Students and Social Media
I love education. I love social media. Social media in education? It’s...complex, to say the least. The impacts of social media on us as educators and adults is one thing. It has its downsides, but can also provide many great benefits. Our students navigating the world of social media, though, is very different, and we are caring adults in their lives who are by default going to be connected to that navigation process, though some more than others. Since social media is only going to have an increasing impact on our lives and the lives of our students, I’ve been learning even more about it through some interesting articles.
The Bad and the Ugly
Although I explored several different articles, I chose to focus mostly on the negative sides of social media and the effects on kids. My students are only nine or ten, and many of them have social media accounts already, even though I wish they didn’t. They are still such young and innocent kids, and we all know that social media can expose kids to things that are not age appropriate. Something that unfortunately trickles its way into the classroom on occasion that I have to help kids through is just how much they care about social media, because they are at such a delicate age where they just care about what their peers think about them SO much in general. I’ve dealt with kids who are facing cyber bullying, but mostly, a lot of what I see in the age range that I teach is kids whose feelings are hurt over not being invited somewhere, or their previous best friend posting more about someone else, etc. These are normal, age-appropriate things that I also experienced during that age, but social media and all the photos, postings, followers and such, heighten those experiences for preteens.
An article I read from The Washington Post, called “ Digital self-harm: What to do when kids cyberbully themselves” discusses how some kids have even created fake accounts to bully THEMSELVES online, with the goal being to see who defends them, and receive sympathy and attention. I had never heard of this type of behavior before, and it makes me feel so sad and sick. The article also shares harrowing statistics about how the isolation of the pandemic caused students to be more depressed than ever, and turning to social media oftentimes did more harm than good.
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| Image Source: PsychGuides.com |
Another article I read was “ The Lonely Burden of Today’s Teenage Girls” from The Wall Street Journal. The article talks about the negative effects of social media, specifically focusing in on the age group of kids born after 2007, and specifically on girls. A quote from that article that stuck out to me is, “Girls sleep with their phones and react to every notification. As they create more interesting, supposedly happier virtual personas for themselves, their real selves diminish. Girls collect “likes” instead of making friends. They can be devastated by a cruel text or a tepid reaction to a selfie.” Sadly, I see sometimes see this even in young girls like my students.
What Can We Do?
We can’t make phones and social media go away. We have to focus on the controllables, and provide education as well as Social Emotional Learning (SEL) support for students. I am SO happy that for the most part, kids are back in school, and don’t have their phones all day and are reconnecting with peers in an authentic way. As teachers, we can’t forget that a huge focus this year needs to be on slowing down, connecting with our students, and teaching them mental health and SEL skills. Things like community building in class, SEL curriculums such as Second Step, and after school empowerment clubs are great places to start.
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