Kids Doing Stupid Things for Attention

Posted by Ken

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Remember the class clown that wouldn’t miss an opportunity to crack a joke? How about the bully who would intimidate others to show who was boss? Or perhaps it was the gossiper, the one who knew everything about everyone, and if she didn’t, she wouldn’t hesitate to embellish a little?

They all have one thing in common: they loved getting attention. They no doubt felt the euphoria of getting a piece of the spotlight.

With the opportunities the Internet has to offer, these attention-getters are increasing at an alarming rate. And they’re still doing it at the expense of others. It’s called “cyberbullying”, and its effects are quite possibly more painful than the physical kind and are definitely longer lasting because of the viral aspects it has when performed online.

Places like YouTube and MySpace offer a way for anyone to post video clips or photos of their targets. Say a couple of teenagers whip out their video-enabled cell phones and begin recording a school fight. That makes excellent fodder for their Web site because they know their friends will come visit, view it, and have a laugh. When you throw in the rest of the world viewers coming to see it and even rating it, what you have is positive reinforcement for these teens to do it again. It’s a vicious circle.

In fact, not long ago it was reported that just such a thing happened in North Babylon. A girl was to meet up with another girl, but found out it was a setup when three girls met her and proceeded to beat her up. And a wannabe teen cameraman was there to record it for a future audience. The video managed to find its way to the Web where people could view at their leisure.

I wonder how many other teens were inspired to choreograph something like that for someone they didn’t like at school. How many victims did this first video actually claim? Fortunately, arrests were made. Maybe they’ll learn their lesson.

And speaking of damaging behavior, there has been a growing trend among teenagers to destroy property for fun — and be stupid enough to record themselves doing it. (There was a time when I remember the fear of being caught doing something wrong was actually a strong deterrent from doing it. Anyone else remember those days?) True, this has less to do with bullying others, and more to do with just getting a little fame, but still damaging behavior, nonetheless.

One such activity is “fence plowing“, where a few kids take a running start toward a wooden fence, thus plowing it to the ground.

These are the minds that will one day being running the country. Brilliant.

The same online stardom awaits them. “Post it and they will come,” is the voice that whispers to them.

Parents have to get involved if there is any hope of getting children back on the right path. That means they have to become familiar with their online activities and setting ground rules. Determine what sites they can and cannot visit. Install parental control software to enforce those rules. Check the history being recorded by the software to actually see where there kids are going online.

Their offline activities are equally important. I’m the first one to admit that getting your kid to talk about personal things is hard work. There’s always the struggle of the child not wanting to admit they need help because they’re developing their independence. And parents find it hard to communicate for fear of not knowing the answers to their child’s problem. But just like anything else worth doing, it will get easier over time for both parent and child.

If parents and kids started acting more responsibly together, the result, in my opinion, would be time spent on things that meant something. There’s no value in harming someone else or hurling yourself against a fence.