When my ds was in early primary school, i was heavily involved in volunteering; he won lots of various contests, awards, etc.
2 years later, I had pulmonary embolisms, was forced to stop volunteering and younger dd has never won anything....except races when nobody could dispute it.
They were both on swim team. My son began winning heats against coaches' son in butterfly; he was suddenly switched from butterfly to effing backstroke. I accidentally saw the times, ds was faster so they eliminated competition.
Both children won ribbons for swimming and their response was "finally! Ribbons that count! We earned them! Not the awards EVERYONE gets!" (Exclamations were pertinent :) )
I also noted one nasty mother changing times so HER own got ribbons. I'm also dyslexic so thought it would be wrong to do times in case I accidentally screwed up...which is worse? Accidentally or on purpose?! Argh!
Ds was not a stellar student bc he's dyslexic. He's starting a business, works steadily and will probably finish his 4 yr degree. (Schools are $$ and he's determined to be debt free.)
DD who NEVER won any academic award, is doing good in university and plans on getting Phd./JD. A good deal of her determination is to prove that she's as good as the award winners.
Actually. Dc and husband and myself are ambitious bc of the blatant unfairness in the world. Sometimes it's so tiring to see the unfairness that you just get angry and determined and in the case of our family say, "oh yeah? Try to take THIS from me." And we put our heads down and work hard and quietly, without fanfare, succeed.
Awards are politics. Personal experiences, goals, accomplishments are usually quiet and satisfying.
Personally, I think FB is evil and untruthful and hurts more than it helps. It's a giant time waster too. Think about it; instead of playing with the dc who grow up way too fast, doing something fun, interesting or enlightening, people are giving away private information for companies to use, hurting and being hurt by various head games of the same power mongers at school. Home used to be a refuge, now the societal angst is invited in.
When i was in year one of school we used to have " show and tell." My grandmother renamed it "bring and brag."
FB was written by a socially awkward, wealthy, college student who had virtually no real life experience. I don't see him actually getting life experience either; does HE worry about bills? Understand not being able to get to work bc of transportation issues? Wealth erases most daily problems. His popularity is without question bc of sycophants.
Yet, our lives are effected by an immature college kid's idea of how to find girls bc he was too awkward to go out to the quad and chat them up.
Yes, I seem to have lost the thread but not really; this is about the unfairness of prize awards. Zuck wasn't winning prizes so he started his own program to keep track of people/students. It was a quest for popularity.
Awards are given with the same concept with the same level of maturity and equity.
Explain to your children that the people in charge make the rules, hand out awards unfairly and it's just one more part of an unfair world. THEN hug them and go do an activity that you enjoy together and explain that family, love, personal feelings of accomplishment and fun are the best "rewards" which is better than an "award."
Explain fb is an immature, vile college student's response to being unpopular. Popularity is power, he wanted it, he invented a tool for getting it. Now it's a tool for evil. I never hear any happy things about using it.
Don't let him win. Turn it off and go have fun and if you run into someone you know, smile and have an authentic conversation...or wave and keep going.
You can't let other people control your emotions; live your life fully. It's way too short.