It was
another enjoyable week in the Psychology of Social Media. On Tuesday we were
introduced to a number of hilarious YouTube clips that have gone viral,
including Double Rainbow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI
and Rob Schneider’s stand up comedy explanation of the word “dude”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77v_Q0mhbZU
I absolutely loved these videos, I honestly hadn’t laughed
so hard in the longest time; my abs hurt after I’m not even kidding.
Thursday we
got into pairs and went over different articles and then presented them to the
class. Beth and I were assigned an article that was about a 13-year-old boy in
London who is now on the sex offender register for looking at child pornography
on the Internet. Several other stories were shared in the article of teens the
same age that suffer from various disorders due to their introduction to
pornography at such a young age. This article frightened me because I am soon
to have a little boy, and I don’t know how I will protect him from such
influences in our society. Parents do what they can, but with how accessible
pornography is now days there is seriously only so much you can do.
When my husband and I were first married I remember that he never took his laptop into the bedroom, when he explained why to me it made total sense. While growing up he and his siblings always had their computers out in the open so they wouldn’t be tempted to look at inappropriate material online; apparently it just became habit and it even continued into our married life, which was certainly alright with me. I think this is a great starting place to monitoring our children’s activities on the internet. I think it is also important that we not give them cell phones, laptops, or I-pads until they are old enough to understand how to use them wisely. The young boys in the article seriously had no idea what they were getting into when they were introduced to porn and when they started looking at it on a regular basis. It is important that we educate our children, and try to help them see the importance of staying away from porn on their own. Educating others about the distractions of pornography can be such a tricky business; I have learned in some of my psychology classes that by warning again porn it is actually advertising for it in a way. How do you effectively educate children and teenagers about porn without simply making them more curious??
When my husband and I were first married I remember that he never took his laptop into the bedroom, when he explained why to me it made total sense. While growing up he and his siblings always had their computers out in the open so they wouldn’t be tempted to look at inappropriate material online; apparently it just became habit and it even continued into our married life, which was certainly alright with me. I think this is a great starting place to monitoring our children’s activities on the internet. I think it is also important that we not give them cell phones, laptops, or I-pads until they are old enough to understand how to use them wisely. The young boys in the article seriously had no idea what they were getting into when they were introduced to porn and when they started looking at it on a regular basis. It is important that we educate our children, and try to help them see the importance of staying away from porn on their own. Educating others about the distractions of pornography can be such a tricky business; I have learned in some of my psychology classes that by warning again porn it is actually advertising for it in a way. How do you effectively educate children and teenagers about porn without simply making them more curious??
Your last question is a very legitimate one. All advertising, whether positive or negative, is still advertising. It isn't easy, but I think the answer lies in gospel principles more than it lies in the behaviors of looking at porn. We can't let our kids be completely oblivious to the stuff when they encounter it, but we don't want to be the ones who pique their interest in the first place. As Pres. Packer taught (not a direct quote) pure doctrine taught and understood will change behavior better than talking about behavior will change behavior.
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