Seth Goldstein | Philadelphia Web Designer and Social Media Marketer

Also a great way to keep them safe.

Reshared post from +Alida Brandenburg

[Presenting: +On a School Night: It's like my page... but, you know, for you crazy kids.]

Today Google+ announced that the platform is now open for teenagers. I, for one, am pleased by this overall. When I was younger, I remember feeling really isolated from my peers and always felt more in sync with individuals slightly older than me or outside my direct social circle tied to school. (I left traditional high school at fifteen for that very reason.) Most of my real friends were people I built relationships with through BBS's, chat rooms, online mailing lists, LiveJournal, and other early social media networks. Many of these close friendships continue today, going strong after 10+ years.

Plus, Google+ is awesome. Why should we deny youths the opportunity to experience it?

In that sense, I think it's nice that this platform is now open to people who were like me- teenagers who would rather have intelligent discussions on topics that matter (with an occasional meme thrown in for a good chuckle of course) than blather on about asinine status updates, petty drama, and celebrity gossip. I think this addition could be great. Teens often bring a type of passion and fresh perspective that is hard to find in adults, and for this reason it offers great value to a social platform.

With that being said, I know how much my early youth was greatly impacted by having a safe space to connect with my peers and openly discuss the issues that we were most concerned about, most resonated with, most passionate about. I especially appreciated the mentors I had who provided this opportunity and guided me and other youth through the process. So today I'm paying it forward by doing the same for this next generation of teens by creating the Google+ page "On a School Night".

"On a School Night" is a safe space for youth of all ages and backgrounds to discuss and share issues that affect them. This may be the latest technology and how this is impacting our lives, woes and worries about education and how we can improve it, the latest guerrilla art to hit the scene, LGBT activism, the "isms" that plague our society- especially ageism!- and anything else that resonates with you, the youth. And let's be honest- cat pictures. Duh.

I, Alida, am here as your friendly community builder. I'll post pictures, articles, quotes, links, and other relevant tidbits and delicious morsels that I come across. Every day I'll also post an open forum where you can share links to interesting content that you come across that you wish to share with the community. The community will then plus vote which of that content they would like to see posted the next day to "On a School Night" for us to discuss and share. Make sense? Sweet. Doesn't make sense? Just ask! "“There are no foolish questions, only foolish silence.” ~ Unknown.

And to the youth: this is your community, so please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvements, or other under-the-hood tinkerings. The idea is to make this a comfortable place for you to come and feel like yourself, honestly and genuinely.

Welcome!

#OnASchoolNight #OASN

Embedded Link

On a School Night
A safe space for youth of all ages and backgrounds to discuss and share issues that affect them.

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