The real problem with posting about your kids online 網上曬娃隱患多

湖南岳陽華容二中 張明波

In a recent essay,a mother explained her decision to continue writing essays and blog posts about her daughter even after the girl had protested.One commenter（批評家）criticized parents.I agree with critics who accuse the woman of being tone-deaf to her child's concerns.However,I believe the broader criticism of parents and their social media behavior is wrong.

I've been studying this topic—sometimes called “sharenting”—for six years.Too often,the public talk about parents against children.Parents are willing to invade their children's privacy in exchange for attention and likes from their friends.But this parent-versus-child framing hides a bigger problem:the economic logic of social media platforms that exploit users for profit.

Communication scholar Lee Humphreys sees the impulse parents feel to document and share information about their kids as a form of “media accounting”.If you've ever looked through an old yearbook,a grandparent's travel photos or a historical figure's diary,you've looked at media accounts.Same if you've scrolled through a blog's archives or your Facebook Timeline.Social media may be fairly new,but the act of recording everyday life is age-old.

Unlike the diary entries,photo albums and home videos,blog posts,Instagram photos and YouTube videos reside in platforms owned by corporations and can be made visible to far more people than most parents realize or expect.

The problem is less about parents and more about social media platforms.These platforms increasingly operate according to an economic logic.They produce goods and services designed to get enormous amounts of data from individuals and use them to influence people's behavior.These platforms pursue a business model predicated on knowing users and using that knowledge to their own ends.

So the concern is less that parents talk about their kids online and more that the places where parents spend time online are owned by companies who want access to every corner of our lives.In my view,that's the privacy problem that needs fixing.

Reading Check

1.What does the author think of criticizing parents?

A.Very exact. B.Partly right.

C.Unfair. D.Ridiculous.

2.What can we know about recording everyday life?

A.It has existed since very early time.

B.It's the result of social media.

C.It has brought trouble for grandparents.

D.It's not a very good habit.

3.Why do social media platforms offer good services to parents?

A.To change parents'behavior.

B.To get rid of parents'concern.

C.To share data with parents.

D.To get information from parents.

Language Study

Sentence for writing

They produce goods and services designed to get enormous amounts of data from individuals and use them to influence people's behavior.

【翻譯】_____________________________________________________________________________

【點石成金】句中designed to...為過去分詞短語作名詞goods and services的后置定語，表被動；and連接并列的成分produce goods...invividuals和use them...behavior。