Young people vs Social Media – who wins?

89% of 15 to 18-year-olds are on Facebook.

Really? That sounds low. What are the other 11% doing?

When I was but a callow yoof, in a strange time that fashion bypassed called the 80s, I was busy doing “social”. This often involved pretending I was already 18 in local pubs in order to get cider with my mates, sitting around at their houses listening to the latest groovy tuneage on cassettes recorded off the radio, or generally hanging around somewhere annoying grown-ups by the simple (but jolly effective) act of existing and looking vaguely surly at the same time.

Happy days indeed. Absent from all this was even the slightest idea of an “Inter Net”, only the vaguest of concepts that computers were useful for anything other than playing primitive games, or that being in touch with your mates 24/7 via teensy screen was one day going to be the biggest thing since Debbie Harry wore a very short dress on Top Of The Pops.

The BBC’s “Newsbeat” (which I believe is a news service aimed at young adults, listeners of Radio 1 and deluded over 25’s who think they’re down wiv da kids) carried out a survey amongst 15 to 18-year-olds to find out what they get up to on social media, although how they managed to tear themselves away from their screens long enough to answer the questions isn’t explained.

A third of them have met someone they first encountered on social media. That sounds like it should be alarming, but I’ve done that too, and the 18 stone chap called Barry who said he was a bubbly blonde lady in his Twitter bio was really nice, even if his dress really didn’t work with the Dr Martens.

Joking aside (that really was a joke – Barry didn’t wear Dr Martens), as long as “tweet-ups” occur with others present, and somewhere where all parties can be sure they’re safe, that’s a good thing, right? A great way to meet people who you’ve already got to know a bit first, and the modern-day equivalent of meeting a pen pal.

25% also said they’re happier online than in real life. I can understand that too. Reality is often a baffling and scary place, where you’re constantly trying to figure out how you should be reacting in a situation, feel self-conscious, and never know what to wear.

On social media, you’ve got time to consider what you want to say, don’t have to engage with someone just because they’re there, and you can do it all whilst wearing a onesie.

A quarter of young people admit that they’re addicted to social media, but I know a lot of adults who are addicted to the sound of their own voice. At least in SocMedLand you can ignore the virtual equivalent of the pub bore.

Should we be weaning the teens off social media, and hiding their mobiles? Of course not – they’ve got their mates with them all the time. Lucky kids.

#winning

This post might have first appeared as my "Thank grumpy it's Friday" column, in the North West Evening Mail, on the 17th of October 2014. It hasn't show up on the paper's website so far, and I haven't received my old-skool printed copy in the post yet. Fingers crossed, eh? If you want to keep an eye out for it, take a look at the paper's Columns page here

A tricky subject to write about in many ways. There's a lot of panic and hysteria out there about kids "sexting", meeting strange and potentially dangerous people online and being lured into meeting them etc. Luckily, most teenagers are far more savvy that we give them credit for, and capable of understanding these risks. It's also the job of parents and other (allegedly) responsible adults to not bury their heads in the sand and just moan about it when bad things happen.

Like anything else to do with the children we are responsible for, take the bloody time to read up about this, understand the risks and make sure you get this across to the youngsters properly. This is probably a far easier conversation than that one about birds and bees, and assuming it's somehow someone else's responsibility when you're the one that got them an iPhone for Christmas is like buying them all the components for bomb, but not bothering to explain it's dangerous.

</end rant>

(Mammoth box set on the bog - Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of the War of The Worlds, Collector's Edition. Uuuuuuuuulaaaaaaaaa.......)