Am I the same person for real and in social media?

This was the main topic for today’s Wellbeing session. On the follow up of last week we kept analyzing the way we operate online, the image we convey and how it affects the links we establish with others.

As we post online we acknowledge that we are looking for two things: sharing with friends and family and public approval. If the former is absolutely legitimate (as we create personal links by sharing with others), the latter is a new phenomenon, result of the online society we live in and we use it project ourselves and gain a different level of recognition that we couldn’t imagine to have years ago.

This virtual world opens a different dimension to the perception we can have of others and the perception we create on others too. Likes, views and followers represent now this new dimension of who we are… or who we aim to be, or how we want to be perceived.

If in one hand we can cast a real image of ourselves in social media, most times we are unconsciously looking for a general acknowledgement of ourselves according to these virtual standards. This can be innocent and harmful at the same time.

 Parga and Aryan checking their privacy settings

As a result, and falling again on the conclusions of last week, it is very important to filter carefully who we connect with, how we interact and how does our online image damage who we really are. It is something personal, difficult to define and hard to shape.

Finally, we agreed that our group project will be to have an accurate check on our privacy settings and challenge ourselves to delete from our contacts, anyone we don’t really know, who we see as dubious or whose interactions are not positive. The goal is to ensure we are increasing our online safety… as we all agree that despite this, there is an extremely positive side to social media.

This weekend our amazing boys returned to Crans Montana for the last trip of the season, just before Easter. As usual many fun activities were organized like Bingo, Skiing, Realfly simulation, excursions to Sion and everyone had a really great time. Check out some of the moments captured these days:

Online safety is our 4th Pillar for the Wellbeing Programme.

We will be working on this pillar for the weeks to come and today’s topic was:

‘What you post….in that moment’

To help us with the reflection we used two starting points:

When we think we are being funny or witty or purposefully insensitive towards someone else’s post are we really aware of the potential harm or hurt we can cause? Most often not. Our intentions are often simple, we don’t intend any harm… simply sharing a laugh, joking with our friend, having a good banter, probably like we do when we have a situation in person at school, or in any social situation. However online our words are engraved and the tone is not present. Misunderstandings can happen and disagreements can follow, with one of the sides taking offence from our comments

 Posting a funny picture or video of someone or your friend can be online- forever! Here is an extremely important  layer of consideration to cast once we do something of this nature. What goes online is in a way or nature, forever there. Even if we can delete posts on social media, the content is not totally delete from the depths of the net. And the person victim of this post, might not access to deleting it either.

So in terms of morality and values we need to thoughtful of what we comment and what we post. Our mind should consider that by being insensitive in these scenarios we can be provoking major ongoing distress to someone else.

Thank you Aryan for helping us leading the session.

Lovely evening in the Léman House yesterday with Mr Tarun providing us with some raclette and the Boarding Office with the ingredients for some crepes which we did ourselves. It’s amazing to spend time together in a relaxed and social way with a lot of the boys who decided to participate.

Thank you all for this great moment 🙂

Naddim and Mr Antonio preparing the batter. Right proportions for a consistent and tasty batter.

A new concept… Raclette and Crepe at the same time 🙂 Potatoes are ready.

Friends around the table. Ablai, Mateus, Jeff and Rakann.

Aryavir and his attempt at turning a crepe… successfully. Mission accomplished.

Simple and tasty. Naddim, Mr Antonio, Taichi, Tomo, Misha and Mr Tarun.

Great evening. Mr Rodrigo, Jeff, Amirhossein, Mr Antonio, Tomohisa and Taichi.

Justin preparing the batter for the pancakes

Elmar was emotional today as he got his cake for this 19th birthday. Quoting him…”it’s my last birthday at CDL”.

What a journey this was!!! Elmar will soon go to University and he is doing so well academically that we can’t help but feeling a little emotional about his achievements.

Celebrations entailed a barbecue with his friends, by the lake… We wish you all the best Elmar 🙂

Fulfilling one of our favourite traditions, on every Wednesday we have an international dinner, today we have discovered the food of Senegal, among the most outstanding dishes for our students are the maffe, beef with rice and peanut oil, really tasty. And without a doubt what surprised us the most was the fresh hibiscus tea, super refreshing and sweet.