What is the dark psychology of social media? New innovations come with high excitement but we rarely consider the downside of such innovations. Inventors also generally push the positive narratives without clear information on the limitations.
The advent of social media
Some decades ago, no one considered that we can communicate virtually as we do today. With social media platforms, communication becomes not only faster but wider. While it affords us the opportunity to communicate, build and maintain relationships; it is important to keep the user’s content private.
A major source of worry for parents whose children have access to social media is their exposure to the right content. With the porous nature of social media, filtering content is difficult. What you post and who can view your content passes through no rigid regulation. Everyone has access to different forms of information. Even users with genuine intentions can end up having the wrong audience since there is little control of the target audience.
Social media encourages people to sometimes present themselves on different platforms differently from their true selves. Â Children will easily see this trend as the norm and adopt them. Again this is a source of concern for parents.
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Click here to read: [How Your Child’s Social Media Behaviour Can Affect Their Future]
Regulating your children’s engagement on social media
As parents, you need to regulate content your children relate with on social media. Also, what they do in order to build a relationship with strangers on different social media platforms.
It is safer to keep a private life away from social media. Users on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook get more respect according to the number of followers and likes their content generates. Mostly, users do not mind putting anything on social media platforms just to increase followership, likes, and popularity. Ensuring that your children do not join the bandwagon requires your undivided attention.
Cases of kidnapping, cyberbully, pornography and ‘get rich syndrome’ have been promoted on different social media platforms. Children are usually the major victims of these vices. However, it is important to note that social media is not entirely bad, it has the power to do good also.
The following are ways in which parents can safeguard their children from the dark Psychology of Social Media.
Know about social media
As parents, you should educate yourself about social media. This will help you to know how to monitor your children’s exposure and activities on social media. Different platforms spring up and staying abreast of these will help you in monitoring what is going on. For example, the most popular app now is TikTok.
Set an age limit for your children to start using social media
Most of the social media platforms require their users to be at least 13 years. As parents, you should study the activities on different social media platforms. This will assist you in setting the right age for your children to start using a particular platform.
Regularly monitor your Children’s privacy setting
As parents, you need to monitor your children’s privacy on their social media platforms. It is important to ensure that their accounts remain private. This will help to reduce their exposure and reduce their chances of falling victim to predators on social media.  You can also encourage the use of strong passwords to keep their social media accounts safe.
Set Guidelines for their social media use
Parents need to regulate their children’s use of social media. Agree on the time when children can make use of social media. Enforcing screen time for social media use will help guard against their kids becoming addicted to social media.
Keep an open dialogue with your children
Effective communication with children is important. Children should feel free to communicate with you. Children have many questions running through their minds as they grow. How and where they find answers contribute greatly to their growth. In addition to open lines of communication, they need to be comfortable to discuss their activities on social media with you.
While many focus on the manipulative usage of social media, projecting a fake life and encouraging different vices;Â parents can point their children to the positive use of social media.
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