As a mother, I have recently discovered Facebook. My kids knew about it long ago and I poo pooed it as another mindless waste of time. Finally, I joined so I could track my kid’s antics like a sneaky James Bond spy. Trouble is – I somehow got hooked myself. Suddenly, friends from far and wide started popping up. People from the dim recesses of my childhood resurfaced. Facebook is like a really good piece of chocolate or a bag of those great salt and vinegar potato chips.
However, the way I use Facebook is a bit different than they way my kid’s do, and plenty of kids are getting addicted beyond reason, using it for brutal cyber bullying or daring to say the types of things they would never dream of in person. Kid’s depression rates are sky high, average onset at age 14, and there have been many reports of teen suicide from internet related bullying.