Family Tech Blog

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  • Instagram will Begin “Recommending” Posts from Accounts You Don’t Follow

    Instagram will Begin “Recommending” Posts from Accounts You Don’t Follow

    A new “recommended for you” feature will be rolling out on Instagram very soon. This feature will post pictures from users that aren’t on your friends list in an attempt to get you to increase the number of users you follow. In 2016 Instagram changed the way your feed works by changing from chronological to an algorithm based timeline. The latest change comes as Instagram is looking for ways to better market their platform to advertisers. Increasing visibility of accounts run by companies should boost those accounts followers and therefore the reach of paid advertising. The content you see you will be chosen for you based on your likes in the likes of people you follow. You won’t necessarily just see any random image, but images that the Instagram algorithm believes might be relevant to you.

    What Parents Should Know.

    Obviously, any content delivered to our children and teens by an algorithm can be suspect. This change makes it increasingly important for you to understand who your children follow on Instagram. The best way to do that is for you to log into their account on your device and check regularly. While accounts that use spam techniques or inappropriate images won’t likely be delivered to users through this method, it is still against my wishes for anyone other than myself or my child themselves to determine who or what they see on social media. My best advice for parents is that you be proactive and keep an eye on your kid’s accounts.

  • How to Turn on Social Media Post Notifications

    How to Turn on Social Media Post Notifications

    One of the easiest ways to keep track of your kids activities on Social Media is to follow their accounts yourself. Some social media sites make it even easier to monitor by allowing you to turn on notifications. The major social media apps allow it but the way you set each up is very different. The video below is a walkthrough of how to set up post notifications on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat. Remember that following your kids is good and being notified when they post is even better. Communication is, however, more important than any of it. Be sure to let your kids know you follow them and that you’re getting these notifications. Hopefully the video below will help you out.

     

     

     

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  • Instagram Voted Most Narcissistic Social Media Platform

    Instagram Voted Most Narcissistic Social Media Platform

    We’ve all seen that special selfie smile. The one that doesn’t allow your eyes to crinkle since we don’t like how our faces look when we laugh. This smile is most noticeable on the photos in your Instagram feed. As you scroll through you’ll see a version of people’s reality that usually makes their life look incredible. Is it possible that people are just posting to get more likes and comments on their photos? Could, maybe, these posts be a vain attempt to be accepted by your peers online? A large group of young adults were polled and they think that’s exactly what’s going on.

    A recent study by LENDEdu rates the vanity of the users of major social media platforms. Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter users all seem to be equally motivated by getting likes but Instagram users are extremely more driven by that double tap. It’s all about getting the LIKES on Instagram. So much so that more young people voted Instagram as the most narcissistic platform than the other three platforms combined.

     

     

    In fact, likes are so important that many who were polled admitted to taking down a photo or video if it didn’t get enough likes. This strengthens the case for the narcissism of Instagram. Some even use social media to create a different version of themselves. If they aren’t perceived in the way they’d like to be perceived they’ll just remove the evidence like it never happened. They also speak of an unspoken rule in which you like the posts of those who liked yours. This code of conduct allows users to build their desired persona while helping their friends build theirs.

     

    What Parent’s Should Know

    If you use Instagram you would probably answer these questions the same way. It’s obvious that people are only posting what they consider the best version of themselves on social media. When it comes to our teenager and tweens there is a risk involved with wrapping your self worth around the response your posts get online. Our children should be taught how to find their confidence and identity in something other that what others think about them.

    The “narcissism” referred to in this study points to young people in our culture’s desire to be accepted. That desire has always existed but it’s so very volatile in this increasingly global world. While social media may have been invented to allow us to share our experiences with the world, in reality, many are posting a filtered (literally) version of their lives. The quest for likes and approval from those who follow our accounts can easily lead to negative consequences in our children’s lives.

    My advice is to keep your child away from social media as long as possible. When you feel they are mature enough to have the right attitude about their reasons for posting online then let them open an account. If you feel they are merely looking for acceptance from their peers then it may be a good idea to delay access to such obvious criticism. As a parent you are what stands between your kids and some of the emotion that can come with your online activity being commented on, liked, and hated. Step in and take action to protect them from some of those potential negative emotions until they and you feel they are able to handle the load.

  • LEGO Life is a Social Network for Your Masterbuilder

    LEGO Life is a Social Network for Your Masterbuilder

    Social Media can be a dangerous place. Especially for our kids and pre-teens. More and more parents are allowing their kids to be social on the internet. Kids have channels on youtube, they share pictures on instagram, record publicly accessible music videos on Musical.ly, some even send disappearing images on Snapchat. LEGO is starting their own Social Media site that is focused on keeping kids safe while they share.

    LEGO Life is a new app by LEGO that allow children and their parents to share their LEGO creations in a safe and positive environment. The app’s safety focus is made obvious right away. You are required to create an account to share or comment on anything on the app and your account has to be approved by a parent through an email sent to their address. Also, while you can put a description and a title on your photos, comments are only allowed to be done in LEGO emoji’s and stickers. There will be no dumb kid telling your son that his makeshift Tie Fighter is stupid looking. Nope, only positivity and encouragement is allowed.

    Other safety features include the profile names and image restrictions. You are only allowed to share with a randomly generated name that you choose when you set-up your account. Images can only be of LEGOs. The app has algorithms and even live moderators keeping photos of people off of the app. You can only share what you’ve built. These features keep kids safe from bullying, predators, and the unfortunately all too common trend of inappropriate images being uploaded to photo sharing sites.

    As far as usage of the app, it’s pretty fun. You can upload pictures of your favorite builds and see photos of other users as well. You can search by theme (i.e. StarWars, Minecraft, LEGO City) or characters and even watch videos from LEGO right in the app. The coolest part, in my opinion are the challenges. Building inspiration from the folks at LEGO to help your children reimagine what they want to create. Fun ideas like, “Put a Minifig in Your Favorite Place to Be” and “Build a Super Bowl Party” are highlighted in the app as you scroll down the different categories. Recently LEGO used the challenges as a way to teach kids about internet safety by asking them questions about how to post positively on social media. LEGO Life is a pretty great idea and I installed it on my phone to check it out for this post but it’s probably on there to stay. I should probably tell my kids it’s on there too.

    What Should a Parent Know

    LEGO Life is a great example of someone creating a social media experience with kids in mind. The precautions they take to protect children are mostly unprecedented. The inability to privately message users and the use of LEGO emojis for commenting makes it a place free from cyberbullies and predators. The algorithm and moderators that keeps watch over images posted protect children from seeing something inappropriate as well. I have a hard time not recommending an app like this for parents of kids who love LEGO. It’s our kids’ favorite toy so you know it’s on my phone. I still am not allowing any of my children to have their own account on it. We post pictures of what they build on an account on my phone,that I monitor. I don’t think this app will turn out to be as dangerous as most other social media but I’m always going to err on the side of caution when it comes to my children posting anything online.

    My final thought and really only potential criticism is the merchandising and advertising aspect of an app like LEGO Life. Obviously it’s a very easy way for LEGO to promote their new products and they are definitely doing that. In between posts you’ll see banner ads for new LEGO sets and themes and some of the videos are basically entertaining ads for some of their other products. If you don’t want your kids to fall for the advertising game played in this app then you may not be so quick to allow them to use it. As far as my family goes, we are already so far down the LEGO rabbit hole that there isn’t much more damage that can be done. We will absolutely be posting our favorite creations to LEGO life, albeit together.