I’m finding videos that aren’t sponsored by the colleges so they aren’t quite as biased. I can see how kids can at least get a feel for a school without visiting if they watch enough of these and see actual students answer questions. And just seeing the campus on these videos helps provide the visual I needed for certain schools. One school that I thought was pretty suburban looked pretty darn urban to me.
@3SailAway D21 also has ZERO social media apps. No desire what so ever for these. Girl has never taken a selfie either… Not her thing.
@InfiniteWaves -Now you put a smile on my face! I try not to panic about what kind of job my D will be able to get as an English major who doesn’t want to be a teacher (at least now anyway). So, it’s reassuring to hear from you that it is possible. Thanks!
@homerdog lol, yeah, I had no idea how many essays could be required. I thought the entire purpose of the Common App was so that the kids would only have to fill out one app to send to a bunch of schools. It seems that, if every school requires a supplemental essay, it defeats the purpose of the Common App.
Already peeved that Texas public schools have decided not to even use the Common App, instead using Apply Texas.
@elena13 I really wouldn’t panic over it. There are plenty of copywriting and tech writing jobs out there for English majors. It’s not CEO pay but it can be steady. You’re in great shape
Signed - mother of a theatre major
@BingeWatcher and @InfiniteWaves D21 will appreciate knowing that there are others who have opted out.
@homerdog Glad I’m not the only one spending the morning virtually searching colleges!
My kids don’t use social media either. They both have FB accounts and have friended family members, but literally never go on them. They’ve had other social media in the past to follow along on something, but not been active participants. Just not something they are interested in.
Ok. All of your kids who don’t use social media, how do they communicate with their friends? Texts? Messenger? For us, those are the biggest distractions. Both kids are in text groups for certain classes and S19 is on a XC/track group text where 20 plus boys text back and forth about all kinds of stuff all day long. S19 doesn’t post on Instagram but he does follow his friends and (his favorite distraction) cute dogs and cool cars. Are you all saying that your kids don’t use their phones for any of this? He doesn’t have Facebook either. Kids don’t do Facebook.
@homerdog S19 texts to keep in touch. But he is not checking in all the time. He is in one text group. And he does not have any social media accounts. S21 in the total opposite.
My kids text their friends. They don’t text constantly though, just occasional texts about classes and homework. D19 also uses Pinterest with her friends sometimes and she watches lots of videos on YouTube. YouTube is probably her only real phone distraction.
S19 and his friends use Discord and group texts, mainly. He’s not a big social media person, more a gamer, and he’ll ignore the phone if he’s in the middle of a game. I force him to log onto Facebook once a year to say Thank You for the birthday wishes from various aunts, etc ;).
He IS a big Youtube watcher, too. That’s mostly what his phone is used for lol.
ugh. YouTube. D21’s go-to thing to do is watch ballet videos when she’s not AT ballet or doing homework. That child knows every variation ever danced. And probably knows the names of the entire company at ABT, the Royal Ballet, and the Bolshoi because of YouTube. Hey a girl can dream! And there are worse things than watching ballet after homework is done.
D21 doesn’t have or want a phone. She texts her friends from a laptop at home. No group-chats, and she doesn’t give her text to acquaintances. She’s actually relatively extraverted, but she likes “in person” best. She’s seen a lot of kids hurt by social media snark (and her closest friend was the target of worse–the kid who was doing it got suspended).
D19 is glued to her phone for all but family dinners, theater, dance and sports. She doesn’t selfie or Instagram, but her group of friends and kids from her classes is in constant communication 24/7. Inane conversations rolling across the screen . . . She’s actually more introverted than D21, so go figure.
We agreed to set her phone so she gets no notification of anything between 10:00 at night and 7:00 in the morning. We may go further . . . not sure. I feel strongly that it’s healthy to be present with the ones you’re with, and to actually be alone with yourself sometimes.
@3SailAway Agreed. Phones in our house are out of reach of the kids during most of the evening hours. We let them check them before they head up to bed for a few minutes to see if they want to get back to any of their friends about anything. They aren’t allowed to have their phones up in their rooms and certainly not overnight. I bought them both old-timey alarm clocks so they can’t say they need their phones to get up in the morning! This all being said, they both wake up to dozens of notifications from friends who are still texting/posting after 11:00 at night.
D19 doesn’t use social media (Instagram, Snapchat) much; she’s on a big Google group chat that she uses some. As best we can tell, she uses it appropriately, and she’s always been a responsible person. We let her have her phone and her laptop in her room, but require that the phone and computer be out of the room before she goes to bed.
S24… he doesn’t have a phone yet and I know we’ll be putting stricter usage limits on his use when he does finally get a phone as he is not quite as responsible as his older sister.
Neither of my kids do social media like Facebook/Instagram but son19 uses snapchat and text groups all day.
Neither of my kids watch an actual TV either. They mostly watch stupid crap on Youtube and play games with their friends, when they have time. They sometimes stream Netflix to their laptops. Last night during the snowboarding on Olympics was the first time I’ve seen son19 sit down and actually watch a live sporting event in years maybe.
Son19 is in group chats for most of his classes and they discuss tests, studying, homework etc. It’s sort of helpful I think. Keeps him on track of assignments due and it keeps him motivated to perform at a high level.
He is also in group chats for his various sports teams.
We don’t really put any restrictions on the phone because he seems to managing his life pretty well at the moment.
I would prefer he give up Snapchat because it seems stupid to me, but then again I’m out of touch with reality I guess.
“I would prefer he give up Snapchat because it seems stupid to me, but then again I’m out of touch with reality I guess.” @RightCoaster - HAHA!! Me too… 
DD’19 does Snapchat and Instagram pretty heavily. Snapchat groups for music group, work, speech group, prom committee, etc. make it handy to communicate. She doesn’t post a ton on Instagram, but keeps her page curated with aesthetic stuff 
My favorite IG page is the one DD’17 does with our cats. The captions are so funny.
Our kids don’t just sit down and watch TV though, unless it’s something special like Olympics. Sometimes they Netflix Parks & Rec. DD’19 feels it’s more productive to interact/read online than to just sit and watch whatever is on, like DH.
I don’t even understand what Snapchat is…
My kids both tried Snapchat for a couple weeks a year or so ago and then got bored with it and deleted it.
@3SailAway it’s very common for introverts to be more drawn to communicating via social media. My most extroverted friends tend to prefer either in person or on the phone. My introverted friends vastly prefer online communication and feel awkward and out of place in person (and basically refuse to talk on the phone).
I’ve never needed to set phone limits because I feel my kids use theirs less than I use mine. They use laptops occasionally for homework, but prefer the family desktop for that. They have neither tablets or TVs in their rooms and often watch shows (Netflix or cable app) on their phones. They are stricter about late night/early morning texting than I would be if I had made rules anyway.