5 Tips For Parents to Connect With Engaging Screenagers
5 Tips For Parents to Connect With Engaging Screenagers
Having my own Engaging Screenagers, I find everyday we as a family face our share of struggles, problems, setbacks, and misunderstandings, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make things better, does it?
Like so many families who experienced the new TV generation not knowing how to handle it, my family struggled to communicate to make our family lifestyle better.
Along with the new family struggles in our society, I struggled to pay attention in my classes (now they call it ADD,) but I knew life could be better for families, students, etc.
In my 20’s I took a Dale Carnegie Course and then began to lead that course, and to become an instructor in that course I spent over 2 years training to be more engaging.
That training sparked my life passion for practicing, studying, researching, teaching, consulting, and coaching engagement because the practices that engage in one genre tend to engage in other genres.
Family communication struggles, learning struggles, got me wanting more, and then learning engagement skills in Dale Carnegie training, turned my spark of hope into a fire of passion to learn about engagement and I went from ADD, to EdD (Doctor of Education.)
As a model, I’ve used a B2B marketing article by Sean Callahan on LinkedIn, as it reminded me how I teach these engagement tools to parents to help them connect better with their Engaging Screenagers in terms of relating, inspiring, motivating, and collaborating.
Whenever Engaging Screenagers) interact with you parents, your family members, or your community (including extended family, friends, online friends, etc.,) they experience Moments of Growth which, on average, can be good and not so good.
How can you monitor these Moments of Growth so you can improve your parental, family, or community average with more good moments and fewer not so good?
Zig Ziglar wrote if families kept an open microphone around the house they would shocked at the way they treat one another.
By observing, practicing, surveying, and using tracking and monitoring eWorkbooks, eJournals, eLogs, etc. in my courses, training, and coaching with teachers, and parents, I’ve found a few high value Tips practices the help greatly.
Before I start though, I would like to mention these are suggestions and you will want to test them (check my blog on A/B testing) and keep trying to find what tool works best for now as it will change in the future.
Also, remember my grandfather who said, “I have gone 20 years in my life without using a telephone, so I don’t need to use one and I will never use one!”
I’m glad he got over that one as I remember he was one of the first people I talked with when I was learning to use the phone.
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1) Tip: Instead of drily explaining your learning content, practice telling 1-2 minute (maximum length) irresistible and compelling stories. (optimal engagement)
Sorry, I’m going to be blunt–but most parents talk too much, and if you are a parent you are probably talking too much. (junk engagement)
I teach this stuff and I plead guilty too.
In my training courses parents tell me they don’t need to practice because they talk every day.
My response is just because you take a shower every day doesn’t mean you know how to swim, and even if you know how to swim you would still practice a new stroke to get good at it wouldn’t you?
Together with a coaching client, we created an eLog to help guide her to build her stories for her CFO talks she was to give to her staff, at conferences and for promoting her division.
After a few weeks of using her eLog to gather ideas for speeches, she reported back how useful it was for shaping ideas she wanted to share with her own Engaging Screenagers at home.
One time a parent said to me, “This eLog is too much effort and I can’t be bothered.”
My question was, “Who are the most important people is your life?” and she got very quiet.
Imagine, as parents we will spend 10’s of 1000’s of hours working to make things better for “the most important people in our lives,” but we don’t want to make the effort to make things happier WITH those people?
To see an example of this eLog, click this LINK: https://goo.gl/g3gwGi, and use this form long enough to make it a habit, but not so long that you dislike it (3 weeks is enough.)
2) Tip: Think of channels of media you use as part of your bigger family connection picture—let multiple channels work together to guide your family environment. (optimal engagement)
In school, you remember what time you went to your English class, communication class, but what time was your Listening class?
I’ve seen engaging families listen use eJournals, eLogs, Google Calendars, and even shared Google Sheets to share family information.
In the past we would take a picture or record a video and show it to friends and relatives during holidays.
Now you can create an ePortfolio and add links to media like images or videos that are on the internet.
You, your family, or your community can rewatch the sections they want for more rich engagement with Engaging Screenagers.
Another tool I’ve seen Engaging Families use is a family eLog to keep track of family events as everyone in the family keeps an icon on their mobile device home pages.
3) Tip: Listen to your Engaging Screenagers to give them learning and information they want, how they want it, and not how you want to give it. (optimal engagement)
There are times when a simple text message as a reminder could be more effective than a phone call because that is most comfortable for your Engaging Screenagers.
Use eJournals (and let your Engaging Screenagers use them too if they would like) to review your engagement (interactions) with family members.
Also, use eJournals to encourage family members to share items of their own interests, as this can be a great way to bring more interactive engagement to life for family members.
To see an example of an eJournal to monitor your own engagement, click this LINK: https://goo.gl/Zk6JUY
4) Tip: Remember your internal marketing (yes, to your family members), establish firm commitments for new initiatives within your school before telling others outside your close family. (optimal engagement)
Again engaging families I have seen families use eJournals, eLogs, Google Calendars, and even shared Google Sheets to share family information.
If you are an Engaging Screenager what could be more degrading than hearing from your best (Engaging Screenagers) friend’s mom that your own family is moving to another state or even going on holiday.
5) Tip: Think of your story and the value you give as a family in the larger context of the Engaging Screenager experience—how will their lives be better? and how can they apply what they learned to improve our society? (optimal engagement)
- Also ask yourself,
- What are my Engaged Screenagers inspired to do after they listen to my lesson?
- What will excite my Engaged Screenagers to curate their own images, examples, or videos?
- What will motivate my Engaged Screenagers to continue and even finish watching my YouTube watch list, or read that article, or write that paper, or submit that blog?
- What hooks can compel my Engaging Screenagers to collaborate and interact within my family community?
Remember, all day every day, the marketing world all day every day thinking about how to attract your Engaging Screenagers’ attention and get them to take action.
I’m not saying we, as parents, we need to be marketers, but what I am saying is we, as parents can learn from the tools marketers use to attract and motivate.
Afterwards:
The one of the foundation priorities of my life-long engagement focus is Engaging Screenagers, as in this screenage most everyone is showing Engaging Screenagers behavior tendencies.
Having said that, I’ve found that the group that earned the “Screenagers” name, will change (or shape if you like) the world of engagement marketing and sales more than any other group that we have seen so far.
I am not talking about a generation x or y, millennials, or others.
I am talking about the new technology and how those who are younger, due to their lack of attachment to tradition, are leading (shaping) change in how we live (share, communicate, buy, etc.) with mobile devices.
Being a University instructor during the time smartphones were coming into mass use, I was spending 40-60 hours a week with almost 3000 students and watching how their behavior was changing day to day.
Based on my passion (research, practice, training, coaching, etc.) for engagement and innovating for engagement, I could see (back then) how much of an influence/game changer these smartphones were going to be in our world.
As parents can’t we use these tools, like TV did in the 60’s and 70’s, that are changing our world and how we engage in the world, to bring our families together?
Wouldn’t it be great if the same factors that make things difficult–could make things easier?
Will these factors (that are making things so difficult) become less difficult in the future, and if we don’t learn to work with them will our lives become better or worse?
Embrace and discipline with technology tools, be happier.
Remember, come join tomorrow to see more Improving Your Engagement with Screenagers and others inspirational experiences and ideas for Optimal Engagement in the ScreenAge.
Remember to engage tomorrow.
Following with you.
Keep it simple.
All the Best, Warren
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