The evolution of Snapchat and parenting by Jama’l Chukueke
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Parents are connecting with their child on social media more and more as they get the courage to interact on social media with their kids. That’s right I said it…courage. The parenting engagement level nowadays goes beyond just playing toss the ball with little Billy and Sally in the backyard. It’s all about the attention grabbers that your children are involved in, and the hottest attention grabbing platforms within social media is Snapchat.
Snapchat launched in 2011 and has grown quickly to over 100 million active users. Surprisingly enough, more parents are using this platform to engage teenagers. The knock on this app was that it was just used for “sexting” because of it having a hocus pocus disappearing act of pictures and videos. Companies such as National Geographic, People Magazine, Food Network, and CNN have a large following on this super-app.
Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate and Snapchat is taking it to the next level. The way parents engage with their son or daughter in those prime teen years, is critical to the direction of their relationship. The average age of the majority of Snap Chat users are between the ages of 11- 20. A great point that I heard from super-entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, is that Snapchat is similar to how life actually plays out. There are limited memories on what, how, and where “life happens”. Most of us just have faint mental snapshots of what actually happened. Obviously snap chat is a little different than your actual life. The videos and pictures on Snapchat don’t last forever, but it provides memories of emotion that can be watched again within a short span.
This is a great opportunity for parents to create a unique bond with their children that is untraditional from the norms of yesteryear. As a parent, when do we get the courage (there’s that courage word again) to ask our kids to engage with us on this platform? It starts by educating yourself on what to do on Snapchat. How does it work? Here are some helpful YouTube channels that you can use to start your Snap chat education process:
How to use Snapchat –
Snapchat tricks, tips, secrets and hacks
You want to impress your kids. Learn this. How to use Snapchat animated features
I think with the amount of information out there today, kids know exactly what they want and don’t go just go by what mom and dad have done in the past. They see other kids getting involved in technology, and better yet, they see entire families communicate and engage thorough social media platforms. The narrative now is “keep up” with social media and stay aware of the new platforms that your children are on. Not necessarily for monitoring purpose (but you could if you wanted), but for worldly awareness of being the best engaged parent that you can be.
Gary Vaynerchuk’s article on Snapchat
https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/the-snap-generation-a-guide-to-snapchats-history/
