Despite anecdotal evidence that parents’ comments are kryptonite to any Facebook status, Brigham Young University professors insist that parents who interact with their kids online often build stronger connections with their spawn.
In our experience, a comment from an older relative is more likely to connect our fingers to the delete button. But the BYU killjoys swear that “teenagers who are connected to their parents on social media feel closer to their parents in real life,” BYU News reports.
The BYU News release includes a handy guide from study author Sarah Coyne for how to connect with one’s kids via social media:
“Your kid might post a picture, and you might show support by liking it or making a nice comment, or a status update that does the same kind of thing. It gives more opportunities to give positive feedback or show affection.”
Yes, parents, show your teens affection via Facebook. They’ll love it.
Ms. Coyne also seems to believe social media profiles can “give an intimate look at your teenager’s life.” Maybe if your kid is too dumb to tweak privacy controls so that you can’t access anything but their profile pic, sure.
The study also found that 16 percent of young people today, while they’re not destroying society with their laziness and propensity for Brooklyn, interact with their parents on social media daily.
But, Ms. Coyne notes, if your kid hates you already, simply faving all his tweets won’t make him come around. “It’s just one tool in an arsenal that parents have to connect with their teens,” Ms. Coyne told BYU News.
Ms. Coyne also found that too much social media can cause teens to “show problems in terms of aggression and depression.” Teens: more like bloggers than you thought.
[H/T The Daily Dot]