Week 7

Yesterday was our last day of in class classes.  This semester has been a good and feel grateful that the course load was bearable.  I enjoyed the different articles that we were assigned to read and especially liked Revolution 2.0 and the articles for parenting. I felt the parenting’s articles helped answer question that I have been wondering about.  I have often wondered when and how to talk to my son about pornography. As I have got older I find myself being more like mom and how her and my dad taught us about things.  In our home we didn’t speak of pornography ever. I remember once my mom trying to talk to me about how my body is changing and I remember just feeling uncomfortable. We weren’t allowed to talk about bad things but instead pretended that they didn’t exist.  I remember growing up my dad smoked but even till this day we do not ever talk about it around him and we all pretend that he doesn’t smoke. When it’s my mom and siblings we’ll talk about, but I remember a time even doing that wasn’t allowed. She would pretend he didn’t smoke.  I think I remember learning about him smoking and my mom would beat around the bush with me.  I’d play dumb and ask my mom why there were cigarette butts on the ground and why the garage smelt like smoke. I have been hiding more things from my son and am glad I learnt that it’s ok to talk about pornography but that I should be talking to him and teaching him how to handle it at a young age.  I was always honest and dope but found myself closing up and being like my mom.  I kind of felt like that article gave me permission to be myself with my son and talk about those bad things we were never allowed to talk about when we were young. I also learnt to think twice when I read things on the Internet. The stuff I am reading is often time written by one person and it reflects their opinions and ideas and that is important for me to remember.  Be critical of Internet content and check the sources.

Week 6

This week we read a chapter of the book called “Revolution 2.0”.  I found it to be a really interesting read. I don’t know too much about world events and found what happens in different parts of the world eye opening.  I had heard about the revolution in Egypt before and know that disturbing things go on in the world but I don’t seek out the details because it’s difficult to for me to see and hear these things when I feel like I can’t do much about it. It’s very unsettling and stresses me out. On the first page it gives details of the man who had been severely beaten to death and talks about how this goes on a lot in their country. From reading that chapter it amazes me how much the Internet was able to help over throw the dictatorship in Egypt. Today we watched an interview on what happened in Egypt and the man said that social media made the popular media avenues pay attention to this story. I was amazed of the power groups of people have in the world. It makes me think how valuable the internet is and how valuable it can be to learn how to use social media to bring awareness to good causes or issues that need to be addressed. 

We also had to read some article about the Internet and how it affects children. The things that I took away from those articles were that what your kids see on the Internet from friends or ad etc., affects their behavior. The author encouraged to see what your kids are looking at and to be open and talk to them about it and help those images in context, such a you don’t have to party to be popular was an example given. I also liked that as parents it’s important to model the behavior we want our children to have with technology.  I think that also can apply in many areas.  I also liked the idea to use a token economy with you children. I often struggle on when or how much time I should let our son play games, this was a great way for him to feel like he has power but can also learn from it and how to use his time wisely.