Since graduating from college, I have found myself in multiple positions that have directly dealt with teenagers and children. This, admittedly, was not the population with which I had planned on working with. In college, I had grandiose dreams of changing the world by founding a non-profit of some sort, helping others in some third world country. As life tends to go; however, I have not been able to pursue those dreams...yet.

In the meantime, I have been blessed to be involved in the lives of children and teens in a variety of situations. I work primarily in counseling, but I also work within the juvenile court system, and therefore get to experience the "not so fun" side of things. There is some commonality between all of the families that I work with, and that is, generally speaking, most parents don't have a firm grasp on how to deal with their teenage son or daughter.

At first, this thought perplexed me. After all, we were all teenagers once, this could not possibly be that complicated of a situation. At the risk of sounding like my father, though, one has admit that things simply are not like they were "back in the day." What is interesting is that I am only 27 years old, and "back in the day" for me really isn't that far back at all. Nevertheless, things are drastically different now, even compared to when I was a teenager.

Teenagers today live in a world dominated by social media, peer pressure unlike anything I could have ever imagined, and the entire world literally at their fingertips via their smart phone, internet, or countless other resources. Life is different for the average teenager these days, and only continues to become more complex with the technological development of our society.

Now, dont get me wrong, I am not, in any way, attempting to say that we should all denounce technology and regress back into some sort of middle ages lifestyle. I am addicted to my iPhone just like many others, and am in no place to judge. After all, what would life be like without Angry Birds to occupy my time?

Our children are now being raised in a fashion which instantly gratifies their need for visual and intellectual stimulation. Information that I, as a child, had to obtain through a book is now readily accessible at any given moment with simply a few keystrokes. This, in turn, has led to a generation with a lack of patience, and a lack of appreciation for the process of learning, the dedication of time and snail mail. The thing that we must figure out is exactly what this means for those of us who are parents.

The key to a majority of these problems, in my opinion, is for parents to become educated and knowledgeble regarding social media and technology. My parents are incredible people, but they don't know the first thing about social media, and therefore, have no idea what I am posting to Facebook or Twitter on a daily basis. I am not doing anything questionable that would need to be examined and I am trustworthy, but that can't be said about all teenagers accessing these websites daily.

So, as a parent, my advice would be to do the following:

• Find out what forms of social media your children are using. Most sites have options that allow you to keep your profile private, to better ensure security and privacy. If you child is not utilizing these tools, suggest that they consider it in order to keep themselves, and their information safe.
• Regularly check what your children are posting to these sites. If there is questionable material, discuss these things with them in a calm, rational fashion. Don't fly off the handle immediately. After all, the more you open your mouth, the more they close their ears.
• Create an account on these social and media websites. Familiarize yourself with the territory, be aware of any security issues that may need to be addressed with your child, such as adult material, cyber bullying, etc.
• Do not, and I repeat do not, use social media as an attempt at being the "cool parent." If you are deemed of being "cool" it is because of your personality, not because you posted the newest youtube craze on your child's profile.
• Most importantly, trust your child. As with any issue, communication is key, and remaining informed and unbiased will help you, as a parent, keep your sanity when dealing with your child.