During a telephone conversation with my sister this week I mentioned that I still had no idea as to what my blog topic would be. Her children are younger than mine and she asked me whether I ever had blogged about social media and its effects on kids.  I told her of course I had.

In continuing our conversation, I came back to her social media suggestion. I asked her exactly what about social media she would want me to write about.  She told me that her current concern is not so much what is said on social media but, rather, what is not said.  

When I asked her to elaborate, she explained that what often happens is that kids will post their activities, parties etc. And then, the kids who are not invited see all of the postings on social media of this “incredible” event to which they were not invited.

As kids we were all had that hurtful experience of not being invited to a party. And we all know how much that hurts. But we were never confronted with multiple images of people at that party having an incredible time. I cannot imagine how much “salt” that adds to the “wound.”

I always believed that any danger in social media was grounded in what people are actually saying. But my sister opened my eyes to unrecognized victims of social media. It does not have to be overt messages that hurts someone, a simple post of people enjoying themselves at a party can cause tremendous damage.