The “thrusts” of the social networks

Eric Tremblay

Thursday, 15 February 2018 10:00

UPDATE
Thursday, 15 February 2018 10:33

Look at this article

For several years, I prepare my students to negative aspects of social networks. I did, however, seized evidence, the actual impacts that last November where I wrote for the last time on the blog of profs.

At the beginning, I thought that with the weeks that pass, I’ll inevitably have to put it behind me this episode where my confidence has taken a hit. However, every time I set up in front of a screen, a malaise both physical and psychological came back to haunt me.

Of course, like all bloggers, I had the attention unwavering of some trolls, but a few days for me were enough to forget. Not the last time. This article where I we was all over as part of the problem and the solution to the difficulties they experience in our classes had clearly hit a chord with some.

All the good words that I have received, are only those who were strong, almost violent, that I remained in the lead. A colleague I was even rewarded for a song with my name in it. It was more than I could bear.

I am someone who doubts always, and is always looking to do better. I’ll let you guess what these comments could have as big impact on me. But, in the end, I’m glad that it happened.

Now, when I have to resolve a delicate situation between the students of my school about social networks, I am able to put myself in their place. If a teacher of experience can be brushed aside temporarily to one of his passions, by the wickedness of a handful of illustrious unknowns, I dare not imagine the impact on children of 11 or 12 years old, which intersect their tormentors of the screen each day in the school yard or the classroom.

So, I invites us collectively to spend more time near screens in front of which our young people stop. When we talk about social networks, we stop too often only to Facebook, Instagram or other giants.

However, in several video games, even those aimed at an audience of under 12 years of age, it is possible to have discussions with people from all around the globe without the guarantee that they are all prompted by the best intentions in the world. At the time when the only device connected was in the living room, this oversight was quite easy.

Today, if we want to grow healthily our children through the endless resources at their disposal, it is more than ever necessary to take frequent time off to understand all the parts of their artificial life. Always in a hurry, often exceeded, we too often take for granted that our children understand what they are doing or they know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. But, in fantasy worlds where they are all anonymous, is it so easy to draw a line between what is relevant from what is not?

The blog of the teachers helped me to understand that hurtful words will remain always the same if one is fully aware that these must be considered with the benefit of hindsight. You tell me that I am perhaps too sensitive to criticism and that the trolls of the Web is spawning too quickly a way into my thoughts. You’re probably right.

However, we can’t answer the same thing to a child or a teenager who says she is the victim of bullying on a game or on social networks. If we accompany our children to their entry to school, their workouts the athletes and their courses of painting, we should definitely do this throughout the construction of their digital identity…