I was a teen in the early 2010s. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but the people I know that I grew up with (myself included) that are doing the best with their careers, did the best in college, and were least subject to peer pressure/had good impulse control had parents that did not censor their access to the Internet and instead had conversations about time management and gave them room to fuck up in high school.
I went to a community college during high school per my parents pressure and promptly fucked up one class having to drop it and having my parents pay $600 instead of tanking my GPA.
BUT, I never dropped a single class at university and graduated magna cum laude. I had the room to fail when it didn’t matter as much.
I don’t want to be a backseat parent, but as someone that grew up in this mess myself and saw a lot of people hit the pavement, please consider giving them more freedom as they get older so they can fail while you’re still there to catch them. You don’t need a firewall to stop someone from watching videos all day … just check in and see what they’ve been into all day; encourage them to create stuff not just consume it.
I was also very isolated in high school, depressed and hiding it, and the folks I met playing video games on the Internet honestly were a huge factor in my continued existence. Some are still very good friends well over a decade later.
Perhaps a different perspective, perhaps not. Do what’s right for your kids, but every time I hear about parents policing their teens Internet usage I get concerned because of my own lived experiences. Have a nice day.
I was a teen in the early 2010s. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but the people I know that I grew up with (myself included) that are doing the best with their careers, did the best in college, and were least subject to peer pressure/had good impulse control had parents that did not censor their access to the Internet and instead had conversations about time management and gave them room to fuck up in high school.
I went to a community college during high school per my parents pressure and promptly fucked up one class having to drop it and having my parents pay $600 instead of tanking my GPA.
BUT, I never dropped a single class at university and graduated magna cum laude. I had the room to fail when it didn’t matter as much.
I don’t want to be a backseat parent, but as someone that grew up in this mess myself and saw a lot of people hit the pavement, please consider giving them more freedom as they get older so they can fail while you’re still there to catch them. You don’t need a firewall to stop someone from watching videos all day … just check in and see what they’ve been into all day; encourage them to create stuff not just consume it.
I was also very isolated in high school, depressed and hiding it, and the folks I met playing video games on the Internet honestly were a huge factor in my continued existence. Some are still very good friends well over a decade later.
Perhaps a different perspective, perhaps not. Do what’s right for your kids, but every time I hear about parents policing their teens Internet usage I get concerned because of my own lived experiences. Have a nice day.