By Hipolito Navarrete, Managing Editor/Producer

Social Media is ruining the world, its allowing people to have access to places they have no business being in, information that is too complicated that it damages them when they acquire it, people that they should just view from afar; the ability to challenge event, people and laws that are beyond their experience and their critical skills are not just bad for them, but for the folks around them. Young folks especially should just spend time following their teacher’s and all the directives of the adults around them, after all those folks have the experience to dissect all that is happening in the world. Young folks should just get off social media, its best for the rest.

So this is the message that keeps giving. In an effort to stymie the challenges that we face, the enhancement of bullying because of social media, the more public antics of some youth, there is a clamor to just shut it down, the president is one of the proponents, as long as they don’t take his Twitter account. So how do we address this issue of social media “recklessness” and the destruction of society? We need to teach youth how to use this tool the same way big businesses use it. Social Media is not just for a youth audience, it is for everyone and big business has learned how to operate in all the platforms. We need to create courses that are tied to the education standards that will help them understand the power they now hold in their hands, at a very early age.

The problem with dismissive and reactive thinking is that we are avoiding or ignoring one of the most important fears that humans have, isolation. The idea of being disconnected, social media has in part resolved that issue, but we have not risen to the challenges that resolving the situation has created. We are now able, with patience, to help folks understand the need to be also empathetic and compassionate. This opportunity to connect to individuals or to broadcast to a whole community can lead to opportunity for equity, if education entities are able to understand how to create that opportunity. There are legal issues that are beginning to take to task those that abuse the platform, but those laws are many times an extension of existing laws both criminal and civil. We need to make sure especially all our youth understand that, they need to be aware of the consequences of their actions, just like adults need to be aware of them.

At its best, there is a 7 year old making millions because for some reason the way he critiques toys resonates with a large audience and his father now has a family business that he runs from his home through you tube. We all know of celebrities that have agents that allows them to charge thousands or hundreds of thousands for a Twitt that includes a product or a service. The reactive response to the constant use of social media by some, reminds us that some just want to shut out groups or individuals just because, not do the work to learn and create an obvious opportunity for growth, especially for our youth.

Social Media is very complicated and very useful. It requires both technical and language skills that most youth are not prepared with. The opportunity is to help folks to understand and develop those skills for their own personal gain. The opportunity to connect the results of a skilled communicator on social media to one with an incoherent Twitt is all over social media, at the highest levels of government.