As someone who must use social media for work, I’m always interested in how others around me use social media for pleasure—especially the tweens and teens. Teaching clients to use these tools for effective marketing is one thing our firm does. Teaching our children how to use these tools responsibly is quite another, but equally important, task. As a parent, you have to stay one step ahead of your children in terms of your knowledge (and their use) of these tools. Most days, even for one exposed to social media during the workday, it feels like a losing battle.

Daughter girl teen texting

Summer vacation and the technology was flowing

We just returned from spending two enjoyable weeks on the lake with family who visited us from California. It was beautiful weather with plenty of outdoor activities to do. You’d think the kids would be so excited to finally be together and play with their cousins. Well they were, but it wasn’t always playing that filled their time—at least, not how we used to play with our cousins. I can’t count the times that we found the kids indoors using their electronic devices somehow. It was work to keep them away from the devices—even with frequent reminders to make the most of their time together!

These instances are great reminders for just how big a role technology plays in our children’s lives today.

The social media tools du jour were Instagram and Kik. Kik was a new one for me (so I’m already behind the eight ball in keeping up with my kids’ technology preferences). When walking by the room and hearing, “Did you kick me?” I thought for certain trouble was brewing among the cousins. I walked into the room and told my daughter, “We don’t kick people!” They all looked at me like I had four heads and then I found out that “kicking” is actually “kik-ing” and that’s what you do when you send a message to someone.

Facebook is for grandma

When I asked my 14-year-old what social media tools her friends were using, she reported that kids aren’t using Facebook. (Guess I didn’t need to read this article a few weeks ago to learn that teens are losing interest in this social media platform. I could’ve asked my teen. She also reported that some of her friends use SnapChat and Twitter.

Growth in Twitter use among teens was a little bit of a surprise to me, but was corroborated by this article, which explains that teens are using Twitter for “personal expression and social networking.” That’s a little different from how we use it for our work—following media outlets and reporters, catching the day’s headlines, identifying trending topics in client industries, etc.

Social media preferences for tweens and teens…tomorrow

The tendency to bounce from the latest tool (or shiny object) to the next one seems to reinforce the thought that social media and technology use are shortening our societal attention spans. After all, the social media tools I’ve mentioned in this post are today’s shiny objects. Tomorrow’s “tools du jour” will likely be completely different.

photo: Daughter girl teen texting by GoodNCrazy, on Flickr