If you have teens or have ever seen a teen you know that they have permanently attached their phones to their bodies. And if they some how manage to misplace it all hell breaks loose and they practically have a panic attack.
Now phones and apps that allow free international messaging and texting are the best. And the worst. The best because I believe it helps with preventing homesickness, it helps the natural parents (lingo alert!) keep calm, and it allows you to contact your students before they arrive and after they go home. The are the worst because it also can cause homesickness if the student is on the phone with people back home ALL the time; an easy cure is to limit calls back home. The constant being on the phone is also annoying and they should be trying to be more present during their exchange/life.
I will share some phone related issues and solutions with you:
Issue: they are on the phone ALLLLLL the time, they aren’t present, they are loud, and/or you can hear both sides. We’ve dealt with all of this at one time or another with one student or another.
Solution: If being loud is an issue, just remind them to be quiet and use headphones so you don’t have to hear everything. Have them take their calls in their bedrooms. If it's an issue of being on the phone more often than not, limit calls to one or two days a week (again, highly recommended for homesickness and also helpful if they are getting their languages confused —-the going back and forth and causing a headache).
Issue: They are obsessed with social media. In one form or another. They change all the time and I have no idea what half of them are…I guess I am old. I suppose this is just an issue with younger generations, I mean I definitely have an addiction to my phone problem too; but the difference between mine and theirs is usually (not all students are like this) I do not care what other people think and that is all they care about. Some will take hours trying to get the perfect picture and then edit it beyond recognition. They will get mad at you for posting pictures to your account that *they believe* are not perfect. If you haven’t noticed this drives me crazy. Curated Instagrams are for businesses, not teenagers. No one cares if you are perfect or not. Ugh!
Solution: There is none. Hahahaha! But seriously it's just a managing situation. If it does become out of hand you can take their phones away (you must allow them access to call their parents, which can be done in front of you). If you want to post photos of your exchange year (because it’s your too, not just theirs) you can! Maybe get their permission for photos involving a bathing suit but otherwise post them. Most of their parents are on Instagram or Facebook and appreciate seeing those photos. If they are being too insecure about it just don’t tag them in anything. We’ve had 2 out of 5 students that did not care about looking perfect and I was able to tag them in all of their photos. Another one tried to turn my husband into a “instagram host dad” (because I would take 2 photos and say no more haha), he eventually had to put a photo cap on it otherwise he would end up taking photos all day and not being present.
True Story: We took our first student to Savannah’s Forsyth Park and if you have been there you know its beautiful and totally instagram worthy. So my husband and I had said no more photo shoots, just enjoy. So she got her friend to take some and me being annoyed by this loooong process decided to run behind her a couple times messing up the picture. She did not appreciate it. At all. But everyone else (especially her mom who was with us for Spring Break) really enjoyed it. Sometimes you have to show them they are being ridiculous.
Just a note: Sometimes they are on the various social media accounts comparing themselves to other people. Especially to the “professional instagrammers” (why is this a thing!?). This is when I like to have a sit down with them and explain that is not how these people really look and that a lot of work and editing went into that one picture. It’s a good idea to remind them that they are beautiful/handsome and worthy and that a lot of the internet is fake.
So that is that. If you have any thoughts, comments, or questions regarding social media and phone usage and your exchange student please contact me!