“A rampage by young hockey fans after the Canucks' loss to the Rangers in the Stanley Cup finale Tuesday night left as many as 200 injured and more than 50 arrested. Dozens of downtown stores had their windows smashed and there was some looting. As many as 500 officers, many equipped with riot gear and using large doses of tear gas, battled into the early morning against a "hard-core throng" that had spilled onto downtown streets. There were complaints that innocent people were tear-gassed and left without any avenue of escape. ”  NY TIMES - June, 1994

Credit is given to the New York Times almost 16 years later and rings very clearly in my mind as a night that changed the way the world looked at a city known for being quaint and unassuming.

I had the distinct privilege as a citizen of this city to walk the streets on Friday evening and take in a number of Olympic sights and sounds relishing the positive and patriotic outbursts of joy.

As I walked southbound on Granville, negotiating wayward red mittens and flag pole tips, I strolled through a crowd of young Vancouverites swearing, smoking marijuana, drinking open liquor and all I could picture was the footage from the Riot of 1994. I wondered how these fans would celebrate a gold medal win in hockey compared to the gold medal win in skeleton by Jon Montgomery.

People who had never even heard of the sport skeleton were screaming for an Olympic win by a man who filled the hearts of millions with pride, all the while throwing their half-filled cans and bottles into gutters to hide from police as they walked past. I witnessed a guest from the Netherlands voice her concern for the behaviour of the group and felt shame wondering how the world viewed us in those moments. I realised that with the good there had to be some bad and I shared a smile with her reassuring that she wasn't alone in her judgement.

I decided to look ahead and see what I could learn about those who may want to cross the line by looking at their own words through social networking.

I discovered a number of status updates on Facebook indicating how inebriated people intended to get this weekend as they partook in celebration of others achievements. I noticed a number of individuals who stated they would take on a cop if police got in the way of their right to celebrate and then I found one young man who last night was able to get so drunk that he passed out at the bar awaking in the drunk tank and making it home in time to go to work. 

Vancouver is an amazing city complete with a number of incidents in our past that chronically dictate our future.  Isn’t it ironic, that those who protect our city, may collectively sigh a breath of relief should Canada not qualify for the Ice Hockey gold medal game all because of how we as a city behaved over 15 years ago?

Hopefully, the Olympics becomes our time to not only show the world who we are as a whole but to show those we share our city with that we have grown past the self-entitled and alcohol fuelled maniacs that some of us become whenever we find or get close to success. I want to be proud for a number of reasons at the end of these Olympic games and I hope it includes the behaviour of every single fan.

Jesse Miller

www.millerconsultingservices.ca

I asked a student recently if he used Twitter. His response was that Twitter was useless and he preferred Facebook. I asked the student next to him the same question and she replied that she uses Twitter all the time and connects her Twitter account to her Facebook status updates and enables geo-tagging to update her location to Twitter – she was in the 9th Grade.

This week has been exciting in Vancouver, a number of events shaping this city with thousands of tourists, dignitaries, police and locals bumping into one another.

I bumped into Tony Hawk the legendary skateboarder today; he’s much taller in person than on television.

I used this event to ponder how many people were conversing via social media at that given moment, sending pictures, updating Facebook and Flickr while trying to absorb all the action occurring around the Winter Olympics.

In this moment, I recognised that the world was literally everywhere and their homes were incredibly open and connected to the moments we were all experiencing. I recalled my conversations with those students and feared that their exuberance and connectivity may not be creating the same happy moments in the long term.

Who was following their tweets or status updates?

Who was reviewing the pictures without knowing the person who was uploading the content in person?

I have been delivering a message of online privacy awareness for the past few years and I have seen fantastic results in my work but I reviewed my thoughts today the same way I do every day, in a proactive and protected thought process where I minimize my risk of becoming a victim.

I invite you to take a look at www.pleaserobme.com - A website designed to review content on Twitter and Foursquare that purposely reveals how a person makes their world vulnerable, where they welcome a number of paths to becoming a victim and where our social networking world has taken a disturbing turn.

I have always challenged my audiences to review their habits and comments online and look at the vulnerability they are becoming available to. Although this website is delivering a tongue-in-cheek message, it has shown the world a very scary possibility for the social media we love and at times abuse.

If we lock our doors, cancel newspaper deliveries, let the neighbours know we’re out of town and ask for a mail pick-up, what happens when our children post to Facebook and Twitter that we have left the home and won’t return for a week or a few days, or even a few hours for that matter?

How do we stay safe while staying connected?

I welcome your thoughts.

Jesse Miller

www.millerconsultingservices.ca

Did we take something away from the kids by not closing schools or did we just give them an opportunity to find the games on their own?

When Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics, a number of campaigns began to allow students in the province to experience the games first hand by closing schools and allowing parents to bring their kids to the events without fear of missing any class.

A number of voices appeared and the consensus was that closing schools to allow only a handful of ticketholders attend events was not reasonable. Childcare and transportation issues became serious concerns for elementary school aged parents. Some school districts altered their schedules to allow students a chance at seeing the events by starting the school year earlier or by adding minutes to each week and balancing out the number of missed classes.

The majority of schools are using this opportunity to open dialogue and allow students to bring their own stories and experiences to the classroom by using social media to connect students by bringing media generated at the events forward. Students are busy uploading content to their profile pages and bringing the content into school via smart phones and digital cameras.

Those who don’t get to experience the events firsthand are experiencing the games vicariously through their friends at school and the benefits are outweighing the number of tickets sold. Imagine a gymnasium filled with students in Osoyoos or Nanaimo watching Canadian athletes competing in Whistler on a Monday afternoon or cafeterias filled with chatter as students surrounding an iPhone are reviewing medal standings.

A student in grade 10 at Magee Secondary School and a Grade 12 student at David Thompson Secondary administrate a group on Facebook to petition schools to close during the games. Although their attempt to close schools has failed the group currently has 65, 500 members and is being updated daily with event info, Olympic opinion and a huge amount of patriotism.

But then we look at the kids at Sardis Secondary who participate on the drum line team.

These students have been the talk of Whistler playing an array of songs and generating a buzz beyond the mainstream acts on stage. Principal Long of Sardis Secondary told me today that these students raised their own funds to get to the games, had local businesses help raise money, are sleeping in the gymnasium of Howe Sound Secondary and bus to Whistler everyday from Squamish to entertain the crowd.

Social media has given these kids a voice and fan base on Facebook and on Youtube. With the Olympics in town they’re getting a worldwide audience in their home province and hopefully a legacy of tours and musical experiences.

We take in this magical time in a number of ways; I’ve seen the events on television, on my smartphone, in person and across social networks. I have taken steps to enjoy the Olympics in my city and I cannot think of a better spirit to the games than a group of students from Chilliwack who invests so much into themselves for the benefit of others.

Check them out -
or in person - They will be performing outside GM Place (Canada Hockey Place) before and after the quarter final and semi final hockey games on Feb. 24th & 26th.

Jesse Miller

www.millerconsultingservices.ca

Monday rolled out in an interesting way.

A total audience of 500 participants, a room of very interesting students who appeared to hear the message being taught and some feedback to make my next presentations in Surrey school district that much more fun and interesting.

A number of surprises – one student informed the audience that her 7 year old sister was on Facebook.

Notable, but not "knock me out of my shoes" surprising.

The next student informed the audience that her 4 year old sibling was on Facebook. I took a breath, I addressed it and confirmed the age and I will now be contributing a number of opinions and tools to a local website for parents to really extend social networking awareness in the home and putting the onus on the older siblings who need to learn how to equate the realities of the Internet with the realities of dangers in everyday life. If 12 and 13 is too young to be on Facebook, how do we as a society feel about 4 year olds?

One student informed the audience that they had over 800 friends on Facebook. I can only think of the amount of connections I need today in my life to feel connected let alone when I was in the 9th grade.

At 14 years of age, I had a hard enough time knowing everyone in my grade let alone my entire school. I challenged a number of participants in the audience today to write the names of all their friends on Facebook on a sheet of loose leaf paper and they scoffed at the idea as it was a daunting task. When asked if there was a difference between friends and acquaintances on Facebook – apparently it is a popularity contest!

That student with 800 plus friends decided to take my advice and change their behaviour as noted from a Facebook status update this evening:

“That's a start. 811 friends down to 681. If you're still on my list, it's because I think you're cool & I don't think you're going to creep, kill or rape me LOL. Feel special ”

I agree, it’s a start – keep at it please.

Jesse Miller www.millerconsultingservices.ca

I have had the privilege of speaking to students at schools across Metro Vancouver and British Columbia and on Monday I will be presenting a similar presentation to the many I’ve delivered to schools across the province.

This presentation has been designed for a school in Surrey School District. This will be my first time presenting in the City of Surrey and while researching this presentation I discovered trends that I have chronically seen before. Connections open between friends, parents, siblings and total strangers exchanging everything from cellular phone numbers to home address info and the status of parents being home or not.  

My audience will consist of students who will range in age from 13 to 14 and in a very similar way to the other students I’ve presented to will be very open about discussing their use of social networking websites like Facebook. These students will throw their hands enthusiastically into the air when asked questions like; “Who uses Facebook?” or “Who has over 300 friends on Facebook?” and “Who has over 200 photos on Facebook?”

When told that the minimum user age for Facebook is 13 years, these students will openly admit that they knew this fact when they joined Facebook a couple of years ago and didn’t see a problem with it. A number of students will also indicate that they have younger siblings who participate on Facebook, keeping in mind that the students being addressed will be 13 and 14 – their siblings will be 10, 9, 8, 7...or  younger.

The amount of media attention we see when looking at social networking ignores the social responsibility we all have when it comes to monitoring who uses this site. Parents enable youth to connect in a multiplicity of ways without thinking about the short and long term risks. Children are connected to the world through the Internet on social networking websites, gaming systems like Xbox or Playstation, and through cellular phones that allow children to connect without parental supervision. Youth today face a world that is being designed around an online reputation based on photos, friend’s lists, tagging, texting, gaming, downloading, uploading, tweeting, and blogs.

My presentation on Monday in Surrey will encourage students to learn about sites like Facebook before they sign up. They will learn more about online gaming before they run home and connect a video game console to the Internet at 3:30PM and they will learn more about the photos they upload to the World Wide Web and who has access to those photos in the long run.

This appears to be the forecast for my Monday, maybe I’m becoming clairvoyant or maybe kids on social networking websites are becoming too predictable. We’ll see their reaction at the end of the school day.

Jesse Miller - www.millerconsultingservices.ca