
Ah, the internet debate.
The NASCAR of the web.
Simultaneously enjoyable and infuriating. Dangerous and alluring. Two sides duke it out in a non-face-to-face battle of “intellects.”

Ah, the internet debate.
The NASCAR of the web.
Simultaneously enjoyable and infuriating. Dangerous and alluring. Two sides duke it out in a non-face-to-face battle of “intellects.”
Should I filter the internet for my teenager?My default answer to this question is “No.” I think it’s better to set-up healthy internet habits which you can all agree on and abide by. (Meaning parents follow the same rules as teenagers.)

What’s going on behind the curtain at your favorite social media site?
Facebook announced Tuesday that it had started a small test to let advertisers and agencies use Facebook Exchange (FBX) to serve retargeted ads — specifically called “Page post link ads” — to your News Feed, which, of course, is Facebook’s prime real estate. These ads take into account people’s browsing behavior outside Facebook, as captured through cookies, with the aim of offering up messages about products they’ve already shown interest in.
To some people it is.
I know a lot of people for whom the whole thing doesn’t make any sense at all.
Their only justification is that social media is ultimately just a new form of marketing. Marketing a company. Marketing a product. Marketing a brand. Marketing yourself. Marketing marketing.
Make no bones about it, stories like this raise eyebrows and get people talking. When USA Today ran this piece last week it was run and rerun over and over again at newspapers around the country.
It is a well-articulated story.
It seems so… true.
Last week, I had the opportunity to spend some time chatting to Paul Turner, a longtime friend in youth ministry from the great state of Alabama, about some of the principles we teach in A Parent’s Guide to Social Media.
A lot of youth workers have been asking me about Snapchat, a mobile picture sharing service that is popular amongst some segments of teenagers.
I know there are some innocent uses out there. I’ve even heard from youth ministry folks who use it to connect with their students and crowd-source ideas. But I also know of some horror stories. Stories of regret and exposure to things their eyes didn’t want to see.