Having “the talk” with your teenagers is more important than ever. The talk about social media, that is, and how it impacts all of us. And before it gets a foothold in their lives, your teenager should hear this message from you. Facebook is not real life.
We’re grownups, and even we fall for the illusion of Facebook perfection. Searching for people we knew in high school, we spend time checking out their family. Vacations to exotic locales. Fabulous clothes. Expensive new cars. Of course, they have wonderful marriages, polite and accomplished children, and awesome jobs. Then we look at our own imperfect lives, and compare them, often unfavorably.
Social Media as a College Portal
Now think of your college-bound teenagers. Though they probably know more about social media than you do, they are also more influenced by it. Social media shapes their expectations of college life. In some ways, they have a much better sense of what to expect than we did.
Your teen likely has older friends or siblings who have already gone away to college. Facebook offers a glimpse into their college life. There’s easy access to photos that guide your teen on college dress code and dorm room decor. And your teen will likely get to know their roommates before move-in day, even if it is only through Facebook stalking.
Once your child has been accepted to college, they will likely be invited to join a Class of [graduation year] social media group. There will be friend or follow requests from others who have been accepted, and maybe some students who are already there. Here, your rule about not accepting requests from people you don’t know in real life goes right out the window.
Your teenagers will argue that they will know them in real life, next fall, and argue that these relationships are “safe.” Any arguments to the contrary will likely be shrugged off, and the response will be that next year you won’t know what they are doing anyway.
With these new friendships, your child’s world will be opened to many new influences. Most colleges pull students from a wide area, many from the entire country and maybe even the world. In some ways, social media is helpful in bringing these students together, as there is almost a guarantee of having friends before setting foot on campus.
Facebook May Create False Expectations
Once at school, though, they may feel they have been duped. College is not all they thought it was. Why? Because they looked to Facebook and Instagram as accurate representations of what college life would be like.
On social media, everyone is social all the time. There are parties, trips, and events that keep kids busy 24/7.
Reading fifty pages in a night or writing twenty-page papers doesn’t make for a good status, so that is left out. Being lonely or homesick is not mentioned.
Social media is a place to curate only the good.
And our kids can be caught off guard, still believing that others’ lives are Facebook-perfect, while their own is not. They may not have enough life experience yet to look at these photos and be able to remind themselves that Facebook is not real life.
Relationship Between Social Media And Depression
In 2011, The American Academy of Pediatrics linked excessive use of social media sites such as Facebook to instances of adolescent depression. Similarly, a 2014 academic article, Seeing Everyone Else’s Highlight Reels: How Facebook Usage Is Linked To Depressive Symptoms, looked at two research studies and concluded that “people feel depressed after spending a great deal of time on Facebook because they feel badly when comparing themselves to others.”
The authors found this to be “especially true for college students, since they may still be struggling to establish their identities apart from their families, and, consequently, may be more susceptible to peer influences.”
Sometimes we—even adults—need a reality check. Facebook is not real life.
To illustrate, try an experiment together with your teenager. Pretend for a moment that you are not you. Look at your personal Facebook postings over the past year. Is this a real depiction of what life was like?
If you are like most of us on Facebook, your life looks like it has been pretty good. You may have photos of family celebrations, announcements of accomplishments (yours or your children’s) and maybe even some vacation photos of everyone having fun. Does this mean that you spent your entire year like this? Of course not. Even adults can occasionally forget that Facebook is not real life.
There are many bits of wisdom we want to impart before we send our children off to fly, including several standard “talks” parents tend to give before their teens leave home. Now we need one more: Add a “Facebook talk” to the list.
