In today’s class we had Jesse Miller come and speak to us about online privacy and safety. It was very interesting to hear what he had to say about children using technology and how the content that we post online can potentially impact our professional lives in the future.

Something that he talked about that resonated with me was that as working professionals or students we spend majority of our day using technology, yet there seems to be a known debate of restricting technology use from young children. Jesse talked about the importance of quantity of time versus the quality. If children learn how to use technology in a safe, respectful and productive way, I think that it could benefit them as adults because as mentioned above, most adults rely on using technology for work or education. I also think that once children start using technology you have to be careful because it can become a tricky scenario when children become too dependent on technology as a source of entertainment and fun. Therefore, I think finding the balance is important and ensuring that technology is being used appropriately if children are using it at home and at school.

I know that in my education (K-12), technology wasn’t widely used and that even when people did start to use cell phones and the internet, there wasn’t discussions around privacy and safety, in particular regarding posting pictures online. I think that that comes from the fact that the internet was not where it is today and that maybe people were not educated on how the internet works yet. Regardless, as someone who posted pictures on Facebook without having any realization of how difficult it would be to remove photos later, I wish that I had had someone talk to my generation about privacy and safety in a way that would make me understand. That being said, I also wonder if I had had someone talk to me about this topic that I wouldn’t have cared or understood the impact and if that was my mindset or the mindset of someone using social media, that they are perhaps too young to be using it?