The Tragedy of Teen Girls, Blindsided and Dumb, to Social Media Alarm Bells But What Can We Do?

If someone was literally hurting your kids — or making them hurt each other, even if they didn’t want to — what would you do? That is exactly what is happening here. Social Media is Destroying a Generation of Young People, Especially Women

Once again, the public is paying attention to frantic red flags while the sirens are wailing about the attack of social media against teenage girls in particular. Alarm bells are sounding again for parents and psychologists even though they have heard about this effect of too much internet interaction with the Selfie mindset since 2009 when Selfies became the norm and young girls began a competitive ritual to be the most liked, the hottest, the sexiest. The powers that set the algorithm early was to appeal to the male adult gaze.

Hear the newest public commentators below.

The tragic reality is that for the first time society is now paying the price for a generation of young women who have been objectified, scarred, under the pressure to play the game confirming to the hypersexualized beauty standards on Social Media. Hence, the ideal Bachelorettes have a stable of ideal would-be husbands and the Housewives flaunt reality shows with flagrant dramas of wealthy happiness formulas.

Sadly, there is only one group who doesn’t participate in hearing the sorrow and outrage … the innocent victims; namely, the teen girls themselves. Their young adolescent brains haven’t yet developed the frontal cortex connections for deductive thinking and judgment skills based on a maturity level that happens in the early 20’s. Their teen years are prone to learning new experiences often determined by peer pressure. There are no early warning educational programs how to handle this circus.

They are blindsided by seeking their own rewards hour after hour on their cellphones to be worthy of attention to look, dress, and act as implicitly directed or suffer ostracism and depression.

They are dumb to voice their comprehension of reality whether it is real or fake. In their curious innocence they are still learning what works and what doesn’t and that gadget attached to their hand shows what is to be liked and what to ridicule and hate. They do not write about their short time line or how a wrong choice today may derail their future.

They are the innocent lambs led to algorithm slaughter to be a somebody to worship celebrity status regardless of morality. They are the perfect prey to groom without feedback.

But Society knows the facts for a few years now.

The newest teen mental health problems research shows:

1. Half of all mental health conditions start by 14 years of age but most cases are undetected and untreated.
2. Globally, depression is one of the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents.
3. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15–19-year-olds.
4. The consequences of not addressing adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults.

Society may not quite know what to do

There is no denying that social media is not innocent enough but only if skinny girls are preferred with perfect complexion and popular cosmetics, fashions and followers. The old Selfie mindset immersion is now filtering through new families now.

There is no denying the power of the internet with influencers like Emma Chamberlain, whose occupation is listed as a vlogger and YouTuber. Born in 2001, she is 20 years old, with 10.7 million followers and 1.4 billion views. A perfect internet persona; thin, pretty, petite nose, oval face and large eyes who started posting videos as a way of escaping from depression in high school, now sporting a clothing line, online mail order company whose financial worth is estimated at 8 million dollars.

Not to sidestep the influential bodily enhancements of the K family for 20 years.

But about educational value and self-redemption potential?

Social Media has created the mess that only it can fix

Two possible ideas:

ONE: Start a reality show about teens and their troubles and relationships including drug abuse online.

What teens really need is to go beyond what adults tell them and become actively involved as peer spokespeople and practice scenarios where they can learn to say no. They need to relate to stories of interpersonal skills with normal social interaction over long term.

What more inclusive way, other than first person participation, to watch and relate to a TV reality show about teens, their struggles and redemptions on their favorite mediums?

TWO: Create and popularize a heroine as a short story with an overview of consequences and morals to serve as a real rebuttal to Selfies?

Set a personal narrative obsessed with cell phone Selfies and facing an antagonist of epic proportions to a rash and bash adolescent brain with the theme that is it is not the teenager’s fault where offline time becomes far more important than online with the superpower tool.

Who will write such a story or is there a draft already done looking for a super influencer who cares about children and young women?

Questions and comments are always welcome. Note several related articles in index below.

Annemarie Berukoff

Hear the newest commentators directly:

Facebook recognizes how harmful its photo-sharing app, Instagram, can be for teen girls’ self-esteem, according to company documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal. | Fox Business

What Can Facebook Do To Make Instagram less Toxic for Teen Girls

Stunning New Facts about Mental Health Conditions among Teenagers from Who World Health

Index for Timely Tale for Teen Girls Struggles, Regrets and Survival on Social Media

A Confluence, Assumptions, Crossroads and One Uncommon Solution for Teen Girls on Social Media

A Confluence, Assumptions, Crossroad, and One 

Solution for Teen Girls on Social Media

 "But here is the strangest paradox of Time that it can only be managed in a very small-time frame called TODAY. And TODAY can sometimes be sparked by a tinier matter of CHOICE." Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand

In Geology, a younger rock formation isolated among older rocks is called an outlier. So, if an older person stands up among younger people to share wise experience is she also an outlier because she cares?   

Can we set the table with some common assumptions?

• The internet revolution is here to stay and grow.
• Social media will be the communication channel for better or for worse.
• Almost all levels of mainstream culture are digitally disrupted with necessary adaptive changes 
• Teen culture is the more vulnerable because of adolescent brains still in formation to build a rationale, deductive frontal cortex.

Here’s my Big Picture view based on observations and continuous research.

Teenagers, especially teen girls, are at a crossroad with 4 different settings, story lines or solutions…

One: Everything is fine…they will grow out of teenage angst on social media…maturity is a step away at 20 years as independent, competent adults.

Two: There are serious problems with internet exploitation of teen girls via various platforms, body images, psychologists’ reports re depression, etc.

Three: Much advice about tactical control tips for parents, self-esteem worksheets, meditation practice, new curriculum objectives re sexting, etc.

Four: Change internal MINDSET that my OFFLINE TIME in my space is more important than ONLINE TIME in others' virtual reality. 

  

New assumption: What is the best way to overcoming conditioned reflexes and relearning new mindsets?

Best way to break a habit is to find reasons to reset new behaviors…

Best way to undo conditioning is to recondition with a new mindset…

New theory: show teenagers there is a reality far more important and more valuable than social media gossip, games, being influenced, liking and looking for approval from strangers with physical codes.

HOW? Consider the one commodity that all teen girls have in common ... namely TIME and how they spend it.

Therefore,  how can time be understood better, described and managed,  using symbols when necessary?

New idea: Read a story based on the theme of time within a broad overview. A teen girl narrates her story of making some bad choices about Selfies and drugs pointing to a symbol of the Social Media Circus impacting an adolescent brain in a dream. She keeps asking, “Is it my fault?” Her grannie helps to explain the transition of time as experiences with symbols in the sand and the power of choice made in reference to a timeline with 3 essential questions. Redemption follows with new mindset to believe in Self not Selfie.

Note the fragility of life and destiny with no choice is drawn from a damselfly.

Then practice a few lesson plans to help reinforce some basic timely ideas within context. 

EXAMPLES: get to know areas of the brain, draw powerful neuron connections, word webs beyond self, predict rites of passage, new calendar of time based on experiences, practice making smart choices, note difference between choice and habit, connect morals to self-esteem with actions, compare time charts (offline vs online) and celebrate MY TIME like a Mandela of vision ... no cellphones allowed. There is life beyond the small screen face.

The story takes two hours to read. The exercises may take longer. But, at least, perhaps, a SEED may be planted that holding a timeline in your hand is your responsibility.  Perhaps, a couple pages in the minds of teen girls may turn to being a special Self not a media Selfie.

Could this be a better antidote than taking the cellphone away or writing a daily journal when their future adulthood may be on the line? Is this a better way to relate to morality in our culture when some people think amorality is the new normal?

As a citizen of the world and a teacher who deeply respects education and always wants to teach the Big Picture, the total unit, I worry about other long-term options. The truth is we are in the middle of an unprecedented confluence, “a tide in the affairs of teenagers” where the “current we take” will either “serve or lose our ventures.” …adapted William Shakespeare. I hope we are not too late in turning the tide.

I sometimes wonder if our society may be losing a generation of young women to the siren calls of a Social Media Clown Face. Teen girls probably cannot write a story like this when their train is just leaving the station on routes of their choosing where one wrong mistake can derail a lifetime.

Finally, mass media has created this situation and mass media can help to reduce some of the undesirable effects.  Imagine how a good film producer can produce a wonderful short movie with TIME as a radial center to respect the rites of passage for young women.  

Questions and comments are always important. Podcast shows are important to debate. What are other options? Has our culture crossed the line or not? Has it done enough to protect our amazing teen girls?  

Sincerely,

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

833 471 4661 (leave message and best time)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

 Excerpt:  "It is starting to make sense. My Experience of Life will not be planted by a Celtie Selfie in a social media circus. The circus is in town, but I don't have to go to every show."

Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand - a Timely Tale of Social Media Struggles, Regrets and Survival with Superpower Tool

To Vape or Not to Vape? Social Prerogatives to Help Vulnerable Teenagers Make Smart Choices

To Vape or Not to Vape? Social Prerogatives to Help Vulnerable Teens Make Smart Choices 

Someone needs to make this statement, so I will as a devil’s advocate. What if, it's not just about lack of state funding for healthy teens, but more about protecting the big money interests? Who cares if social media turns teenagers into early consumers with premature sexual roles, if drugs and mental depression continue to be problems? Who will advocate to protect their normal social rites of passage minus adult hype?  Annemarie Berukoff  

What do you think is causing this teen age vaping epidemic? There are more and more stories about severe reactions to vapor products requiring medical attention by teenagers. It portends a long-term new generation of youth addicted to nicotine

Vaping is the act of inhaling and exhaling an aerosol or vapor produced by heating a liquid with a battery powered device known as a vape or e-cigarette.

As a parent, would you want your teenager to hook into an advertisement like this if truth were told:

• Try our newest vaping pens with a variety of fruit and candy flavorful e-juices.
• Choose with or without nicotine or cannabis, THC and hemp oil
• Designed better to look like USB memory sticks, lipstick tubes or ball point pens.
• Carry easily in the palm of your hand. Don’t worry that just one “pod” device can contain as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes.
• Note: Small amount of e-juice can be poisonous to a young child if ingested and toxic if spilled on the skins. Keep away from children and pets.
• Be careful: Vapor devices contain a heat source which can malfunction and cause a mini explosion or start a fire in a purse or backpack.
• Don’t worry: Sales to minors (under 19) is illegal in Canada. Vaping is banned on school grounds. But it's your choice, right!

But how can you stop them from checking out some social media influencers who look bright, beautiful and excited to use the latest vape pen, stick or pod. Join the herd, appeal to cool crowds, bump up your buddy, irresistible consistency…everybody likes it, be a little secretive growing up.

In fact, one of the vape manufacturers, JUUL, has recently been investigated by the FTC for deliberate advertising that targets teens as is obvious by their online ads.

There is no disagreement that smoking cigarettes or e-cigarettes with nicotine is hazardous to your health. There are several reports of young students hospitalized for weeks with one or two collapsed lungs which are hard to re-inflate, thereby causing long term health problems. So why do it if you know the facts?

The Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health in Canada has made this statement: 

Nicotine is highly addictive and can have harmful impacts on the brain, affecting memory and concentration in everyone and brain development in youth and young adults. It alters part of the brain that controls attention, learning, mood, and impulse control. Early exposure to nicotine in adolescence may increase the severity of future dependence on tobacco.

However, I have 3 questions that bother me greatly. If adults want to vape...let them be masters of their fate, but leave teenagers alone.

ONE: Why are young teenagers so vulnerable to social media influencers or any other deliberate advertisers with hot button selling techniques that appeal to peer pressure and ego?

I believe part of the answer is how some social echelons think they can take advantage of a developing adolescent brain that lacks prefrontal, deductive judgement skills until maturation in mid-twenties.

An adolescent brain passes signals through a central relay station called the amygdala which processes emotional feelings. Psychologists call these amygdala reactions as seen in typical behavior; impulsive, irrational, high tolerance to risks and conforming to peer pressure or risk bullying or ostracism.  

It is with the same adolescent brain that a young teen girl faces on social media to meet certain objective idealized standards to be liked and rewarded, and not to be excluded. Too many times this means adapting to an adult lifestyle, fashion, entertainment and expectations.

Curious how public reaction  to vaping has become importantly mainstream because the negative results are physically observable … collapsed and contaminated lungs possibly for life based on a vulnerable young brain taking a risk.

TWO: Why there is lack of public attention to social media struggles and regrets for teen girls who may face long term mental health issues like low self-esteem and enhanced depression over time?

 In fact, recent research is now using MRI technology to show the reactions and effects of social media immersion like social withdrawal, anxiety, aggressive acting out and disobedience. In fact, more associations over time are being studied for long term effects.

We have a social prerogative not to assume idly that teen girls’ mental well-beings will just get over it ... adolescent trials will just metamorphose into happy, self- respecting, masterful  productive citizens. What if early experiences, regrets and mistakes on social media never go away? Research simply doesn’t support this. 

Note the 6 key findings by the World HealthOrganization and weep  

THREE: How can teenagers make smarter choices for themselves ... to vape or not to vape? 

Of course, parents cannot be helicopters all the time, and there needs to be trust that their  children's growing independence means making good choices and decisions on their own.

What if, teens can learn to respect their timelines as more important than social media, or following the Pied Piper of advertising or peer pressure?

What if they can connect the past, present and future  and see how the power of making a smart choice is the starting point to making smart decisions?

What if a simple script, a superpower tool, can ask important questions to vape or not to vape?

Imagine this scenario … a 14-year girl or boy is invited to try a vape pen by a friend at a gathering. YES or NO?  Before a choice is made, a short script flashes in their mind:

1. THE PAST: What you remember … success … failure … repeat … never again

2. THE FUTURE: Where do you want to be … avoid pain + loss … attract hopes + dreams

3. TODAY: Who you are … best fit between your past and future

NOW MAKE A SMART CHOICE

This mental check may only take a minute or two. Stop and think ... what do I know about past behaviors with vaping? Do I really want to face possible addiction or disease to be popular? I don’t need stimulants to be self-centered, my future is too important.

What if, respecting my timeline may be the only stimulus I need to say NO! 

I believe we  have a social prerogative to do better for our teenage sons and daughters on their journey to adulthood. Of course, any kind of education will be helpful to know the facts.

 Also, importantly, in a time-ravaged society they need to know the precious value of their time and how to spend it wisely. They need to discuss the progression of time in elements they can understand. In this information overflow we need to help them make smart choices to avoid making mistakes that can derail a lifetime of possibilities. All teen boys and girls need to stand tall, strong and proud of who they are, more aligned with the universe than social media or a cloud of vaping smoke.

What kinds of questions bother you about teenagers, social media, our culture, and how we can help our teenagers realize their responsibilities and dreams?

Questions and comments are always appreciated as the best way to address some of these concerns from your experiences. 

Sincerely,

Annemarie

amarie10@gmail.com

1 833 471 4661 (please leave a message and a good time to talk)

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com 

Excerpt: Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand 

There is power in the internet. In fact, it has solidly bonded with our society.  The choice is to stay connected or disconnected, to be more informed or less informed, have more confidence or have more fear,  keep your mind open or keep it closed.

It doesn't have to be a monster devouring its Selfie offspring tethered on Celties. But I get the difference now that I have a superpower, too, unto myself to make to respect my shorelines.  It is a wide-open world of choice. Make it a world of smart, well informed choices.

We can use internet power to connect and care, to show honest effort and consideration of others and to give thanks for efforts and kindness.  

Ten Questions for Pod Show Hosts Interested to Advocate for Teen Girls Rights on Social Media

Ten Questions for Pod Show Hosts Interested to Advocate for Teen Girls' Rights on Social Media  

 Now they are targeting smartphones and social media. On January 6th two large investors in Apple demanded that the technology company must help parents curtail their children’s iPhone use, citing research into the links between adolescent social-media habits and risk factors for suicide, such as depression. Old and new media abound with reports about phones’ addictive, mind-warping properties. On the school run, parents compare tactics for limiting screen time.    The Economist. Jan. 11, 2018

I am excited and ready to enter a new phase of internet marketing. Excellent mentor ship brings me into the exciting world of  iPod shows and broadcasting.

Social Media is alive and well; Tweets still twitter; YouTube videos shine and sing; Facebook shouts out a worldwide audience; but, nothing can compare to having a conversation with a smart iPod show host or hostess for an hour to explain the premise of my new e-book called Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand.

I am now ready to make my entrance on this world-wide stage in awe of this opportunity with the sincerest hope that any information I can share will help teen girls to view that their personal offline time is as important, if not more important, than being plugged into an alternate reality. I believe there is no other common antidote to this extreme cell phone and Selfie conditioning except a deep personal mindset that My Time is precious, respected and protected as explained in the story.

Here are ten questions I will be answering:

1. You are an educator for 24 years. What changed from when you first started to decades after?
2. How has social media robbed teen girls from the normal rites of passage between child and adult?
3. There have been studies done on the development of the brain in adolescents. How does the adolescent brain process differently than the adult brain?
4. In your book, there are many learning points. What would you say is the number on learning point in the story that can help teens change their internet habits?
5. What is the main reason teen girls don't want to give up their internet time?
6. Why do you use symbols as main characters, as antagonist vs protagonist?
7. You talk about a superpower to manage time. What is the superpower tool to make smart choices versus decisions or habits? 
8. How can parents help their teen daughters to reduce their social media time?
9. How is it possible that fake Selfies can affect our deeper cultural values?
10. What lesson plans help to practice some of the new ideas or concepts in this story?

I look forward to talking with any persons, or referrals, who may be interested in these topics. No teenage girl could write a story like this, but a long traditional lifeline can offer resources to cope with such drastic societal changes. Who else can advocate on behalf of teenage girls to prevent their exploitation on the internet? They will not just “grow out of it” but pass this sub-culture as young mothers to their children.  I believe we should try to find a common denominator for every teen girl to find her true Self and find a place to be a real Somebody in her real world.

What kind of questions would you ask?  What bothers you about the teenage sub-culture?

Please request my One Page Expert Sheet and Media Review.

I look forward to talking with you. Together, we can continue to find a timely solution.

Sincerely,

Annemarie Berukoff

Amarie10@gmail.com

833 471 4661

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

New Kindle e-book: Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand  

Excerpt: You understand that the future only appears as a vision and today is the only time you have to react to anything. What if you had the power to connect to the future to help direct your present actions to fulfill that future?  I wonder what kind of choices you'd make ….would they be the same."

But what if there is some kind of super power tool to help make better choices to take you into adulthood?

   

What If, There is One Common Value All Teen Girls Can Learn to Manage on Social Media?

What If, There is One Common Value All Teen Girls Can Learn to Manage on Social Media?

The sink shot: When a girl takes a selfie in a bathroom mirror, often in a thong, and poses with her behind propped against the sink, so that it will appear larger. Not surprisingly, Kim Kardashian popularized this sort of shot, also known as a “belfie,” or butt selfie.  

Nancy Jo Sales; “American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers”

Researching and writing about today’s teen girls with social media problems is multi-faceted and complicated. What teen girl has enough adult experience to write about her trials and resolutions based on an incomplete timeline? As a retired teacher with full view, I wrote an e-book called Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand to emphasize the one common value all teen girls share whether they know it or not.  

Here is one critical viewpoint from a reader I'd like to address:

“This is a rather mild-mannered story like Clark Kent talking about a Superwoman challenge. As a parent, I wish I had more answers about my teens online. I live in a small town where there are  too many young girls who party too much with alcohol and drugs. What about the vaping or opioid addiction found in high schools? How can parents identify drug use or open up communication? This is a different story than expected but a timeline on  a string is interesting, if it could be that simple.  Amy D

Here is my response:

Thanks, Amy, for taking time to read this teen e-book. I’m pleased you found that managing a Timeline is interesting because how to respect Time is the message of this short story that ALL teen girls can relate to. The Big Question is to how to apply it in simple terms. 

The difficult challenge in writing about so many different shattered dreams in a new social order, is to find at least this one common thread that every girl can value and that is TIME itself. Not in the sense of measuring by numbers, hours or days, but in managing the experiences that make a difference between the numbers. Every girl wants a good time leading to better times and success; nobody wants to look for having a bad time with worse consequences.

"But time is only the medium not the victim here. It is a 14 year old girl who can become a victim because she can make a mistake that will affect her whole life. How fair is that? Is it her fault or is it the selfish culture around her? There must be a way to stop making the wrong choice at a young age." 

Excerpt: Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand Timely Tale of Struggles, Regrets and Survival on Social Media.

The biggest challenge still remains, in no uncertain terms, how do you deal with this unfiltered, unsupervised, unprecedented  virtual suspension of normal social rites for teen girls entering into adulthood with too many tragic results. Too many stories from news and personal experiences are written about cyber bullying, suicides, sexual texting and harassment, unwanted pregnancies and family breakdowns, drug addictions and other personal disasters.

It’s impossible not to compare my youth growing up in the 1960’s where our social order was planted with family and focused on education toward a responsible career. At 14 I knew I was a somebody who best spend my time respecting set boundaries with friends and role models who lived close by and mutually liked each other. My biggest problem was what skirt to wear to the high school prom and this small zit private only to my mirror. The first time I heard of something weird called intercourse was at 18 years in a grade 10 PE class by a counselor.

Today, we watch in shock as so many 14 year old girls preen, post  and prime for role models to be a somebody on a social media scale to be measured, evaluated and objectified by popular adult standards, unattainable except to the sensitive teenage brain fueled by dopamine likes and shares where a relationship can be started by sending a nude photo.

Just think, of a traditional story with a simple picture of a young girl facing a greedy wolf ready to devour her innocence of youth. One heroine with one antagonist can be dealt with common sensibility.

As one picture in this story, there is an adolescent damselfly nymph feeding from a giant media clown face in her maturation cycle.  Just think, this adult will perpetuate what it grew up on and it begs the question about what kind of collective wisdom will populate our social culture drawn from this effluence. Note that a damselfly plays the role of the fragility and impermanence of  life.

As a new reality with social media, a young teenage girl needs to find her true self  on a vast technological landscape which itself becomes the monster antagonist ... not one villain but so many controlling forces imposing their pressure to be a somebody according to mass media standards. In many ways, this is an untenable and virulent attack on the developing adolescent brain which works differently than adult brains because it is guided more by “random exploration” and by the emotional and reactive amygdala than the thoughtful, logical  frontal cortex. The average adults’ judgement rationale to make decisions is reached in the mid-twenties.  

So how do you tell a story about innocence, curiosity and growing up in a rampaging, engulfing media circus where teen age girls also admit that there is a love / hate relationship with social media but do not want to stop because their lives would be empty. How do you prepare or protect yourself from this tragic onslaught with far implications for our culture where coming-of-age women are finding maturity from superimposed hype, failed expectations and ego-driven  materialism?. What are the long-term consequences on family and society? Could it possibly get worse? 

The mission statement becomes If time can’t be replayed and only go forward, then the most precious commodity we have is Time and how to use it to its best value becomes essential. 

Therefore, it is necessary to turn this story into a heart-rending analogy by using the power of symbols which connect to several layers of meaning both visible and invisible. One symbolic protagonist is an immature adolescent brain facing a symbolic antagonist of epic proportion known as the social media clown face. 

More symbols are introduced to encompass the meaning of Time beyond the literal meaning of counting hours or days. Yesterday’s past experiences are put in a box, today’s present moments are alive in a circle and future visions are open ended lines. The moment of choice is seen as a spark on today’s circle as different from a decision or habit.  The whole set is linked together with a personal super power tool to help make good choices relevant to past, present and future.

This e-book is short enough to read in a few hours with simple drawings to highlight events including the new image of a Selfie Celtie. The story happens in 3 days from a drug testing to recollections on a beach  to an adolescent brain mixing it up with a social media nightmare, and a grandmother’s kindly introduction to  a personal super power tool to manage the precious Timeline. The short account has a pivot point where life can turn around with the right message.

So, how would you answer this important question: How can we help with adult overview to help teenage girls to find their true selves minus social media impositions?

Questions and comments are always welcome...together we can find solutions in this radically different digital culture. 

Annemarie Berukoff

amarie10@gmail.com

833 471 4661 

https://helpfulmindstreamforchanges.com

Grannie asks: "Let me ask you another important question, somewhat based on this messy life spectacle. You understand that the future only appears as a vision and today is the only time you have to react to anything. What if you had the power to connect to the future to help direct your present actions to fulfill that future?  I wonder what kind of choices you'd make ... would they be the same?

"There's a strange magic begins to happen when you know that TIME controls a CHOICE and a HABIT, but HABIT is NOT THE SAME THING AS A CHOICE.  A choice can happen in an instant. A habit will follow you as heavy and long as you want.

But this choice is instant, like a match flame. Ignite a wrong choice; it can lead to bad habits … even burn out your foundation who you want to be. Or you can make the right choice which becomes a stepping stone towards better habits and future. 

As brief as it might be, it is the matter of choice that makes it a superpower because it has the power to change the direction of your life.  Nothing is more powerful with more consequences; so it’s a good thing to make it as smart as possible. I think we agree on making a strong, smart choice."

Excerpts from Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand: Timely Tale of Struggles, Regrets and Survival on Social Media.

NOTE: There are 10 lesson plans to use this content at an individual understanding.

PS:   I am always looking for a PODCAST interview to further explain this story. 

https://youtu.be/fnEztJKfzdQ