Jennifer Garner: social media puts so much pressure on kids when theyre vulnerable

Do you remember that movie Jennifer Garner was in which was about how adults and teenagers were disconnected because of social media? It was 2014’s Men, Women and Children, written and directed by Jason Reitman (Juno, Thank You For Smoking) and I’m not going to act like I watched it. I only vaguely remembered that it existed and that she’s already fielded questions about letting her children online. This is what she said about that at the time, which was eons ago in her children’s ages. At that time Violet was 8, Seraphina was 5 and Samuel 2.
I mean, we can’t keep in front of what our kids are learning or seeing or using, technology-wise. It’s happening before we can even…We’re all running to catch up, us stupid grown-ups! Thank goodness my kids are little enough that they’re far from having phones or iPads or anything.
My kid had an iPad at 8 but he was monitored and using specific apps. (He wasn’t watching those creepy YouTube videos of Elsa and Spiderman making out because they didn’t exist yet. Parents have even more to worry about now.) Anyway Garner was asked about her kids using social media now that Violet is 12. She said that they’re not on social media and that it puts a lot of pressure on kids when they’re vulnerable.
[Garner]… told Fox News she’s determined to keep her children offline.
“Oh my gosh, I don’t know,” said the “Peppermint” star. “My kids don’t have any social media yet. And I am terrified. I think it puts so, so much pressure on kids at an age when they’re really vulnerable anyway. You know, if anyone has any clues, let me know.”
“I am probably overprotective,” admitted the actress.
On her character in Peppermint
“I think you can’t ignore the power of, the depth of a mom’s feelings,” explained Garner. “And I think that you don’t have to be a mom to understand that.
“We’re all human, so for anyone, we all play ‘The Joy of Motherhood,’ ‘The Beauty of Motherhood,’ but to dig into the terror and the fear and the rage of motherhood was a whole new place. And that was part of what was so fun about this…
“[My character is] a mom next door, just like anyone, but she absolutely gets pushed to extremes,” said Garner about North seeking justice.
She’s right and it’s smart of her to keep her kids away from social media, especially when there’s so much information available about her family. There are a lot of pitfalls to social media and it does put pressure on kids while adding a performative aspect to their social lives. I hope her children do have supervised access to the Internet and that they’re not “offline” as the lead-in says. The Internet helps kids connect and learn in ways we never imagined. We had the library and “Schoolhouse Rock.” Kids now have Khan Academy, Vsauce, Kurzgesagt and countless other teachers on demand. Plus they can share photos of their homework and work on it together. You can both protect your children from the bad parts of the internet while taking advantage of the best of it. I don’t expect Garner to express that kind of nuance in a quick interview, but it also doesn’t jibe with her “Oh my gosh, I’m overprotective” persona.
It was good of Garner to add the caveat that you don’t have to be a mom to understand her character. She’s said things to the contrary before.
She’s been trying to meme herself and it’s working.
photos credit: Backgrid and WENN
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