like when you were young and had
to go and find a phone in order to
communicate. How do they think this
has changed the way we interact?
11.
Remember that your children
are different. They have grown up in
a very different world. They can ‘tune
out’ of some things and ‘tune in’ to
other things as needed. This is why if
they’re watching TV or texting on their
cell phone they may well not notice
someone walking into the same room
or even speaking to them. They’re
not being rude. They’re ‘tuned-out’.
Move between them and the screen
or physically touch them to get their
attention.
12. Allow them to play silly things
like ‘Candy Crush’ or subscribe to pages
like ‘I hate Justin Bieber’. Doing these
things doesn’t mean that everything
they do online is nebulous. Most of
what they do is incredibly creative manipulating photographs, creating
graphics, videos and songs.
13.
Tell them to ignore online
bullying and give them a lesson on
constructive criticism. Take them
to a blog/website where there
are comments and go though the
comments with them (metacritic.com is
a good one). Discuss which comments
are thoughtful and wich idiotic.
14.
Cut them some slack. Our
children have grown up in a digital
age. We feel bombarded my all the
information thrown at us thanks to
all this new technology. They don’t.
They are able to multi-task and filter
far more than us. They are used to
having several different things
going on at once and are often able
to focus better when there is more
than one thing going on at a time.
This is why school bores them and
why they can actually study better
for maths when they’re listening to
music.
15.
When it comes to online
social sites - watch their backs,
don’t snoop. Regularly remind them
of the dangers of online life and
ensure their privacy settings are
appropriate. You’ll probably find
that their privacy settings are far
better than yours. Kids are techsavvy and there has in fact been a
drop in online exploitation in the
past few years because kids are so
savvy and can easily recognise a
dodgy character.
Of these 15 points I believe No.
10 to be the most important of
all. Communication is vital to
everything (even sans technology)
Communicating gets you and your
children thinking and talking about
what they’re doing, and it provides
you with information about what
they’re doing.