Do you care about popularity? Have you ever been cyberbullied? Do you sing in the shower?
When I was growing up, I kept a diary – my own private place to let it all out, and work things out. Today, texting and posts on personalized social networks – like fake Instagram accounts, Snapchat stories, and TMI Twitter – are a prime source of a teen’s personal writing and expression. I’m not sure how many kids are keeping diaries, or any kind of private outlet for their thoughts and feelings. But, don’t we all need a cathartic way to, “spill it?”
Why not an app?
Today, we added Teen Scene to LikeSo. Teen Scene is part of LikeSo’s conversation game, TalkAbout, offering an engaging and fun way to talk it out, and, in doing so, figure out how you feel about a multitude of issues, ranging from the light-hearted (“Who is your favorite YouTuber?”) to the more thoughtful and serious (“Is your online self your real self?”).
Teen Scene can be played alone, or, like the app Heads Up!, with friends. It’s a great way to spark conversation and get to know each other even better. And, with LikeSo’s voice recognition software, the app captures your words including those fillers that may water down your meaning and distract your listener (e.g. “like,” “ya know,” “so,” “totally!”) providing a real-time analysis of your speech fitness.
Ask any therapist and they will tell you that it is important for all of us to talk things out as it helps us better understand our feelings and where we stand on issues.
According to Dr. Benna Strober, child/adolescent psychologist, “LikeSo’s Teen Scene is a great way to get to know yourself. You might think you feel a certain way about something, but when you say it out loud it forces you to really think through what you think about certain topics, and not feel like you are being put on the spot or being influenced by what other people say. There is a lot of power in that.”
I asked Teen Mentor and President of Girls Above Society, Lauren Galley, what she thought about an app that gives teens the opportunity to let it all out.
“I see LikeSo’s Teen Scene as being a lot of fun to play when friends get together, like at sleepovers or at camp. It’s a fun way to really get to know each other. I like that there are serious questions and more fun ones intermixed. Sometimes we may feel weird bringing up a certain taboo topic, like what we think about smoking weed or our view on our own body image. With Teen Scene, you can make a game out of it and possibly start a conversation you need to have. And, I think there is value in playing alone without having to share. LikeSo can force us to come up with our opinions on issues without relying on the opinion of our peers and to think individually, so we don’t echo what the person next to us said.”
As parents, we all want help our children think for themselves, which will in turn help them feel like they has some control over his world. When we work things out on our own, we feel empowered and develop a feeling of confidence in ourselves as individuals.
Get Real! LikeSo is available in the App Store for 99 cents – http://apple.co/1QBuByY
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