Teaching Children to Value Face-to-Face Friendships Offline with Marilyn Randall

Marilyn Randall joins Dave and Bill today to talk about teaching children to value friendship outside of cyper-space.

 

“When I see kids with their heads buried in laptops, or texting on cell phones, it disturbs me to think of how technology has changed the way our kids socialize,” said Randall, who has authored a series of children’s books on friendships including For Faithful Friends, The Best of Best Friends and Share From the Heart (www.Marilyn Randall.com). “Our social networks are actually raising our kids to be extremely unsocial, and I think it’s changing society for the worse.”

 

Randall’s point is that the way kids make friends, and learn how to value those friendships, becomes the way they look at friendship as they grow to adulthood. If the only socialization that our kids learn is from cyberspace, friendships will become less valuable in their lives, and as disposable as email.

 

“If we allow our kids to learn that all you need to do to make and keep friends is to click ‘accept friend request,’ then we’re devaluing the power of friendship,” she added. “Conversely, if all they have to do to end a friendship is click on ‘block user,’ then friendships become fleeting and easy to discard without a second thought. It also causes this ‘all about me’ mentality, prompting many children to grow up without consideration for others because they haven't learned to properly interact with others.”

 

Marilyn has always had an artistic ability, which she has used both professionally and personally over her lifetime. She was an art major in high school receiving a Penny Arts Scholarship award for her first oil painting and a Hallmark Honorable Mention award for her second oil painting which was exhibited in an art show in Portland, Oregon. She began her professional career as a graphic artist in 1976