Technology....well here is something I am definitely NO expert in, and yet a subject that has become very relevant in everything we do.  Not only do parents now have to have a clear understanding of how technology can influence their children and youth and arm themselves with tools to help ensure safety, we also need to know the implications and benefits it can be utilized for to help us with our fight against the deficits of our child and youth mental health sector.  Neither an easy challenge when we deal with so much that already overwhelms us.  For many of us the issues of bullying take on a new edge when technology can be easily used and manipulated to further bully and spread virally the stigma we battle daily.  Even some of the most seemingly harmless youtube videos or email jokes carry with them the undertone of what we fight, and now we fight it on a much larger, and much more easily accessed scale than ever before.  So how to turn this tool into something we use, rather than something we dread?  Many of us do not even have the energy to think about it.  We spend our time on the computer wading through reams and reams of information that we hope will equip us in the fight for our children's lives.  We read news stories hoping that there will be one that will catch on and people will pick up on and join our fight and finally realize the true crisis and why we need many voices to help our children.  We monitor our children's activities (to the best of our abilities because lets face it - our kids while maybe not more advanced in many areas, are much more advanced in the area of technology than many of us).  So we are doing are best to keep our heads above water at the best of times.  While technology is definitely a blessing in many ways, and it is being utilized in many ways to create opportunities, to help parents navigate, to help youth connect, it is at other times another arena where we face to fight feeling like we are not at all equipped with the proper Armour or weapons. 

My daughter, now a teen, relies on her computer to fulfill a sense of some normalcy I think.  It is a place where the playing field is somewhat level for her, she can communicate and participate in conversations without feeling the social isolation that she often feels when dealing with conversations face to face.  She has time to think through her answers and is not feeling the pressure of saying the wrong thing, if the wrong thing comes out she can easily hit delete and re-word it.  So she clings to it.  I have attended many presentations and seminars discussing how much is too much in terms of computer use.  But then I think, when I was a teen and my circle of friends to me represented life, I spent hours on the phone with them, I spent hours on the phone with them listening to music and talking about those who were singing the songs, because we all believed they were written about us specifically right?  It isn't that much different, the conversations are often the same, the topics have not really varied that much, but the method of communication has changed drastically, and should we always look at this as a bad thing?  Should I feel guilty because I don't want to limit her time with her Facebook and her Instant Messages, they make her feel connected.  But I do feel guilty, because I know it is not as simple as chatting with a girlfriend on the phone, and I know the access to songs, lyrics, videos is so much more wide and more readily available, and so much easier to "hide" if they want.  So what is the answer?  The computer isn't going to go away, technology is only going to continue to grow and I have no realistic hopes of keeping up.  By the time there is a 6G I will just be figuring out what the heck a "G" is to begin with.  So perhaps the answer lies in keeping it simple....the message of family and parents doesn't have to change and I could argue has been the same generation after generation, it has to be about communication.  Not just talking, but listening.  There has to be an element of trust built into all we do with our kids, letting them develop the trust, and seeing to it that we continue to guide them without smothering them.  Technology is going to be a strong component of their futures, we cannot keep them from it, no more than my parents could keep me from wanting to watch MTV or the TV.  The trick is teaching and guiding and modelling the right videos, the right shows, and allowing them to question and explore and keeping the lines of communication open.  Teach them that they do not have hide things from us, teach them that we want to not only help guide them with the knowledge we have, but also learn from them as they have knowledge we do not.  It is a two-way street, and their knowledge and expertise is important and listening to them and learning from them will validate their own importance and encourage them to remain open.  Maybe that is all too "after school special" for some.....but I have to have faith that if we stick to the basics to help deal with the complex we will remain ahead of the game.