What We Do...How We Do It
What We Do
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Teenagers are comfortable navigating this digital landscape: sometimes too comfortable.
You wouldn’t intentionally let a complete stranger into your child’s bedroom. Most likely you wouldn’t bring them magazines, pictures and videos legally meant for adults.
Children are curious by nature. Online apps and vendors are skilled at initiating interest and getting our kids to click on sites that may start out benign and quickly escalate into areas that may not be appropriate.
Some parents try to solve this dilemma problem by restricting all access to the internet and social media or by choosing to ignore the problem.
Cell phones and the internet are not going away.
At Uncommon Sense Social, we are here to help bridge the gap. We educate teens, parents, and schools on the preferred ways to engage and interact with social media.
We help uncover the apps and traps that are out there.
With a few rash words or inappropriate photos, a student (or teacher) can instantly close doors to future opportunities, or worse.
To paraphrase Eleanor Roosevelt, “freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility”.
We help you with that responsibility as it relates to your social media policy and how effectively you are communicating your social media expectations to your students, parents and staff.
We facilitate the tough conversations and create a starting point for schools, many of which are completely lost in this cyber landscape.
We will initiate with your team the hard conversations around important topics like stalking, cyber-bullying, teen suicide, and legal implications related to photo sharing.
Social media and the internet are amazing tools with tremendous benefits if properly used. If not properly used, the mistakes and damage can be harmful and life-changing.
This is serious stuff.
What we grew up watching:
The ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW.
Our kids are growing up with KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS.
How We Do It
Uncommon Sense Social’s core mission is to partner with educational institutions to facilitate the urgent but often overlooked conversations among administrators, teachers, parents, and students relating to the proper use of social media.
Often, we have found that the school’s policy (formal and informal) is not understood by the employees as well as the families attending the school. Communication is a key element that we spend time on.
Our workshops are engaging, interactive, fun, fast-paced and thought provoking. We are there to teach and not to preach.
We get the tough conversations started and help you identify the areas as it relates to social media engagement, policy and the direction that your institution wants to work toward.
Do we have a formal Social Media Policy?
Is it clearly and consistently communicated?
Is it enforced?
Is it enforceable with the resources we currently have?
Is it legal?
Is it consistent with our school’s Mission?
Is it fair?
Is it subjective or objective?
Is it sustainable?
We pull back the curtain on things like Instagram, Snapchat, ghost accounts and cyber-bullying.
Parents are often clueless about apps and with whom their kids are communicating. Did your parents know what you were doing 24/7 when you were age 13 – 18?
Kids want their freedom, but the stakes have increased in the last few decades. Teen suicide is on the rise in frequency as well as occurring at younger ages.
Our Advisory Board has experience in this area and we have resources that we share with teens in our sessions with them.
We often hear adults say “I’m sure glad they didn’t have YouTube around when we were growing up!” While that seems like a humorous statement, the reality is that teens don’t realize that a 5 second video, a comment, a post, or even a badly-placed emoji, can instantly and permanently slam shut doors to their futures. We help students understand this while also giving parents, teachers and school administrators bridges to connect the dots on using social media successfully.