Social Media And Middle School

The slippery slope between the real world and a distorted view of reality

- Melanie Hempe

If you have been through middle-school parenting, you may have noticed that strange things seem to happen to a tween’s brain the first day they walk into middle school. One might sum up their main goals in life this way: • To be funny at all costs. Hence, the silly bathroom jokes, talking at inappropriate times in class, and the anything-it-takes to-be-popular attitude.

• To focus on self, including their clothes, their nose, their body, their hair, and so on.

• To try new things, which can include playing dress-up with their identity and trying on things to see what fits.

• To be impulsive and scattered. They are up and they are down. It may seem that they have regressed in their development on a quest for independence.