Twitter Me This

I was listening to the radio because that is where I get most of my news. Not NPR type of news, but more like morning radio shows news. You know the type that involves the weather, disasters, political updates and celebrity gossip. Is that sad? Probably. But alas a busy girl has to do what she can. 

I heard about a teenager, Kevin Curwick, who was tired of cyberbullies utilizing Facebook and Twitter to destroy the lives of his fellow classmates. He took it upon himself to create a twitter account that was only to be used to spread positive things about his fellow classmates. His username is @OsseoNiceThings.

I won't lie I don't understand Twitter, nor do I care to. I am already fighting my media addiction I don't need anything else to add to the issue. However, I think this is just amazing and speaks volumes to the hope I have for our future generation and the change they can be.

I have clients who have experienced this damage via the anonymity of Facebook. I have seen the destruction of self that happens to a child when hundreds of kids read something and run with it. It takes the phrase, "spreads like wildfire" to a completely different level. Heck, I have seen the damage people attempt to do as adults utilizing Facebook. It is amazing the horrible things I see people write. I choose not to allow that energy in my life, so I challenge the negativity and if it continues I have no issue deleting someone. However, I am 33 years old and have the ability to do that most teenager's concept of self is only seen in how others view them. Can you imagine the challenge they are faced with?

If we could spend as much time spreading positive things as we do spreading ill will who knows where our kids will be. How can we expect our children and our teens to do this when we as adults often speak disparagingly about others because we have a cloak of anonymity.

My challenge to you is to keep track of how often something negative comes out of your mouth about another person while you're alone. Now how about when you're in front of your kids? When you figure out how much negativity is in your mind then reverse it! Spend one day a week only speaking highly of people and more importantly yourself. Then try to increase it to two days and so on. Perhaps we can take a lesson from Kevin Curwick and make the attempt for positive change in those around us and in the world!

jko

Read more about Kevin and his positive change:
http://www.competeeveryday.com/2012/08/kevin-curwick-tweeting-change/