Lately I’ve been exploring students blogs on Live Journal. It seems that in this community that Xanga and Blogger are not nearly as popular with students as Live Journal. Perhaps it is how easily they link and have friend communities?
At any rate, I have been appalled at what I read. I knew students went through stress in adolescence. But I’ve gotten exposed to it in whole new ways. For one thing, they share their innermost thoughts and their friends comment on it. For another thing, they are struggling with real issues. Sexual dysfunction, self-esteem, depression, on and on and on. It is clear that they are wrestling and losing… But they are also completely disconnected with their parents.
A parent tends to treat the surface issue rather than the underlying problem. A student writes in her blog, “I feel so fat and ugly, I wish I were dead. I told my mom but she just took me shopping for clothes that didn’t make me feel fat.” It makes me want to leap through the keyboard and slap a parent! How can they be so blind? Have they no empathy? Do they not see that their children are really suffering? Do they really think that this solves the problem?
I am often left to wonder if a parent doesn’t see it or doesn’t want to see it.
