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What do your emojis say about you

August 17, 2017 in Social Media Guide

Communication is a big part of our lives and effective communication allows us to have successful relationships.  Verbal communication is the sounds and words (or speech) we use when talking with another person or group.  There is also non-verbal communication.  You may be aware of the importance of non-verbal communication – the expressions of our face, hand movements, eye contact, how we stand, tone of our voice.

However, since the internet and rise of social networking, a lot of our conversations have moved online.  This shift can make it difficult to accurately express ourselves when communicating with someone through our smartphone or computer.  However, the creation of emojis has helped us show our emotions and feelings when we are not having a face-to-face conversation with someone.  According to a study, nearly 80% of study participants used emojis when texting and 76% used them when on Facebook.

The use of emojis allows us to have non-verbal communications online (when our words are not enough to get our meaning across).  And whatever emoji we choose to use can greatly change the way the recipient reads the message and how they respond.

Source: Swiftkey Emoji report, 2015 (taken from CNN.com)

Source: Swiftkey Emoji report, 2015 (taken from CNN.com)

Also, there is some evidence that psychology plays a role behind the use of emojis.  For example, a CNN article stated that:

  • People who use emojis are more agreeable
  • Emoji users are more socially receptive and empathetic making them more approachable
  • Individuals who are more aware of how they come across to others in online communications were less likely to use sad emojis
  • Emoji use can make individuals more effective in communicating

To continue reading about the study and for additional information from the CNN article, visit cnn.com

Also, do you know anyone can submit a proposal for a new emoji?

What’s your favorite emoji?  How many emojis do you use in a day?  If you have any comments about the subject of today’s blog post, please let us know!  We’d love to hear from you!    

 

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Off to University … How to Manage your Mental Health

August 16, 2017 in Educate Yourself

We recently posted about the back-to-school transition that is upon us.  We also wrote an article a little while ago about the transition year. However, as this is such an important topic, we wanted to expand on it slightly.  One of our favorite YouTubers, Kati Morton, recently posted a YouTube video about going off to college and how to manage your mental health.  And while her tips are about leaving for university, we think a lot of them are adaptable.  For example, Kati recommends talking to your school ahead of time (before the start of the school year) so you can get to know your teachers or professors, guidance counselor, adviser, etc.

Lastly, transition doesn’t only happen when you go off to university.  Transitioning is always occurring and can mean moving from junior high to high school or from a pediatrician to a primary care physician.  Whatever the transition, it can be stressful.  However, you can learn to better handle the transitional stress.  To find out more, try reading this article about understanding transition stress.  Although the article writes about the importance of cultural transitions, the tips provided can be easily used with many different transitions.  For example, some great ones are:

  • Keep old routines where possible and work on creating new ones
  • Incorporate hobbies that help you relax into your daily activities (e.g., yoga, mediation, reading)
  • Realize that establishing a new routine takes time
  • Remind yourself of your strengths
  • Be proactive in making new connections and building a new support network
  • Self-reflect about the changes you are experiencing (e.g., keep a journal)

How do you manage life transitions?  Have you ever given it any thought?  Do you remember a difficult transition?  What happened?  We’d love to hear from you!

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Hope

August 14, 2017 in Be Positive

Check out this music video! It’s part of a mental health initiative and shares some responses of what inspires hope in others.

What inspires hope for you? 

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A Quick Guide to Depression in Teens

August 11, 2017 in LINKS

Source: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Source: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) starts out by writing:

You are not alone.  There are ways you can feel better.

The NIMH has a lot of great educational information on their website, as well as resources, statistics, and community outreach.  They have a whole page dedicated to teen depression.  In addition, they have information about depression and college students.  Information, like the material included on NIMH’s website, is extremely important for a lot of different reasons.

One of those reasons is because, according to a cover story on TIME.com:

Anxiety and depression in high school kids have been on the rise since 2012 after several years of stability. It spreads across across all demographics–suburban, urban and rural; those who are college bound and those who aren’t. Family financial stress can make the issues worse, and studies show that girls are more at risk than boys.

Another reason to help get this information out there is because many young people do not seek help for their mental health.  A 2015 report from the Child Mind Institute found that only about 20% of young people with a diagnosable anxiety disorder get treatment.

Hopefully we will find a way to help and connect with each other.  For more advice about adolescents and depression and anxiety, visit time.com/teenmentalhealth.

Did you find any of the links or article helpful?  If you have any questions or comments about the subject of today’s blog post, please let us know!  We’d love to hear from you!  

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Getting Help: The National Suicide Prevention Hotline

August 4, 2017 in LINKS

Photo Credit: DaveBleasdale Flickr via Compfight cc

Photo Credit: DaveBleasdale Flickr via Compfight cc

Some subjects, like suicide, are difficult and complicated to talk about with anyone. However, it is a very important topic, and the suicide rate hit a 40-year-peak among older teen girls in 2015.  Therefore, for anyone, it is can be lifesaving and helpful to be aware of the resources. Resources can help us all feel less alone and provide us with such things as education, hope and support.  We don’t have to do this by ourselves!

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a network of over 160 crisis centers across the United States.  Anyone in crisis (whether or not they are having thoughts of suicide) can call the Lifeline 24/7 and talk to a trained crisis worker who will listen to the caller’s problems and connect them with mental health services in their area.

The website lists warning signs for suicide and other links for help such as finding a therapist or support group, creating a safety plan, and a link about stories of hope and recovery.

Remember- we are not alone.  Help is available.  There is always hope.

** If you or someone you know needs help right now, call the Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).  For deaf and hard of hearing individuals, TTY 800-799-4889, or chat with someone online.

Crisis Resources are always listed on the homepage of our website at the navigation bar on the top.

Featured Photo Credit: smithat via Compfight cc

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Don’t wanna see it.

August 3, 2017 in Social Media Guide

teen phone

Photo Credit: Pabak Sakar via: Flickr


Sometimes people in our online social networks post videos… and sometimes they are things we’d rather not see, but we don’t even get the chance to decide whether or not we want to look because of the “autoplay” feature.

From Economic Times

If you’d like to know how to disable autoplay for videos on your Facebook and Twitter accounts, we’ve gathered up the various ways below.

How to disable Facebook video autoplay on a computer

To turn off video autoplay on Facebook from your computer, click the upside down triangle on the top right corner of the page and go to Settings. Select Videos, located on the bottom of the list of selections on the left-hand side (there’s a film icon next to it). In the Auto-Play Videos section, click the button that says Default, and choose Off. The selection will save automatically. Turning autoplay back on is simply a matter of selecting On.

How to disable Facebook video autoplay on Android

If you have an Android phone or tablet, head into your device’s Facebook app and select the 3-line icon. From here, tap App Settings. Tap Video Auto-play, and from here choose Off. If you want to change your autoplay settings back, follow the same steps but select On or Wi-Fi only.

Facebook notes that if you don’t see Video Auto-play settings on your phone, log out of the app and then log back in. The option should show up in App Settings after doing so.

How to disable Facebook video autoplay on iPhone or iPad

Go into the Facebook app on your iPhone or iPad and select the 3-line icon. Head into Settings, and tap Videos > Autoplay. Choose Off.

Follow the same steps and select On or Wi-Fi only to re-enable video autoplay.

How to disable Twitter video autoplay on a computer

Go to twitter.com and select your profile icon. Choose Settings from the drop-down menu. On the page that pops up (which should be Account), head down to the Content section. Next to Video Tweets, “Video autoplay” is ticked by default. Untick it and click the “Save changes” button.

How to disable Twitter video autoplay on Android or iPhone

On your mobile device, go into the Twitter app and head to Settings. Head into the General section and select Video autoplay. Several options are provided here, including “Never play videos automatically.” Choose this to turn off video autoplay.

If you would like to turn autoplay back on, you can follow these same steps and select “Use mobile data and Wi-Fi” or “Use Wi-Fi only.”

What other ways do you “tune out” the bad stuff?  Do you know of any other ways to turn off autoplays on social media?

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The back-to-school transition

August 2, 2017 in Educate Yourself

File:September - back to work - back to school - back to BOOKS LCCN98509757.jpg

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons via Library of Congress

August is upon us and that time of the year is quickly approaching!  Stores are already advertising “back-to-school” sales on all the products to prepare you for the new school year.  However, what does your mental tool kit look like with this latest transition?

It is important to acknowledge this transition, and unfortunately it is one that is not talked about enough.  Therefore, to help with this, in 2016, Mental Health America put out a Back to School toolkit.  The toolkit has resources for students, as well as materials for adults.

Want more information about the back-to-school transition?  Check out these other great online resources:

What do you do to prepare yourself for the new school year?  Are you going to try anything new this year?  Leave us a comment below!

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I Am A Witness

August 1, 2017 in Educate Yourself

More than one in four children experience bullying in a year.

https://youtu.be/ET_oV9a4KHo

Photo taken from iwitnessbullying.org

Photo taken from iwitnessbullying.org

And now the first ever emoji created for a social cause is trying to help prevent it.  The campaign – “I Am A Witness” – behind the emoji is trying to empower teens to speak up when they witness bullying online or in texts.  The emoji, which is black and white and shaped like an eye bubble, allows individuals to speak out against bullying and lend support to someone who is being bullied.  The emoji can be posted online or sent through a text message.

Photo taken from http://iwitnessbullying.org/

Photo taken from http://iwitnessbullying.org/

There are several YouTube videos explaining the “I Am A Witness” campaign and their message.

Visit IWitnessBullying for more about the campaign and to review other bullying prevention resources.

What do you think of the “I Am A Witness” campaign?  Have you downloaded the keyboard? Have you ever been a witness to bullying?

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Sarahah app

July 27, 2017 in Social Media Guide

IMG_6270Sarahah is a relatively new app available for download from Apple’s App Store.  The English version became available in June and since then the free app has skyrocketed to the No. 1 spot in Apple’s App Store Top Charts.  Although the app appears to be in Arabic in Apple’s App Store, once you download the app to your device, the text will be in English.

But what is it?

Sarahah is an app out of Saudi Arabia that is used to anonymously send and receive message from other users.  The word ‘sarahah’ means frankly or honestly in Arabic.  The app can also be linked to other social media apps such as Snapchat and Instagram, which only helped increase its popularity and use.  It is available for download to both iPhone and Android devices.

But what does it do?

The original idea behind Sarahah was for the app to be used in the business world.  It was first intended to allow employees to provide anonymous feedback to their bosses.  The idea being that people are more likely to be honest with their bosses if their messages are anonymous.  Quickly, it was realized that the app could be used in other places outside the business world.

There is not a lot of information about the app on Sarahah’s website, however, they do have a FAQ page for people who are interested in learning more.  From this page it seems that the identity of all users is unknown and that each user has a username that can be given out to other people.  Once registered a user can message anyone without identifying themselves or others finding out who they are.  Recipients of the messages can only read the messages from other users, but apparently cannot reply to them.  There are several videos on YouTube showing Sarahah users how to use the app with most of them being tutorials on how to connect Sarahah to Snapchat.  It appears most users are learning about the app by downloading it directly to their phone and signing up, but you can find out more information by visiting this website.

What are the reviews for Sarahah?

According the Sarahah’s website the app “helps you in discovering your strengths and areas for improvement by receiving honest feedback from your employees and your friends in a private manner.”  However, many users have complained that Sarahah is the perfect app for cyberbullying with one reviewer writing: ‘I don’t recommend going on [Sarahah] unless you wish to be bullied.”  Several articles have been written about the safety of Sarahah such as this article which refers to the app as a “breeding ground for hate.”  On Apple’s App Store more than half the ratings are just one star.

The developer behind the app still insists he wants Sarahah to be a positive place, and is working hard to follow in the steps of other social media platforms to reduce negativity.  For example, he is trying to add certain filters, as well as a tool to allow users to block people.  Lastly, Sarahah is not the only app of its kind.  Other anonymous apps like Yik Yak have been created and also been labeled as a bullying apps.

What do you think of Sarahah and other anonymous apps?  Have you used them or know others that do?  We would love to hear your experiences or thoughts!

Find out more about how to delete the Sarahah app from you phone.

 

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Texting and Driving with Apple’s newest iOS 11 feature

July 25, 2017 in Educate Yourself

Did you know the number one cause of death to teenagers is car crashes?  Some studies show that texting is a big part of that problem.

But it’s not just teens – it’s their parents and other adults too! Take a look at this video from ABC News showing some video of actual car crashes that happen with texting.


ABC Breaking US News | US News Videos

To help reduce this number and to try to keep drivers focused on the road, Apple announced recently its new “Do Not Disturb While Driving” setting (DNDWD).  This setting , available for iPhone users, can detect when you might be driving and will automatically silence incoming texts and notifications.  The iPhone screen will also remain dark.  DNDWD works if your phone is connected to a car through Bluetooth or a cable.  In addition, the setting will allow the driver to send automatic replies to those attempting to reach them. According to New York Magazine, the automatic replies will be:

“I’m driving with Do Not Disturb turned on. I’ll see your message when I get where I’m going.”

And the second will say:

“If this is urgent, reply ‘urgent’ to send a notification through with your original message.”

The feature will be available this fall.  There is also the chance that other phone companies will follow Apple and make their own DNDWD setting.

http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/06/at-wwdc-apple-introduces-do-not-disturb-while-driving-mode.html

http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/06/at-wwdc-apple-introduces-do-not-disturb-while-driving-mode.html

What do you think about Apple’s DNDWD feature?  Will you share it will your parents and others?  We’d love to hear from you about this newest safety feature!  

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