We all look at the news from our own contexts and through our own filters. I’ve been thinking about this a bit recently in terms of the recent news about Congressman Anthony Weiner sending lewd pictures over the internet. On the Social Media Health Network, there has been a discussion about this which seems to focus on public relations and the use of Twitter. It is an important way of looking at what has happened and relates well with my job at the Community Health Center. Yet I have a slightly different, but related framework to look at this with.

Back in March, the American Academy of Pediatricians released a clinical report, The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. One of the key recommendations of the report is that

the AAP encourages all pediatricians to increase their knowledge of digital technology so that they can have a more educated frame of reference for the tools their patients and families are using, which will aid in providing timely anticipatory media guidance as well as diagnosing media-related issues should they arise.

The press release about the clinical report has this to say:

because tweens and teens have a limited capacity for self-regulation and are susceptible to peer pressure, they are at some risk as they engage in and experiment with social media, according to the report. They can find themselves on sites and in situations that are not age-appropriate, and research suggests that the content of some social media sites can influence youth to engage in risky behaviors. In addition, social media provides venues for cyberbullying and sexting, among other dangers

It appears that it is not only tweens and teens that have a limited capacity for self-regulation. Some would suggest it applies to most politicians and media personalities as well.

A second part of the framework I’m looking at Congressman Weiner’s behavior from is Marc Prensky’s Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. The key idea is that adolescents today have grown up in a digital culture. They are digital natives. They are used to thinking about everything happening online. They may still make bad choices or not fully understand the possible consequences of their online actions, but they are growing up digitally.

Older adults have not grown up in a digital world, and are digital immigrants.

As Digital Immigrants learn – like all immigrants, some better than others – to adapt to their environment, they always retain, to some degree, their "accent," that is, their foot in the past. The “digital immigrant accent” can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information second rather than first.

Congressman Weiner has not grown up in a world where cyberbullying and sexting are normal parts of adolescence, and I suspect that those who have grown up digitally may see the recent news very differently from digital immigrants.

Congressman Weiner was a popular guy in the progressive clique. He participated in sexting. A cyberbully from the teaparty clique, Andrew Breitbart, did what cyberbullies do. They capitalize on a mistake their enemies have made and spread it around the internet as widely as possible. It isn’t a lot different than what is happening in high schools around the country, except that these people are congressmen and media personalities.

We need better education about the dangers of sexting and cyberbullying. Apparently, we need it not only for tweens and teens but also for Congressmen and media personalities.