Mobile Phone Etiquette

[BayView]

A girl my son went to school with committed suicide about 18months ago. While not directly responsible, I dont think facebook helped.

For my 18yo son and his friends it really put into perspective all the silly nasty comments they post about each other on facebook.

We've talked about this with our son a few times...people committing suicide over posts on the internet.

I've even shown some nasty posts and private messages thrown at me from this site.

He was a bit shocked, and I told him that these are the ones that weren't deleted by the moderators. The PM's are worse - they don't get deleted by mods as far as I know.

I asked him; "now; how do you think I should respond?" and then proceeded to show him some of them to illustrate.

He asked me; "weren't you upset?"

I replied; "No. The opposite - the nastier they are, the more funny it is to me. These are people who are either misreading what I've said, or don't agree with me and don't like me for various reasons and have to reply in a nasty way, but it's only words and I have learned to grow a thick skin - you need to do the same."

The object is to teach them about how the kids can react when confronted with nasty comments and name-calling..

You can take it to heart, and get all emotional and upset, and get into a slanging match where no-one wins or worse - someone dies - or you can let it wash off you like water off a duck.

And you can turn it off.

We've tried to train him not to respond in a nasty way - he has done this previously and got himself into trouble he wasn't expecting, so a good lesson learned.

 

[kathryn d]

A girl my son went to school with committed suicide about 18months ago. While not directly responsible, I dont think facebook helped.

For my 18yo son and his friends it really put into perspective all the silly nasty comments they post about each other on facebook.

In terms of phone, I really like that he has one. He's always out and about with his friends - I can call at any time and find out where he is. Its very handy when I need something.

About 3 yrs ago a co-worker went home and found her 16 yr old swinging in the loungeroom. He hung himself.
He was a troubled child, but the taunts from FB had a lot to do with pushing him over the edge.
I don't blame the taunters, because if the person had been rational, it woudn't have mattered.
It's just that children are so sensitive, especially in their teen years.

 

[The Y-man]

The PM's are worse

They're private - we can't see them.... we'll I hope not....

The Y-man

 

[redwing]

CELEBRITY PHONE-PAS

You've probably heard of these?

1. Blake Lively’s not so anonymous photos: No matter how innocent they may be, cheeky photos will always come back to haunt you. Especially when body features and tattoos can give you away!

2. Mel Gibson's violent voicemail recording: Who can forget Mad Mel's rants to ex wife Oksana. Little did he know they would end up in court!

3. Ashton Kutcher’s text flirting cheatathon. Ashton's cheeky texts might've had others in a spin, but they sure didn't impress wife Demi Moore!

4. Shane Warne’s Twitter sensation with Liz Hurley. Oh, dear. Sometimes you're the only one who thinks lovey-dovey tweets are sweet.

5. Lara Bingle’s naughty phone photos. See Blake Lively!

 

[geoffw]

There's one form of Facebook bullying I hadn't heard about before. Young lady belongs to strict religious family in Southern USA. She strays from the straight and narrow- and her own family are immediately on Facebook, shaming her to her whole community. (A friend of my daughter).

 

[Rolf Latham]

There's one form of Facebook bullying I hadn't heard about before. Young lady belongs to strict religious family in Southern USA. She strays from the straight and narrow- and her own family are immediately on Facebook, shaming her to her whole community. (A friend of my daughter).

scary............

so much for support from the "religious" family, I could not think of debasing my 16yr old girl in that way.

Even for those that dont have a christian background may have heard a version of John 8:7

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."

But I guess, our world is full of stuff like that : (

ta
rolf

 

[weg]

Rolf Latham, it's bad but crazy types are just as crazy off fb I'd say.

That girls life was probably horrid to start with and with everyone being aware of how nutty the parents are the girl could end up with support she didn't have before.

Less crazy but still another form of humiliation is when a parent makes comments on fb with the intention of embarrassing the child (for entertainment purposes) and the friends 'like' the comments.

Only happens once though because the parent gets blocked faster than you can say 'I don't really have a dad'.

My 14yo .

 

[Rolf Latham]

That girls life was probably horrid to start with and with everyone being aware of how nutty the parents are the girl could end up with support she didn't have before.

an interesting upside............... lets hope so

with parents like that, one doesnt need online enemies

ta
rolf

 

[BayView]

There's one form of Facebook bullying I hadn't heard about before. Young lady belongs to strict religious family in Southern USA. She strays from the straight and narrow- and her own family are immediately on Facebook, shaming her to her whole community. (A friend of my daughter).

How silly and naive of me; I was under the impression that to be religious, go to place of worship, bow the head, tap the four points, fall down on the floor and face somewhere, do the mumbling, sacrifice many worldly niceties and lifestyle to show good faith, and so on was to make you a really good person and a credit to the human species....

But I've worked it out; you get your own following, get a tv show and wear really cool suits and have flashy teeth, ask for dollars because the Big Guy in the Attic needs them...then you can have all the niceties you like, and you are truly a very nice person.

 

[redwing]

There's one form of Facebook bullying I hadn't heard about before. Young lady belongs to strict religious family in Southern USA. She strays from the straight and narrow- and her own family are immediately on Facebook, shaming her to her whole community. (A friend of my daughter).

Reminds me of this example

 

[geoffw]

How silly and naive of me; I was under the impression that to be religious, go to place of worship, bow the head, tap the four points, fall down on the floor and face somewhere, do the mumbling, sacrifice many worldly niceties and lifestyle to show good faith, and so on was to make you a really good person and a credit to the human species....

But I've worked it out; you get your own following, get a tv show and wear really cool suits and have flashy teeth, ask for dollars because the Big Guy in the Attic needs them...then you can have all the niceties you like, and you are truly a very nice person.

The sarcasm is totally out of place in a discussion. The same point could have been made far better without it.

As it happened, the religious aspect was important more because, as with many communities of like minded people, people within the group tend to spend a lot of time with each other. The public shaming on Facebook affected her standing with most of the people with which she associated.

 

[wylie]

I found this in a link in an email today. I found it interesting, especially the study showing the difference between children watching tv verses those spending the same amount of time playing video games.

With three boys who used to bicker and argue a lot (normal kids), and who would behave for a while if we took them out for a meal, but who would often end up sniping at each other, we used to carry pads or colouring books and pencils for them. This article mentions a study of people who hand over an ipad instead of handing over colouring book and pencils. It seems that both ideas of "keeping them busy and entertained" stop the child interacting (which was fine with us as we just wanted ten minutes to eat in peace - and tried to not have our kids make too much noise or interruption to other diners).

If I had children now, I don't know what I'd do. I'd be mighty tempted to hand over the phone and/or ipad to get half an hour of peace, just like we used to do with colouring books and pencils. I'd be happy if they played Angry Birds or something else (certainly not the internet).

I think we are just lucky that the youngest (turned 17 in January) has only this week started a $9.99 phone plan. He has never bothered with Facebook or MSM (whatever it is called) like most of his peer group were doing by grade 6 and 7. We've not had the issues that some parents have had and that comes down to sheer luck.

Grandchildren will be next, and it will be a whole new ballgame for our sons and for us.

http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/...ut-kids-and-touch-screens-20130401-2h2o2.html

 

[BeYourOwnAgent]

Mobile phones - the bane of my life!

When I ran my own business (real estate agency with 12 staff and 600+ properties), I had the office phone forwarded to my mobile in the evenings.

It was a bit foolish, but my business was centered around me and the service and experience I gave - so I wanted to make sure I picked up the phone after hours to talk to new clients.

For 6 years that phone rang or beeped or vibrated, most of the time.

The day I sold the business I handed the phone over, and got a simple pay as you go plan. One of the most rewarding aspects of the sale was being able to remove the phone from my life.

We are in a day and age where we can offer constant communication, but I think we do so at our peril.

 

[joeExpat]

There are a lot of good educational and puzzle apps on tablets. My 2 year old loves it, I can't use the Nexus 7 when he's around since he wants it. He likes the English language apps and it helps him learn, just like an English book does (he speaks Catalan).

The paranoia surrounding new technology is unjustified. I test the apps myself first though, only about 1 in 10 are any good, most seem to have been written by a techie with no idea about teaching methods and use synthesized voices.

 

[kathryn d]

For the 8 months each year we are in Australia, we don't even have a phone, just our netbook laptops.

On our mobile phone in Canada, we have blocked texts,it is not internet capable, and doesn't even have a camera.
I don't know who is calling until I answer it.
We do have voice message.
And this is our business phone.

 

[Angel]

But Kathryn, we all know you are weird! Even I use text and I'm right next to you on most issues. Must say I cant get my phone's camera to work. I prefer texting to having to actually speak with my voice.

 

[kathryn d]

But Kathryn, we all know you are weird! Even I use text and I'm right next to you on most issues. Must say I cant get my phone's camera to work. I prefer texting to having to actually speak with my voice.

Weird????

All this time I thought I was the norm

 

[redwing]

Ever faced this scenario

Common in Australia

 

[geoffw]

I've never been sure whether Moses was trying to take a photo using his tablet or whether he was trying to get wi fi reception.