Matthew McConaughey made sure to teach his teenage son the good, bad and ugly sides of social media before he treated him to his 15th birthday.
The Oscar winner, who has son Levi with wife Camila Alves, finally gave in in July and let his son create a social media account after three years of deliberation.
“Let’s talk about what this is,” he said on the “Today” show about how he discusses the topic with his oldest son. “Let’s talk about the failures. Let’s talk about the failures. Let’s talk about the assets. Let’s talk about the pitfalls.”
“Let’s talk about what you want to tell. What’s your story? Because what often happens with young people and social media is that the first thing they think about when they wake up in the morning is, ‘What makes a good post?’ “Rather than ‘What do I want to do today,'” he added.
The 53-year-old actor advised young people to pay more attention to their own lives before rushing to share everything on social platforms, admitting that his son is still learning the ins and outs of the online world.
“I mean, we’re still taking baby steps, you know, his level of immediate exposure to this,” he shared. “He’s exporting stuff. We’re going through it, we’re measuring it, we’re talking about things.”
The “Dallas Buyers Club” star continued, “We showed him a lot of other people he respects and their posts. We talked about ‘Why do you like this? ” And then you see that certain people may have a higher click-through rate and you think, “But why are they doing that?” “
“Are they related for the right reasons?” McConaughey said he asked Levy. “Are their relevant reasons actually to be more of themselves and less like others? That discussion is ongoing.”
McConaughey and Alves introduced their son to their social media followers on Levi’s 15th birthday in July.
“Happy birthday Levi Alves McConaughey,” his father said in a joint Instagram post with Alves.
“Do you believe it?” she said, turning to her husband. “Fifteen,” he replied, adding, “Hey, man, your mom is a little nervous today. One of our gifts to you, yes, we’re allowing you to join the world of social media today.”
The Gentlemen star revealed that the couple had been discussing when to bless him for an account since he was 12 years old.
“All his friends have been suffering from this for a long time,” Alves noted. “We kept at it.”
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McConaughey added: “He knows who he is and where he’s going. I think he can handle it. He’s got a great story to tell and share.
“Levi, enjoy the adventure, enjoy telling your stories and expressing yourself and what you did there and the interactions you had with the people there.”
The couple also has two young children: 13-year-old Vida and 10-year-old Livingston.
