Children spend so much time in contact with ‘virtual friends’ on social media – they could do with a bit of help from elders in building real-life friendships.
Social media: one of the greatest things to have happened to humanity? Or the bane of all our lives? While there is probably no wrong or right answer, most teachers would probably agree that far too many youngsters think the people they “Facebook” or “Snapchat” on a minute-by-minute basis are genuinely their “friends”.
It seems to me that these days too few children understand how to bond, how to make friends and, of course, how to be one. It seems to me that these days too few children understand how to bond, how to make friends and, of course, how to be one. Can we correlate this with the rise in well being and mental health issues and the overuse of social media? I suspect we can.
As social beings, we know instinctively that friendship is crucial in all aspects of our lives. To have someone to have fun with and confide in is something important for nearly all of us.
We must do something about it. We can try to teach understanding and the ability to tolerate others – the communication skills necessary for positive friendships – but do we need to be even more proactive? Perhaps we can start by explaining that the only way to have a good friend is to be one – a lesson that many adults on social media could do with learning, too.
