Teens, Technology & Tolerance: Is Our Generation Media Literate? One of the major challenges that our generation experiences is determining whether the content that we come across is real or fake; biased or balanced. According to recent studies, more Americans are getting their news from social media sites, and at least two-thirds of Americans (67%) get at least some news on sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat (Grieco, 2017; Bialik & Masta, 2017) About one third (32%) report that they come across fabricated news online (Bialik & Masta, 2017). In another study by

Teens, Technology & Tolerance: 5 Tips to Cultivate Tolerance Online So, what can you do to cultivate a culture of tolerance in your online community? Here are some tips: 1. Be respectful Before you post, like or comment, make sure take another look at the language that you’ve used. Does your message show respect? Or are you using derogatory terms or making statements with a slant against people from a particular background? Keep in mind that everyone is part of the same race–the human race. Watch your words. 2. Keep calm and respond Did a friend post something that made

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Featured Article: Teens, Technology & Tolerance Advisory: The embedded links may contain potentially offensive material. These links have been selected to provide examples of actual instances involving teens. Our world has become more connected than ever before, and our phones act as a portal into a global society; a place where people exchange their various views, beliefs, customs and behaviors that differ from our own. On one hand, as participants in social networks and other online communities, we have the opportunity to learn from people of various cultures and backgrounds and cultivate tolerance. On the other hand, online environments serve

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iDrive Student Advisory Board: Advocate for Cyber Security & Education Technology plays a major role in our education. As a student, you probably use at least one, if not several, online accounts for your academic classwork and assignments. To access these online accounts, your school either provides you with a username and password, or your teacher may instruct you to create your own login credentials. Although many students have taken digital citizenship lessons that encourage children and teens to protect online privacy and security by refraining from using personally identifiable information, or PII, in usernames and passwords, we’ve found that

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iDrive Agent: 8 Tips to Prevent Identity Theft on Social Media Continuing with the October theme of Cyber Security, iDrive presents eight tips to make your online experience more safe and secure, and to help prevent identity theft on social media. As an iDrive Agent, you can share these tips on social media, too! 1. Be selective with what you share. Since we’ve grown up in a world where sharing our personal lives online is pretty much the norm, it easy to forget how public social media can be. Do you really want the world and the online service to

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Featured Article | A Pothole in Your Pathway: Open Sesame Have you ever been tempted to use the exact same, or at least similar, usernames and passwords for multiple online accounts? Well, as you may have guessed, this practice gives an identity thief easy access to your information in various places in one fell swoop. First of all, if you use a similar username or the same e-mail address for various online accounts, they will be easier to find. The major misstep is in using the same password. Your password acts as a key. Should an unauthorized party gain access

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Featured Article | A Pothole in Your Pathway: Pieces of Information Think About It: What types of personal information do you share in your social media profile and posts? Have you ever shared your phone number? Consider the type of information that is stored inside of your account: your name, your date of birth and your e-mail address. If your account’s security is breached, the hacker can gain access to this information. Tip: Consider using a nickname and making your birthday private. Research has shown that teens are more comfortable with sharing their personal information on social media than ever

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Featured Article | A Pothole in Your Pathway: Teen Identity Theft Identity theft — uttering this term evokes images of an unknown, middle-aged individual wearing a sinister ski mask while sifting through strands of computer code to grab a hold of Granny’s credit card number that she has entered on a spoofed Website. The imagination transitions to the next scene that depicts the same cyber-criminal using the ill-gotten digits to buy big-ticket items like smart TVs and computers, or to escape on a luxurious tropical vacation while Granny cries out in distress as she is pinned with major credit card

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iDrive Student Advisory Board: October Happenings October is here! The season of pumpkins, candy corn, and spooky excitement is upon us. But did you know that October is also filled with important awareness months? Our Student Advisory Board is focused on two issues that matter to teens across the U.S. and around the world: Cyber Security Awareness and Cyber Bullying Awareness and Prevention. Cyber Security Awareness Month You might be thinking “Really, cyber security?” We get it. Cyber security may not seem like something that teens should really worry about, but in reality, we are prime targets of identity theft.

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iDrive Agents: 7 Tips to Write for the Web You have been in school and had to practice and cultivate writing skills for most of your life. So why not use those skills for good? Writing for the Web is an amazing way to start raising awareness for an issue that you are passionate about, whether it be teen mental health, human trafficking, or any other topic that drives you. When you publish your work on the Web, the world is at your fingertips. Writing for the Web does, however, differ from writing traditional print-based articles or writing essays for

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