I found this week’s to be extremely interesting. As the parent of three teenagers, I have often despaired over how much time the spend on their phones. I’m not exactly anti social negus, but I sure wished they would less time on it.  “Why don’t you go outside, invite your friends over, do something!” I would implore.  I also absorbed all the fear mongering about bullying and mental heath issues.  So this week, when I started doing the reading, I was surprised to find there are quite a few people out there talking about the benefits of social media, which, quite honestly, had never occurred to me, First I read KJ Dell’Antonia’s article saying it’s not all bad out there and that social media allows teens to make connections with real friends online but also enables them to meet new ones, which reminded me that I connected with one of my classmates online and we have now met in person a bunch of times (hooray for virtual learning!). I then read danah boyd’s It’s Complicated and was so taken by the introduction that I quickly read the whole book. I love her positivity around the teenagers use of social media and her explanation of how they use it, why they use it the way they do and some of the myths  that make many of believe it pernicious and even dangerous. I particularly related to the chapter on privacy and how adults need to stop following their kids and generally butt out if their online lives. Finally, I appreciated her take on the prevalence of racism and how simply  shaming perpetrators is not the answer. Since this book was published in 2015, I was curious if more recent studies offered up evidence that would counter boyd’s.  What I found was some of each type: underlying vulnerabilities, not social media itself, cause the problems; the amount of time spent on social media has a negligible effect on teen's sense of well being; and studies that point to social media causing depression, anxiety and sleep disturbances.  So I guess the jury is still out.

With respect to online gaming, I admit to not be a gamer or having any serious gamers in my family. The closest we get to gaming is my son playing xbox with his friends (usually soccer).  Since we don't have xbox live, he has to play it with them actually in the same room.  He plays Fortnite occasionally but seems to have grown bored with it of late.  So even though I appreciated the premise of Reality is Broken, it is just wasn't personally appealing.  I do understand how role playing games can be fun, educational and even life-saving, but no thanks. I'll take broken reality anytime.