Last weekend... my first talk
As part of my job, I gave my first talk to parents and school teachers, councilors and parents. Its part of a package called "mentoring teens in the internet age". We have modules on Pornography, Gaming, Chatting, and Blogging. With my massive (about 8 weeks at this point haha) blogging expereince, I tried to inform the previous generation about the good, bad and ugly things about blogging.
The main thing is that blogs are media, the famous blogs get 10000+ hits a day (this blog's highest is a puny 235) On the one hand 235 is a good crowd, but 10000 is a STADUIM. When we get to speak to that many people at one time, thats media. Media itself is neutral but we can do good or evil with it. (hopefully Im doing good!)
Unfortunately, the scandal/sex/vulgar blogs tend to be the high hit kind. While this is hardly supprising, I believe that the good content blogs can be popular too. I want to find a way to make it happen.
My reflection is that educators and parents need to find out about youth culture if they want to successfully mentor the next generation. As a 26 year old i have to make a special effort to stay in touch with whats going on with younger people. What more so for a 30, 40, or 50 year old. the old mindset of "oh its impossible, computers are not my thing" must be broken.
To take nothing away from fundamental parenting techniques, I feel that both are necessary. Good information about youth culture is useless without good parenting like teaching discipline, respect and responsibility. On the other hand parenting without the correct information of whats going on "on the ground" with the youth is a hopeless situation as well.
Must not give up
posted by Coach Jonathan Wong @ 5/24/2006 10:45:00 AM
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