I'm currently participating in
an ABC's for homeschooling challenge.
Since it falls on Tuesdays,
I am adding a technological slant to the challenge.
I hope you stay tuned and enjoy my entries.
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| Facebook is a great place to connect with people. |
Facebook often gets a bad rap. Countless stories and studies tell of the bad side of allowing your children, who are 13 and older, to use Facebook. There are some advantages to Facebook. Following are some reasons to allow teens to use Facebook:
1. to connect with people. Facebook allows one to find connections with family members and existing friends. You can even make friends with distant relatives. Facebook is especially helpful in connecting with people who live far from you. For example, I have friends who live in other countries, like Canada and Britain. I have friends who live in many states, like New York and Delaware, too.
2. to communicate with family and friends. Facebook gives one the opportunity to converse and catch up with friends. I like that Facebook gives its members updates on birthdays. We then can wish, "a happy birthday," to each other. We can also give notice about upcoming events like parties and graduations.
3. to make new friends. With Facebook, you can find new people who share common interests. This is a chance for teens to meet the children of our friends. It is wonderful that I, as a homeschooling mother, can connect with other fellow homeschooling parents. In the same vein, teens who are homeschooled can meet on Facebook. They can then figure out for themselves if they are compatible.
4. to learn about the world. Through Facebook, a teenager can begin to explore the world. This is a brilliant way to use technology. People share all kinds of information and websites on Facebook. For example, just today, I shared a website having to do with World War II with my teenage son because I know that he likes to learn about World War II. Someone had shared the same website with me on my Facebook.
I didn't even know that Facebook had a safety center. You can find it here:
I would recommend sending your teens to this webpage for learning about safety:
Well, thanks for reading this entry. I hope I have provided some practical advice on how to use Facebook safely. Facebook can be a useful tool for teens.
How about you, my readers? Do you allow your children to get on Facebook? Do your children have a Facebook account? Are you "friends" with your teens on Facebook? I encourage you to consider being "friends" with your children if they are on Facebook. You should know what your children are up to on Facebook. You can monitor their online activities that way.
This has been an entry for the Technology Tuesdays series.
The deal with our teens is they can HAVE a Facebook (and Myspace when that was the "thing") ONLY IF:
ReplyDelete1) I know your password
2) I am on your friends list
3) Everything is set to private/friends only.
I work with 175 students in a large youth ministry, and I have had lots of parents ask me about social networks. They don't have them, don't want them, but their kids are begging to get on Facebook. I tell them our own family rules, and encourage them to BE WHERE YOUR KIDS ARE. If they are on MySpace, you should be on MySpace. If they are on Twitter or Facebook, you should be too. Along those lines, I also encourage them to get involved with the youth their kids hang out with, be it at youth group, sports, or where ever. Keep your fingers on the pulse of your teens so you know what's going on. Surprises, when it comes to parenting teenagers, usually aren't happy ones. Sad but true.
Dawn,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your contribution. The thing is not to demonize something Facebook. If a parent prohibits something, it makes kids want it more. I try not to make a big deal about things like this so that it won't be something the kids throw back at me in a negative way.
I am friends with my children so I know what's going on in Facebook.
A lot of prayer has to go in parenting our children. There are no guarantees. That's why we have to give them some tools to navigate this world. I was glad to see the Family Safety Center available to us through Facebook.
Rebecca G.