pagan in your private life, keep it PRIVATE!
3. More and more colleges and employers are looking at the social network activities of potential students and employees when making admission and hiring decisions. They know, and we should come to realize, that what we will do while hidden behind a keyboard and computer screen reveals the hidden person of the heart, our character
4. Get proactively involved in your children's social network activity. The vast majority of high school students in our school are heavily involved in things like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You have every right as a parent, the person paying the internet fees, the person responsible for the spiritual oversight of your children, to insist that you have access to every social network in which they are involved. You have the right and should ask to be "friends, followers" or to have passwords to all accounts. Don't fool yourself into believing you little darling would never cross a line in social networking. They are all sinners just like you and me and they are capable of doing anything Satan is capable of imagining.
Finally, as Paul taught the Ephesians, be wise and vigilant because your enemy, the devil, is like a lion seeking who he can destroy and then roar after his kill. Never is wisdom and diligence more important that in how we engage in social networking.
Grace and Peace!
As a school administrator I have come to see the pros and cons, blessings and curses of the internet. I am an avid reader and researcher so the internet opens the door to a myriad of opportunities to have information at your finger tips. The worldwide web has literally made the world less wide and much smaller when it comes to information accessibility. Certainly, in that way, the internet is a blessing. But, as in most things man uses that are amoral in nature, Satan finds ways to use the internet as a tool to entice people into areas that can be immoral, illegal, unseemly and dangerous. This is never more true than the area of social networking.
Let me state right up front that I am not opposed to things like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, etc. I think all of these are tools that can be used for good things. The purpose of this post is to address the dangers that lie buried within sites likes these, dangers that people, especially immature people, simply are ignorant of or aren't concerned about. I work with Christian school students everyday and I am often incredulous at things I see and hear about that are being posted and written by some of these students. I have become convinced that many of our parents are paying very little attention to the activity of their children on these social networks. Here are some things to keep in mind.
1. There is truly no real privacy and security on the internet. People make a career and hobby out of hacking into people's social network accounts seeking personal information, images, clues to your habits and patterns. They are often seeking bank information, clues to when you'll be at work or on vacation. There are predators looking for images of your children, where they go to school, where they may be at any given time. They are looking for phone numbers, addresses, things you like and groups you join. Sadly, if you post that kind of thing it is always "hackable" and you are always vulnerable. Be wise and circumspect in the images, comments, groups you join and dialogues in which you engage.
2. Keep your testimony in mind with social networking. As unbelievable as this may seem, I have seen people talk about the church they attend, how faithful they are and then in virtually the same post use coarse, vulgar language and talk about getting drunk at a party. I am sure their pastor loves that! I have told people many times, if you are going to act like a pagan in your private life, keep it PRIVATE!
3. More and more colleges and employers are looking at the social network activities of potential students and employees when making admission and hiring decisions. They know, and we should come to realize, that what we will do while hidden behind a keyboard and computer screen reveals the hidden person of the heart, our character
4. Get proactively involved in your children's social network activity. The vast majority of high school students in our school are heavily involved in things like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You have every right as a parent, the person paying the internet fees, the person responsible for the spiritual oversight of your children, to insist that you have access to every social network in which they are involved. You have the right and should ask to be "friends, followers" or to have passwords to all accounts. Don't fool yourself into believing you little darling would never cross a line in social networking. They are all sinners just like you and me and they are capable of doing anything Satan is capable of imagining.
Finally, as Paul taught the Ephesians, be wise and vigilant because your enemy, the devil, is like a lion seeking who he can destroy and then roar after his kill. Never is wisdom and diligence more important that in how we engage in social networking.
Grace and Peace!
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