Lost In Space

The power of Social Media can be used for good or evil depending on the situation. The good we are in constant connection with our friends and family updating them on every detail of our lives. As good as that is there is also a bad side to Social Media connection, more recently many people have gotten caught up in sexting or having personal messages end up in the hands of the wrong person and find them on some gossip site or underground website.

What these actions have exposed is the loose restrictions that Social Media operates under. Yes they do ban lewd or obscene content but not all is caught, and when that happens it leads to much controversy about how much of a role Social Media plays in our lives and are we in fact indulging in it too much. More often than not teenagers are the victims of this action. They become victims of their own immaturity and poor judgment when it comes to Social Media. Having thousands of friends on any Social Media network is a wonderful thing but the moment you find yourself caught up in any scandal or the wrong picture gets out believe that those thousands of friends will get the picture. The fact that a teen would take or even trust anyone with this kind of content is very troubling and shows a flaw in the relationship between them and their parents.

Parents should oversee any activity that their child participates in when it comes to Social Media. They cannot leave it up to Social Media moderators to protect their children from the creeps that scour the internet looking for easy targets to get caught up. Educating your child on the pitfalls of Social Media is imperative and in today's society has become a lesson plan in parenting. Proper education can be the difference between your child falling for some scam and them not falling for one. They have to know that what they do will follow them all over, the internet doesn't totally discard your dirty work and all it takes is a couple clicks to find any picture you thought was long forgotten about. Our reputations never leave us whether it’s in person or online and when something like sexting tarnishes that it takes years of hard work to repair our reputations because this type of damage can spread globally and impact you in ways you didn't think could. Preparation and education are two of the best ways to avoid these pitfalls.