Monthly Archives: October 2010
Be Aware of what your Kids are doing on the Internet and on their Cell Phones
| October 15, 2010 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology, Community Involvement |
I am hearing more and more cases of young kids committing suicide as a result of being cyberbullied. I recently read “8 Ways To Protect Kids from Cyber Bullying and Stalking” by Kathy Kristof and I think she provides an excellent foundation on what parents could be doing to protect their children from being cyberbullied. She quotes:
Bullies, of course, are nothing new. But parents need to understand that cyberbullies — like cyberstalkers — are potentially more dangerous than the physical bullies and stalkers. That’s because they can follow you home and infiltrate areas that otherwise appear safe.
Being a bully using the technologies today is easy because it’s “virtual” making it easy for you to hide your face. This just allows bullies to get away with more then they would if they were in a school setting where a school official could step in and stop the bullying.
Kids are using cell phones and the Internet at such a young age now without any parental supervision. I personally believe parents should read their kids’ cell phone messages, Facebook messages and trace any history on the computer to see what their kids are doing on the Internet – and they shouldn’t feel guilty for doing so! Kids also need to be more educated on what they should or shouldn’t being doing.
Things like sexting might seem private but as soon as those photos are distributed to others, that person could be left feeling humiliated and it might affect them emotionally. Kids might also get involved in the wrong chat rooms and might be conversing with someone that is actually a child molester. Again, it’s easy to be someone you’re not on the Internet.
Parents need not to only look for signs of their child being cyberbullied but look to see if their child is actually being the bully. Kids get peer pressured into doing things they don’t necessarily agree with just to be “cool.” The consequences could result in someone’s death and the child could never have even imagined something like that happening.
Click here to read the full article that includes 8 ways you can protect your kids.
Talking to AVID Students
| October 11, 2010 | Posted by Angela under Community Involvement, Words of Inspiration & Motivation |
I had the opportunity to speak to students at Brennan High School last week. My uncle, a teacher of 20 years, teaches students that are part of the AVID program. I hadn’t heard of AVID prior to my visit. AVID, which stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination,
…is a college-readiness system designed to increase the number of students who enroll in four-year colleges, focusing on the least served students in the academic middle.
The purpose of my talk was to discuss my career experience and educational background in the hopes of bringing awareness about the opportunities that lie ahead for these students. I spoke to 4 classes, made mostly of sophomores and juniors with one freshmen class. I know the students won’t remember all the information I covered so I left them with 3 takeaways:
Things will not work out as planned. But that doesn’t mean you quit.
As a child growing up, my dream was to be an engineer and play college volleyball. Although those two didn’t happen, I managed to be very successful. I received my Bachelors in International Business, studied Spain and have had a very successful career working for Rackspace. I also now coach a youth volleyball team, which has allowed me to do 2 things I am passionate about. I plan to get my masters in mathematics so I can hopefully teach math in the future. People will tell you “no” and you may let some people down along the way, but if you keep your eyes open and keep moving forward, things will work out. I never thought I wanted to study abroad until I was actually in college and saw all the great opportunities I could take advantage of. I started at Rackspace when we were less than 100 employees, not knowing anything about the industry. 7 years and 3000 + employees later, my job requires me to be an industry expert!
Success doesn’t come to you. So get out of your comfort zone.
Once you get into high school, you are most likely hanging out with the same group of people and doing the same thing day in and day out. Teachers and parents can only help you so much to get good grades and go to college but if you don’t take the initiative to obtain success on you own, it won’t happen. Many times this means breaking away from your comfort zone. Many of my good friends I have today are not people I knew in high school and this is very hard to get high school students to imagine. The decisions you make should not be based on whether or not your friends are doing the same - you need to think about what you want for yourself and just do it. You never want to look back and say “what if” or “I wish I would have.” Your friends will be there when you get back, if they are in fact your friends.
Always assume people are watching you. Be on your best behavior.
Our youth today is part of the “social networking” age. It’s a time where it’s so easy to post content about yourself on the Internet – from photos to random thoughts. Many students think that what you post is only visible to your friends and don’t think about employers and even colleges finding your profiles. It is getting more competitive to get into elite college programs and get jobs at reputable companies so people are going out and researching their applicants online. I am sure they will think twice if they find content that doesn’t represent an applicant in the best manner. If what you post is something you wouldn’t want schools or employers to see, think twice before posting.
There are so many things I can tell high school students but I settled on these three takeaways and I hope it resonated with some.
My Take on “The Social Network” Movie
| October 4, 2010 | Posted by Angela under Business & Technology, The Arts, Film, Music, Fashion |
I went to see The Social Network movie this past weekend and was very impressed with the format and the acting. I went into the movie without any knowledge of the scandal and was looking forward to learning what happened. Whether or not the content was actually factual was another question. This movie was not about Facebook though – it was about a real gap between Internet geniuses and old school politics. As much as we use the Internet for everyday activities, there is still an incredible lack of knowledge on how it works. I have had many clients throughout my career just like Mark Zuckerberg and I know what kind of person it takes to invent something like Facebook - and it’s not a stolen idea. There are many “similar” web applications out there but only one will be successful. There is definitely a secret sauce, just like anything else. Unfortunately, the movie did not explore that secret sauce and the passion that goes behind an Internet startup. I think Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law Professor, provided a review that I couldn’t agree more with. Here’s a quote:
“The tragedy—small in the scale of things, no doubt—of this film is that practically everyone watching it will miss this point. Practically everyone walking out will think they understand genius on the Internet. But almost none will have seen the real genius here. And that is tragedy because just at the moment when we celebrate the product of these two wonders—Zuckerberg and the Internet—working together, policymakers are conspiring ferociously with old world powers to remove the conditions for this success. As “network neutrality” gets bargained away—to add insult to injury, by an administration that was elected with the promise to defend it—the opportunities for the Zuckerbergs of tomorrow will shrink. And as they do, we will return more to the world where success depends upon permission. And privilege. And insiders. And where fewer turn their souls to inventing the next great idea.”
Click here to ready full review.
This is the default footer layout. You can easily add or remove columns in the footer.
Comments