The Impact of Social Media and Technology on Today's Youth

Steve Adubato goes on-location to the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey to talk to Ivan Lamourt, Psy.D., Assistant Headmaster of St. Benedict's Preparatory School, about teen bullying and abuse and the impact social media and technology have on kids today.

9/5/19 #2240

Excerpt:

"Steve Adubato on location at the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey. We are pleased to be joined by Dr. Ivan Lamourt, who is assistant headmaster at St. Benedict's Preparatory School in beautiful Brick City, Newark, New Jersey. Good to see you, Ivan. Good to see you too, Steve. We've known each other a long time, I am honored... we are honored that you're part of our larger discussion, a forum that we are having on breaking the cycle of teen abuse and bullying. Also, I should disclose that my son Stephen is a teacher at St. Benedicts'. I actually had a conversation with him about this the other day. When we talk about the lessons we can teach, particularly young men... all boys school, right? Yes. What lessons are we teaching? And do we need to teach them about dating violence, abuse, and how they treat those they have relationships with? Loaded question, I know. It is. It is. And I think what we have to remember first is that a lot of the young men that come to us, come from an experience of violence. So one of the first things that... More city kids disproportionately? No. This is across the board. One of the... one of the myths of this kind of violence is that it's only happening in inner cities. It isn't. It's happening all over our country. And part of working with young men is teaching them how to have empathy, and how to be vulnerable, which is very, very difficult. Very... That's a learned thing? You can teach empathy. We're only born with a certain amount of genes that actually help us with empathy, but you can actually teach it. And people can grow in their ability to be empathetic towards each other. But if I am raised in this very traumatic sort of environment, of course I am going to act that out. And I think it's one of the things that our parents fail... will always fail to realize. They teach their kids how to act every single day. So a lot of times when kids come from these homes that are broken, where there's divorce, where there's substance abuse, it's no shock that then they'll begin to struggle with those same issues. By the way, by the way of background, let folks know that you have an academic and practical background in the field of...? Psychology. So you admit this? [laughter] Yes. I just wanted to clarify that. I'm curious about this. We've talked to people in this series, breaking the cycle of abuse, who say we need to have difficult but critically important conversations with young people about issues of dating violence, and one of our guests..."