Dear heroes of your own world,
today I would like to share with you some of my thoughts on the topic of friendship. A very often discussed topic, but I still want to bring it up, because the term has taken on a different meaning in this day and age.
Real friends in all situations
Besides the family, friends are very important. Often they also replace the family. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a large family. Often the children don't have siblings either. That's why friendships also create connections that feel like family. As mentioned in my first post, only loyalty creates a family. My Dreamduo Rola also made friends for life on their adventure. They didn't have any family right around them during their experience, yet they found lovely people to help with their predicament. It's important to have friends who laugh and cry with you and are by your side in difficult situations. True friends often experience the best moments with you and are with you even in the dark times.
Social media: Between followers and friends
I'm basically very "old school," but I'm no stranger to social media. I think it's important to know what keeps kids busy, so I'm naturally curious. I find Instagram and Co. totally exciting, but for those who are not so familiar with it, it also holds dangers. Above all, the children often can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is fake or posed. I try to teach RoLa that not every follower is a real friend you can trust blindly. Even social influencers who reveal a lot about themselves and give the impression of familiarity through their vlogs or pictures, like a friendship. They are people who entertain viewers with their content and often also want to make a living from it. For me, the World Wide Web has the aftertaste that anyone can anonymously rate and insult people without even knowing them personally in most cases. Many young people are only in the digital world and have the impression that they have friends. Yet they have often never seen the people behind the accounts live and in color. That's why my sister doesn't want to let her children surf these media without her knowledge. Rather, she wants to accompany the kids and show what is okay or rather borderline. I try to support her in this and have set up the following tips with her:
5 tips for using social media (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube) with children
- Agree on fixed times of use, e.g., max. 1 hour per day.
- Help set up children's accounts: Privacy, etc.
- Establish rules with children about what content can be posted or published.
- Give children tips on which friend requests can be accepted or rejected.
- Agree on rules about how kids should behave on social media: No hate comments, etc.
Friends Quotes
Here are some friends sayings that you can send to your friends.
What values are important to you in a friendship? What rules do you think are right for children when dealing with social media?
I'm curious what you think about this topic!
Yours
For more pictures of my experiences with RoLa (nephew & niece) feel free to check out my Instagram Profile.