As a society, we're getting closer to the heart of social media safety, which is largely, not entirely, a blend of emotional and social (psychosocial) safety. This thoughtful piece by Prof. Justin Patchin of the Cyberbullying Research Center – "Bullies or Best Friends? The Challenge of Interpreting Interpersonal Relationships" – raises some important questions for parents and school staff as well … [Read more...] about What are we really seeing in the social media fishbowl?
cyberbullying
Kindness really could be going viral! Just look…
The use of kindness as a conscious, very effective grassroots solution to bullying is picking up steam. Where youth are concerned, sometimes the kindness is purely their idea, such as the kind intervention of two high school upperclassmen that sparked Canada's Pink Shirt Day and students' anti-bullying countermeasures in Iowa in 2012. Other times the impetus comes from teachers and school … [Read more...] about Kindness really could be going viral! Just look…
Popularity: The other kind of vulnerability
A study cited in "When Popularity Backfires" at Time.com found that socially ambitious kids can be just as likely to experience bullying and harassment as "social outcasts" at school. Interested in the "hotspots" of social aggression in students' social experiences at school, sociology professors Robert Faris at University of California Davis and Diane Felmlee at Pennsylvania State University … [Read more...] about Popularity: The other kind of vulnerability
Major study of teen online conflict in Canada, insights for all of us
Though "cyberbullying" is in the title, the just-released study from Canada's premier digital and media literacy organization, MediaSmarts, is about far more than that. The study offers a wide range of insights from young people themselves on the full spectrum of negative behaviors that turn up in digital media, including meanness, gossip-spreading, acting out of anger, "drama," threats and what's … [Read more...] about Major study of teen online conflict in Canada, insights for all of us
SID 2014: Teens’ own (wise) perspectives on life with social media
As panelists at Safer Internet Day US 2014 in Washington, D.C., high school students Arielle Ampeh (from Va.), Will Ashe (Va.), Zoe Parks (Ill.), David Rojas Rosario (D.C.), Hannah Thompson (D.C.), and Dursey Wade (Mich.) had a broad-ranging conversation about their experiences in all kinds of social media. But if you watch the video or keep reading, you'll probably notice, as I did sitting in the … [Read more...] about SID 2014: Teens’ own (wise) perspectives on life with social media