Written By: Michael Burks, Clinical Trainee at ACS, On-Campus Counseling Program TECHNOLOGYand social media play complex roles in the lives of teenagers. Teens are at a developmental stage where social relationships have foremost importance in their lives. Social relationships and group memberships contribute to identity formation and self-esteem. Social media has tremendous value to teens. […]
Written By: Deborah Sloss, LCSW, ACS Site Supervisor, On-Campus Counseling Program Teenagers today are constantly “plugged in”– gaming, texting, tweeting, or posting on Snapchat and Instagram. As parents, we worry that our kids are addicted, detached, and distracted by their digital devices. We struggle with how to set appropriate limits and how to keep […]
Written By: Sarah McLaughlin, LMFT, Site Supervisor, ACS On-Campus Counseling Program Teen relationships can often seem mysterious in this digital age. It’s not always easy for a parent to ascertain the nature of their child’s relationships or to keep track of the ups and downs that take place during these romantic relationships. How are teens […]
Taryn Bogonovich, MFTI ACS’ Marriage and Family Therapist Intern As a co-facilitator of the ACS weekly parents support group, I often hear parents share that the world their kids are growing up in is so vastly different than their experience. They just don’t understand their teen’s behavior and sometimes they don’t know how to manage […]
It is hard to imagine these days an American adolescent that is not connected in some way to the internet. Whether by smart phone, personal laptop, school computer, or shared-family computer; adolescents are “plugged in.” The internet is of course a useful learning tool that in this day and age is necessary in classrooms and […]
Thanks to the Internet, today’s adolescents have a one-stop-shop for information of all types right at their fingertips. Websites like Wikipedia, Ask.com, About.com, etc. can tell them everything they need to know, from history to word definitions; and then there are blogs sites with information and how-to material on everything else they might be interested […]
In the United States alone Facebook.com has over 155 million users, with the largest percentage represented by the 25-34 age group. This may be why more and more teens are also beginning to use Twitter.com. According to a survey conducted in July 2011 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 12- to 17-year olds […]
We have all heard the phrase “Get it off your chest,” encouraging one to talk about what is troubling or concerning them. With the advent of the computer age and all of the social media that has followed, this phrase has become much easier to follow, on a regular basis. Sites like Facebook and Twitter […]
Most adults know by now that smoking cigarettes is caustic to our health, partially because of the warning information printed on cigarette boxes and the intense media buzz provided by anti-smoking agencies and the United States government. Despite all that we know about the dangers of smoking, the prospect of smoking nicotine cigarettes is still […]
On Tuesday, December 13, 2011, Facebook announced their latest service that uses social media to provide crisis support for those contemplating suicide or posting indicators that they may hurt themselves or someone else. Adolescent Counseling Services is pleased to see that Facebook has partnered with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and […]