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Whenever Facebook is in the news is it ever good news? It seems you can’t turn on the television without hearing some negative story about some Facebook scam or bullying incident. Our own mother is caught up in it, constantly warning us about people looking to steal from us.
One time, in particular, while we were visiting the City of Brotherly Love and taking all kinds of cool pictures for our Shut Up Facebook page, we received a disturbing call from our mother.
“Girls, I hope you don’t tell people on that Spacebook thing that you are out of town. I just read that that’s how people get robbed.”
“Of ccccccourse, nnnnnnnot!” stumbled Gina, wearing her Ben Franklin glasses and hanging from the Liberty Bell.
As Facebook addicts, we take offense to all these bad Facebook stories. A lot of good can come from Facebook. Heck, we’ve seen it ourselves with our FB community page that offers hope, support, and humor to more than 5,000 special parents, grandparents, caregivers, and teachers around the world. Not to mention the fact that we’ve connected with our first grade teachers and belong to the “I hate it when people leave their directionals on while driving on the highway” fan club.
With all the bad stuff that’s happened with bullying and teens, we were so pleased to discover how one teen is using Facebook to help other teens contemplating suicide. Sounds like a pretty good thing to us. Watch the video below. Maybe this Spacebook thing isn’t so bad after all, right Mother?
What do you think?
I think this is a positive about facebook. This is not something I readily share with people, however you all have been very supportive. In October of 2010, My son Shane was at school when I got a disturbing call from the school that he was having a melt down, and I needed to get there asap, this one was bad. When I got to the school my 10 year old son was in the middle of a mental break rocking back and forth and crying almost a howl. He is a bully target because he is different and as part of his IEP he was to eat lunch with a buddy in an office because of his noise sensetivity, He was put in the lunch room this day and the kid who had been bullying him started again. Shane lost it and tried to hurt himself at school, he kept saying his teachers did not believe him. I put my son in to a behavioral health facility at 10 because he was a danger to himself. I had been to the school on numerous occasions to get them to move this kid from the class or transfer Shane. they assured me they were taking this very seriously, apparently not, It was during the hospital stay that we got his Aspi diagnosis. I gave my house back to the bank moved froma 4 bdrm house to a 2 bedroom apartment in a different district because this new school is a newer school with teachers who understand. This teen lives an hour away from me and I think he is a hero to many out there with no voice.
I have always thought in the right hands facebook is a powerful tool for sending good messages across the world,,, you just have to be careful to chose your facebook friends wisely and use facebook as it best suits you,, there are alot of positive things about facebook ,,, right along with the negatives,,, but choosing to surround yourself with people who inspire you or help you,, even just plain keep you company when you would otherwise be alone,,,,, I think anything can be dangerous,,,, including facebook,,, but it is also empowering and gives a voice to those without one,, even if only in their circle,,, these children have used the social networking as a positive,,, and have helped someone who feels all alone in the world be touched by a reassuring hand,, I hope more people take the initiative and run with the positive and continue giving healing strength by reaching out a virtual hand that lifts you up,, in my particular case through the SHut up page,, I am regaining my sense of self,, something I thought was gone forever,, and I gotta say that is power,,, when you can reach into someone’s life and give them that hand, I really hope people continue to see the opportunities for doing great things and help make some people who may be a little bit broken to feel alot more like they can instead of I can’t,,,,,
This was a great post