Teenage Girls And Social Media: Tips For Parents From A Best-Selling Author

Nearly 10 years ago, author Rachel Simmons wrote a best-selling book called Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls. Now she has updated her book to include the role of social media and technology.

Read An Excerpt: Teens And Technology In The Home

These days, with frantic Facebook stalking, girls sending thousands of text messages a month and sometimes sleeping with their cell phones under their pillows, bullies have new ways to reach into girls’ worlds.

“You can’t really talk about girls anymore without talking about the role of social media in their lives,” Simmons tells All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris. “For many girls, technology is not just what connects them, but it’s part of their relationships. So many girls will say, ‘I don’t exist if I’m not on Facebook.’ It’s a huge part of how they navigate their lives.”

 

Simmons, who also helps run the Girls Leadership Institute summer camp, says that girls don’t have a lot of communications skills when they’re teenagers, so they lean on social media to navigate their conflicts.

“If I’m upset with you and we’re both in eighth grade and I don’t have the tools to tell you that, I’m going to get on my cell phone. And because I’m not looking you in the eye, I’m going to say terrible things to you,” she says. “And if I go on Facebook and I say nasty things on your public page, other girls start to see it — and if they want to get involved, they can add what they feel. And the target begins then to feel that not only does everyone hate me, but I can see that. Everyone can see it. And I can’t go home, I can’t hide.”

Here are some tips that Simmons offers to parents of teenage girls (you can read these in fuller detail on the excerpt):

• Be a good example and don’t spend all of your own time on your cell phone or social media. Also, it’s important to start saying, “No.”
• Don’t let your child sleep with her cell phone. “Give her a stuffed animal,” Simmons says.
• Have a cell-phone parking area, where all cell phones go at meal time, homework time and at the end of the day.
• And tell girls not to share their passwords with their best friends. “You can tell your daughter, ‘If worst comes to worst, blame it on me. Tell your friend I made you change your password and keep it private,’” Simmons says.

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James Ready puts on its spelling caps in Facebook initiative

How does James Ready spell success? How about M-U-L-L-E-T and U-N-I-B-R-O-W? They are among the words contestants are required to spell in a new Facebook initiative from the brewer called the “James Ready Spelling Bee Lottery.”

The contest, which launched in late July and runs through Dec. 23, offers participants the chance to win prizes ranging from a hockey stick and a lawn gnome to more enticing items such as a hibachi and a leather jacket.

The Toronto-based discount brewer is currently distributing cases of beer with letters stamped underneath each bottle cap. Each Tuesday and Thursday, it posts a video on its Facebook page describing that day’s prize and a word that participants have to spell.

The first person to post a picture of the word spelled in beer caps on the James Ready Facebook page wins that day’s prize.

Steve Persico, group creative director/writer for the brewer’s agency – Toronto-based Leo Burnett – said the contest arose out of the beer brand’s affinity for under-cap marketing programs that have already led to a James Ready Cap Calendar and a board game.

“It was born out of that brief that we always get, which is ‘Let’s do something cool under the cap’ and we really wanted to bring a Facebook element or video element to it,” said Persico.

The contest videos, too, are in keeping with James Ready’s deliberately low-budget approach to advertising. A hand is shown periodically spinning a turntable bearing the product, while captions attempt to highlight the “features” of even the most mundane products.

A recent prize of a “salon-ish hair dryer,” for example, noted features such as “semi-hot air comes out here,” a “trigger grip” and its ability to work on “mullets, perms, jheri curls, mushroom cuts and more.”

The brand is using its own media channels – in-case newsletters and messages on the back of its labels – to drive awareness of the contest. “With our budget, we can’t buy tons of radio or TV and print. We’re always doing things that are free or cheap,” said Persico.

“It doesn’t feel right for the brand to do television and stuff like that,” added Anthony Chelvanathan, group creative director/art director.

James Ready began incorporating Facebook into its marketing strategy about two years ago and has amassed a loyal following of nearly 5,300 people. The brand also tries to respond to every message it receives from customers.

“People feel like when they want to say something, we’re going to listen and respond,” said Chelvanathan.

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