As I had mentioned earlier in my blogs, I do not have much human services or domestic violence, however I am intrigued by the work and the people we strive to help. One of the other things we are working on in the human services division are teen focus groups on the topic of smart dating. The idea comes from an event MAG held at a local high school covering smart dating in the format of speed dating. Basically, teens would be paired up and would talk to each other for a few minutes about "go signs", "caution signs," and "stop signs" of a relationship. The theme for this event used stoplights.
These focus groups were conducted throughout the Valley, attempting to get a good snapshot of what teens thought about relationships. I was fortunate to talk to a group of high school students and discuss these issues. We talked about what could trigger warnings of future hardships in relationship including constant questioning of behavior, not allowing certain friends in their lives, and starts making for decisions for you to name a few. It seemed like this middle-ground was the most difficult for teens to define as well. Next, we dove into signs of an unhealthy relationship with the discussion going into verbal abuse, intimidation, threats, and constantly keeping tabs on someone. Lastly, we discussed signs of healthy relationships such as giving compliments, trust, respect, and honest communication.
We also spoke with students about how they can achieve these healthy relationships and not subject or allow a bad situation to happen with them. The discussion then lead to outlets and means of communication to let teens talk about these types of things through the "web of friends" website. It was the first time I had spoken to a class of students about these types of issues, and was in my opinion well received and successful. In my high school I do not remember events like this ever taking place, and I think many of my peers at the time could have benefited from learning about these different types of signs, as well as the open discussion.
By doing these focus groups, I believe we are able to learn what teens think about dating. Also, we learn their perception, which may be sometimes skewed by modern society from things like reality tv shows. Furthermore, it pushes teens to think about current relationships and question possibly themselves on how they view things.
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As this relates to another post by another one of our prestigious online colleagues, I think this this raises a familiar question.
ReplyDeleteWhere would you think that issues of the "silent victim" are headed in an era of Web 2.0?
What I mean is, we have been fearing that in this latest movement on the internet social networking has been the center. We have been fearing that children especially are moving toward sharing far too much information about themselves via the internet. This, however, is with already existing networks (e.g. Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, Twitter). I guess this begs the question of why not engage a strategy using these networks instead of creating a different one and hoping that people will hear about it and use it. What I would rather focus on is, the idea that maybe some of the information that is shared (far too readily in some opinions) could be helpful to s/he that is sharing it. It could be that this could be an under-examined, unintended benefit of this new type of information sharing.
I would be interested about what teens think about dating now. I have seen some of the garbage on tv, mainly MTV which promote shallow dating shows. I cannot stand them, but I wonder how this might affect those entering the dating world. I am also curious to see if the “Hooking up Trend” we see in college is hitting the high schools. It used to be when two dated they did so to see if there was a connection, and if there was the relationship advanced physically. Now, the hook up happens first, and if that was good then there might be dates to see if there is a connection. I wonder if this phenomenon has reached the class you presented at.
ReplyDeleteThe speed date and the information you gathered sounds great. I hope you can use that information to educate the rest of us. I have been out of high school for almost 6 years now and I bet if I went back it would be totally different culture than I remember.
We discussed using Facebook possibly, however I think there was some skepticism on it's ability to be confidential. Abusers could possibly latch onto these open forums and upset the entire network of help.
ReplyDeleteThe use of these networks could be useful still, and may still be a possibility, but as of now it is not.
I agree that using an established social network could lend itself to being misused by someone. This problem theoretically exists, however, in a specialized network as well. Security settings such as having the group admins perform a verification, should help to alieviate this problem. Also the possibility stands all the same for an established social network to be the launching pad for something more specialized.
ReplyDeleteHasn't the principle stood that it is most effective to move your product to your consumers? If they then find it sufficiently beneficial, then they will ideally consume.