Sarcastic comments, tasteless jokes, inappropriate photos. Teenagers sometimes make social media mistakes that can lead to hurt feelings or worse. These mistakes are inevitable. So, how do we prepare our teenagers to fix these problems before they explode into turmoil?
Teaching Teenagers to Repair Mistakes
It starts with the concept of “repair.” As adults, we’ve all experienced this. We know how to work past disagreements with friends and family members, even after a blowout argument. The problem may have been minor—cleared up with a simple apology. Or it may have been a major obstacle, involving real time and effort in order to move forward. But if the relationship is important to you, you put the time in to make it right.
For today’s teenagers, knowing how to repair their internet reputation is an important life skill.
Much of their social communication takes place in digital words, images, and videos. There are contextual things that complicate digital communication, but the good news—fixing mistakes on social media is not much different than fixing mistakes in real life. So what can you do? Here are some simple actions you can take:
4 Ways to Help Teenagers Learn to Fix Social Media Mistakes
1. Share your experiences.
Kids need to see that relationships are complex, even for adults. Talk about your own experiences. Maybe an e-mail at work left you upset or feeling hurt? Relate how you were able to address the situation through a face-to-face conversation. Maybe you shared a friend’s news by mistake and then addressed it with an apology and a conciliatory gesture? Real stories of this type serve as a great starting point for a conversation about repair.
2. Model it.
It’s important for kids to see how to manage a mistake—with honesty, empathy, and especially patience. This can be the toughest thing to teach to our digital natives. The pace of their digital communication heightens its sense of urgency. Kids are tricked into feeling like they have to resolve things quickly, but repair is not on the same timeline. Teach your kids that it’s okay to take a breath, gain some perspective, and then set to work on fixing the issue—step by step.
3. Teach that sometimes offline is best.
It can be very difficult to repair an emotionally charged situation without communicating in person. But it’s very easy for kids to forget this, since it’s “natural” for them to communicate online. If the quarrel is more than just a simple one, urge your teen to talk with the person face-to-face or at least by phone. Choosing the right means of communication is part of the skill set of conflict resolution.
4. Embrace social media mistakes, while teens are still living at home.
Mistakes, digital or offline, present an opportunity to teach teens good life skills in general. Owning up to your missteps, apologizing earnestly, and returning to being a good friend is the best way to get past any issue. Being there with your teen as it happens gives you the occasion to help in a meaningful way. Not only does it support them at the moment, but your support will bolster their confidence in being able to handle future social difficulties, too.
Problems are inevitable. They are a part of growing up, just like they were when we were kids. As parents, we can get so focused on preventing the bad things that we sometimes forget to model how to repair problems. But our teens are looking to their parents to help them navigate their complex world (even though it may not seem that way at times).
You don’t need to know how to hashtag an Instagram post or share a snap on Snapchat in order to help. You have all the tools you need in the collection of your lived experiences. Share those with your teen so they can benefit. Their world may look different to you, but it’s really the same as it’s ever been.
