The Power of Social Media

On September 12th I posted some thoughts about how students engage in social media and how children and their families could work together to navigate this online world in a healthy and transparent manner. I’ve come back to this hugely important topic again (and will continue to do so throughout the year) both because the landscape is ever changing and because we need to constantly remind ourselves to be thoughtful in how social media is impacting behavior.

This article https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/smarter-living/educational-apps-kids.html focuses on the many opportunities to leverage social media so that students (and adults) engage positively with the online world. Look through these characteristics with your family and apply them to the apps you and your children currently utilize. This is a terrific way to model and apply critical thinking and digital citizenship skills.

This article https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/ is long and worth the time to read and reflect on as you think about the current routines and behaviors in your house. Are you noticing and unhealthy trends? How might you rethink the way devices are used and down time looks/sounds/feels in your home?

4 thoughts on “The Power of Social Media

  1. So what can we do about it? Are we waiting for the pendulum to swing back in the other direction or is there something we can do (besides “moderation”)? Sounds like a good start for a parent discussion.

    1. We can educate our children and help our friends and their children utilize social media in a positive, purposeful and limited manner. This includes clear expectations and follow through on when and how children engage in online communication.

  2. These stats are scary… Thanks for sharing!
    So what can we do?
    “Even Steve Jobs limited his kids’ use of the devices he brought into the world.” (But if only some of us do it, will our kids feel and be left out?)

    1. Maybe the resilience learned by feeling left out is bigger than the resilience required for the outcomes that are mentioned in the articles. I’d like to hope so.

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