WHY DO TEENS USE NEW MEDIA?
The question is not WHAT they use: the problem is HOW they use them
IDENTITY
A share, a like, a picture is more than this: it’s communication, and we are what we communicate.
Teens are very sensitive to this: they live an age where all the childhood certainties are discussed and redefined.
So while your son shares a post in a social network, he redefines and re-structures his Identity.
ONLINE NETWORKS AS REFERENCES
Humans sleep, the Web doesn’t.
It’s always there, no matter what you do, where you go, when you access.
In an everchanging World, this feature makes the Web a reference to our scared and unsecure teens.
Thanks to mobile technologies this is even more enhanced.
CONNECTION
Teenage time is the age of the Groups.
Our sons perception broadens from the family to the group and beyond.
They start to explore their World, physically and psychologically, and they create new relationships (connections) they desire to keep.
In this age a smartphone may be the tools our sons use in order to keep connected with their friends and then with themselves.
BELONGING
In the teenage your sons discover the sense of Community and of Society.
They already started in the childhood, but it’s during their teenage time that they understand the sense of all of this.
So they experiment, test, stretch the roles of their Society.
Owning a particular type of smartphone (a specific brand, model, operator system, etc.), playing the same game, chat with the same app, is a way to enhancing the belonging to a specific group.
THE USE OF THE SMARPHONE FOR ITSELF IS A WAY TO BELONG AND GET SOCIAL APPROVAL
Teenagers feel the need to be heard.
As they start to approach the World and their inner self, then they ask to let them be able to express their opinions and their feelings: they ask us to let them be able to start to shape the World they will live in.
They ask us to let them be able to shape their future and their destiny…
THE TEEN BEHIND THE SCREEN
The screen becomes a defense from a World the teen is able to switch on/off.
It makes their World (at least part of their World: the online World) more predictable.
The illusion of being able to control everything of this World creates false expectations that have to fall down sooner or later.
Our sons then find very hard to manage the resulting frustration.
This post is part of the Digital Parenting Tips Project and appeared first here:
http://www.digitalparentingtips.com/teens-use-new-media/
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