You will probably agree that social media can have some pretty big disadvantages for students.
But there is one major disadvantage that you probably have never even thought about.
Keep reading to find out what recently happened to my teenage daughter's video channel and how it has impacted our entire family.
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Electronic Devices, Social Media, Oh My!
I was against my daughters having phones or electronic devices when they were young.
We would go out to restaurants and local parades and I would see very young children watching videos on their parents' phones.
I would be grateful that my kids were sitting and talking with me, coloring, or enjoying people-watching.
When my older daughter was in sixth grade, her teacher told his class that if they behaved, they would each be able to pick anything from Amazon for Christmas!
Guess what my daughter picked.
A Fire Tablet.
So began our electronic use in our household.
After we started homeschooling, my girls had a little extra time and wanted to start creating content instead of consuming content.
Since I am a children's book author, they wanted to follow in my footsteps and create video stories.
Dangers of Social Media
I taught my daughters to watch out for scammers and trolls and to delete comments as necessary.
I told them to not let mean comments get them down and to just delete them.
My husband and I set rules that the girls were not allowed to chat with strangers and to keep their personal information private.
I made sure to tell them the rules I had learned along the way to avoid getting flagged such as not posting comments too fast, which has gotten me into social media jail.
But at least on those platforms, I was only in jail. I never got completely shut down and eventually was allowed back onto the platforms.
Everything had been going pretty well with my daughters' video channels. My older daughter got monetized which made her younger sister work harder at her own videos to achieve the same goal.
She decided to start a fun channel making videos about her cat.
The cat was doing very well with short videos and obtained more subscribers than my daughter's main channel. On a side note, the cat earned more subscribers than me!
And then, it happened.
My daughter checked her channels one morning but did not see her cat's channel.
Upon logging into her email, she learned that the cat's channel had been suspended!
We filed an appeal which was denied that same night. The message said that they decided to keep her account suspended.
The worst part of all of this is that she lost access to her two other channels because they are on the same email address.
All her hard work is now lost in the abyss of the internet.
Her two other channels are still there, but she cannot log into them to do anything with them.
She had some videos scheduled for the next few months, but after that, her channel will be useless to her.
We searched the internet to find out how to get her channel back. There is a team on Twitter that can be contacted for help.
I sent them a message asking for help in getting her channel reinstated.
I have asked for updates a few times now and they keep telling me that they will keep me posted.
The worst part of social media
I never would have even thought how this could impact my daughters because I never realized that this video platform has the right to shut down any account at any time for any reason.
They don't even have to tell you the reason.
Her channels never got any warnings, strikes, or communications that she had done anything wrong.
She was just all of a sudden shut down without warning or reason.
This has caused my daughter to think she did something very wrong and that her work is no good.
Artists are hard on themselves as it is, but to get shut down without warning or reason has had very negative consequences that have made me wish we had never started this online journey in the first place.
She asks me about a million times a day if her channel will be back soon.
At first, I was very optimistic and told her to be patient because she did nothing wrong.
I was sure after contacting the team on Twitter that her account would be back in a few short days.
They have been nice to me and reply back pretty quickly, but they keep telling me that they are still working on it.
After over a week, I'm not sure what is going to happen.
One thing I do know is that we will not give up!
If needed, we will try out other platforms for her to share her wonderful talent.
I have been thinking about trying to figure out how to put her artwork onto Creative Market*(affiliate link). I have been an affiliate for them for a while and it is a great platform for finding some neat graphics and photos for your design projects. The below photo is an affiliate link and I may earn a commission for qualifying purchases.
Just as I keep being told, "we'll keep you posted on this."
*Jessica D. Adams is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Jessica D. Adams, Author. Other affiliate links may be present. I may earn a small commission for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial, or link to any products or services from this website. Outside links are provided for your convenience, subject to privacy policy, terms and conditions.
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