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Social Media Through My Lens: A Message For Educators

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Social Media Through My Lens: A Message For Educators

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I have always been fascinated with social media, and its impact. Throughout the last few years we have seen a rapid development and rise in social media platforms and users. Social media can have its perks, however, my project will center more towards the negative impact social media has, specifically with young adolescents.

I spent the last two months of the school year filling in as a leave replacement for an eighth grade math class at Ossining Middle School. Prior to that, I spent the school year with a high school mentor teacher in the same district. Due to covid, I didn't get to interact with students in person until March of this year. So my own first-hand experiences have taken place over the last few months.

It was always my belief that too much social media is a detriment to us as human beings, but I believe that is even more true with young adolescent students. Social media can be a toxic environment filled with cyberbullying, constant comparisons to others, and trying to be someone that social media tells you to be. Social media can stunt growth in a way. It can alter the perception of how we view the world. We have learned throughout this course the changes that occur in a young adolescent's mind. Young adolescents are prone to wanting to fit in in order to make friends or look cool, and social media definitely can push them in that direction.

In my classroom almost all my students made some sort of mention or acknowledgment towards social media. I was able to understand their insight and views of social media. The most common theme of their social media intake is the aspect of trying to fit in or cater their lifestyle towards a trend that is occurring on social media, especially Tik Tok. Tik Tok has taken this age group by storm. There are new trends that swirl every day, and everyone has to be up to date with the newest trend otherwise they are put down for being out of the loop. I was not able to witness much of the cyberbullying aspect, other that some of my students mentioning if they saw someone's post online and then laughing about it. That aspect of social media has been around since I was in grade school, but keeping up with the latest trend or movement is something new.

Students are also more attached to their cellphones now more than ever. With smartphones students have the capability of having any piece of information at their fingertips. These smartphones have caused students to consistently lose focus in class. Social media distances them even more from what goes on in the classroom. Being able to scroll Instagram aimlessly to pass the time is something that a large portion of society is guilty of, but there is no place for that in the classroom. Students are so addicted to their phone that they can't help but to do the same thing to get through their classes. At such a young age, with the development of their brains, students need to be stuffing their minds with meaningful content, and not churning through mindless social media material. Since their brain is going through this development, it is important for young adolescents not to fall into bad habit from such an early age, and prioritizing social media over meaningful classroom discussions will be a detriment to their growth as human beings.

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This quote really resonated with me. I do firmly believe there is a generational gap that transpires. Even between the two most recent generations, Millennials and Gen Z, there is a varying reliance on technology, namely social media. This article does a really awesome job highlighting how generations can bridge the gap with young adolescents. They detail how understanding the relationship between young adolescents and social media can benefit the learning of those students.

The second point that stood out to in this article is how we as educators shouldn't try to limit social media use, because it is inevitable. Instead, we should aid in managing the rapid growth of social media which will should hep to limit the negative impact social media has on young adolescents.

The article goes on to highlight some of the positives of social media in regard to maintaining (but not developing) social skills. However, despite the positive remarks, they do focus on the impact social media has on the development of a young adolescent's mind. Detailing the accessibility of social media, being as how it is accessible 24/7, they state that young adolescents are attached to their phones so much that they develop fear of missing out. Meaning, they are afraid to step away from social media for an extended period of time. Roehl (2018) ponders, "How the potential lack of solitude affects a young person's ability to develop an authentic sense of self." This directly ties into what I mentioned in my introduction about witnessing students always trying to fit in with the latest trends.

Source: Impact of Social Networking Sites and Digital Applications Upon Teens
- Amy Roehl & Alyssa Humphries Stewart

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Survey Regarding the Impact Social Media has on Young Adolescence

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Survey Regarding the Impact Social Media has on Young Adolescence

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This article took several surveys on young adolescence, however this is the most relevant survey for my topic.

I want to dissect the numbers a little bit. It is stated that 45% of the teens polled do not view social media as positive or negative. This leaves 55% that believe it is positive or negative. Of the 31% who had a positive view of social media, nearly half of them, 40% to be exact, have stated that their positive view is due to connecting with friends and family. Connecting with friends and family is what social media was originally created for, so I want to push that stat to the side while I assess this survey. The remainder of the positive effects of social media highlight getting news or information easier, meeting new people, or keeping you entertained. All topics that social media is known to effectively produce.

The negative effects of social media is really what I would like to focus on. Bullying, harming relationships, unrealistic view of other people's lives (comparing yourself to others), causes distractions/ addiction (which is a negative way of looking at the positive effect 'keeping you entertained'), amongst a few other toxic effects that are highlighted. These negatives are just unnecessary stresses that a young adolescence is essentially voluntarily putting themselves through. We have discussed in tremendous detail how many issues that young adolescents will put on their plate before seeking help. The movie, Eighth Grade, that I watched portrayed a young adolescent girl who felt as though the world was against her, and a large portion of that feeling was due to her infatuation with getting assurance and acceptance from social media.

Source: Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018 | Pew Research Center

- Monica Anderson & Jingjing Jiang

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Top five things early adolescent educators most need to know about social media's impact on young adolescents

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Top five things early adolescent educators most need to know about social media's impact on young adolescents

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As educators, we need to be well equipped with combating the negative effects social media has on our young adolescent students. Here are my five things that every adolescent educator needs to stay informed with.

1. Raise awareness and accept the effects social media has on mental health.
As teachers we are responsible for the growth of our students, especially both socially and emotionally. Assuring that our students have the awareness needed to make responsible choices regarding social media is important. Students need to be made aware that social media has its pitfalls. Social media can harm mental health in a developing young adolescent brain. Too much time spent and emotional investment in social media can be linked to mental health issues. As teachers, we not have the authority to dictate what our students are allowed to do, that is the parents role. However, what we can do is enable our students to accept the realities set by social media. They need to be aware that going on social media and comparing themselves to others will only have a negative impact on their self-esteem. Perhaps if us teachers raise enough awareness, young adolescents will accept the harsh standards that social media has placed on them.

2. Hold Yourself Accountable
This rule directly ties into the first rule. Young adolescents need to be made aware of the impact social media has on their self-esteem and perspective of themselves. Jacqueline Sterling, a psychologist at McLean Hospital who works with youth who experience anxiety disorders laid out a plan that would enable young adolescents to hold themselves accountable for their feelings. Sperling (2021) "Encourages people to conduct their own behavior experiments by rating their emotions on a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the most intensely one could experience an emotion, before and after using social media sites at the same time each day for a week. If one notices that one feels less happy after using them, then one might consider changing how one uses social media sites, such as using them for less time and doing other activities that one enjoys instead." This can be an effective teaching tool for teachers to utilize. Students are not forced to use this method, but perhaps their natural curiosity will push them to try this technique.

3. Stay Informed and Up To Date
All of my sources at some point highlight the importance of staying up to date with social media. This doesn't mean that we have to consume ourselves with social media. Rather it implies that we are aware of the issues that social media brings to our society. Understanding why our students may be acting out on a given day could have a direct correlation with something that transpired on social media. Additionally, students might communicate in a unique way because of a movement that is happening on social media. If we as teachers are in the loop behind the scenes of social media then we will be more equipped to combat any potential issues that arise with our student body as a result of social media. Lastly, if we are aware the detrimental impact social media has, such as mental health or trying to fit in, we are even more prepared to boost our students' self-esteem even when we are unaware a certain student needs that boost in confidence.

4. Combat the Fear of Missing Out
One of the biggest reasons why young adolescents are glued to their phones and social media is the fear of missing out. As social media has rapidly taken the world by storm, people want to always be in the loop. Nobody wants an excuse to miss something, and because of that, young adolescents become trapped in an endless cycle of FOMO. According to an article by The Times written by Eric Barker, FOMO stems from unhappiness, and not just that, social media only fuels the unhappiness. The problem is that with FOMO, social media use is as high as ever in a young adolescent. That is what I mean by endless cycle. As teachers, we don't have the proper authority to silence all social media use (well, maybe we do during our class periods). What we can do is teach our student an important life skill, and that is not to take anything for granted and appreciate the world in front of you. We can preach to our students how wonderful life is and to realize the special bonds we share with our family and friends. We are so much more than educators of content, we are also educators of life. Young adolescents will eventually realize that physical world in front of them can't always be accessed at their convenience like the virtual world. There are moments in life that we need to truly soak up, and detaching young adolescents from social media can enable that.

5. Embrace Who You Are
My final tip speaks to us as human beings. There is so much that occurs on social media regarding fitting in and following different trends and movements. As teenagers and young adolescence, it is so easy to fall into the trap of being what the internet tells you to be. I know this is true because that's how I was in my younger years. However, what young adolescents don't see, and may even be embarrassed to admit, is that there is nothing more powerful than being yourself. This is an important role for teachers to play. As someone who has a lot of "nerdier" hobbies, I used to hide them because the internet made me believe that it wasn't cool, which only suppressed who I truly am. That is not how young adolescents should view themselves. They should never be ashamed of who they are and what their interests may be. As teachers it is up to us to always step into our classroom oozing with who we truly are as a person. We need to show our students that it's not just accepted to show who you are, but it is encouraged! Young adolescents that go through their grade school years trying to impress everyone is only stunting their growth of embracing who they are in all its beauty. As teachers we need to extract the true personality from all of our students and let it shine in a way social media can't.

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Top five best resources for middle school educators regarding combating the negative impact of social media

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Top five best resources for middle school educators regarding combating the negative impact of social media

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First Resource
This site details how to develop a growth mindset. Growth mindset is something that I have grown fond of through my journey through education. I believe that developing a growth mindset is the key to learning more knowledge and being open to change. Since social media has such a tight grip on young adolescents, implementing strategies in the classroom that encourage a growth mindset may be beneficial to the openness of deterring away from heavy social media use.

Second Resource
Fear of missing out was a heavy theme of my study. As a result, I thought it would be fitting to attach some strategies to help combat it. These are more geared towards life skills, rather than content pedagogy. However, I am a believer that we are also educators of life, and not just content. Therefore, I believe it is important to spend time with our students discussing effective life strategies such as accomplishing one thing at a time, rather than overwhelming yourself with everything at once which young adolescents often do.

Third Resource
This article speaks volumes to my philosophical beliefs as an educator. It highlights several ways on how to boost self-esteem. I always tried to have at least one pep talk with each of my classes throughout my two months with them. I felt like it was not only good for class morale, but I felt something positive that I said would resonate with them. This article echoes my beliefs on prioritizing yourself and your own learning, accepting and embracing who you are as a person and learner, and not beating ourselves up over mistakes (they happen!), rather acknowledging our successes. If we consistently focus on the positive aspects about our students, then maybe they won't be so concerned with the opinions of the internet.

Fourth Resource
The fourth resource is about creating an enriched learning environment. Lack of motivation plays such a pivotal role in the lack of concentration in the classroom. Students will feel the urge to scroll through their phones in class (even if it isn't allowed) just because they're bored. With young adolescents, we need to make sure their brains are constantly being stimulated so that they don't lose their concentration that social media could potentially cause or heighten. This article highlights effective tools to deploy in the classroom to help combat their urge to be stimulated by unproductivity such as social media.

Fifth Resource
My final resource raises awareness to the decision making process in young adolescents. This is a topic that has stood out to me the most over the past few months. Both first-hand and textbook experience has raised my awareness as to why students may act the way they do. This can be applied to social media usage. Young adolescents may act out impulsively in the physical world as a result of something that occurred in the virtual world of social media. As I've learned, it can be difficult to change this impulsive behavior because of the way the young adolescent mind is wired. However, this article raises awareness to the facts and realities of the young adolescent mind. This in turn gives educators an idea of how to be proactive by developing strategies that may prevent this behavior both inside and outside the classroom.

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My next source that I focused on puts a scope on every potential issue social media causes in the development of the young adolescent's mind. The authors highlight cyberbullying which we as educators know has been a pressing issue for several years since the ascension of social media. They also mention the stress and fatigue that social media causes. By aimlessly scrolling and mindlessly switching tasks, the young brain can become exhausted and as a result they run out of brain power to get through their duties for the day such as homework or sports practice.

We also see the impact social media has on emotional suppression. Kaur and Bashir (2015) state "When a person gets distracted from unpleasant emotions without giving the brain the opportunity to solve the problems associated with these emotions or without thinking about an unpleasant situation it leads to emotion suppression." This is apparent in students that I have witnessed in my classroom. If they get into trouble by faculty or administration, their first reaction is to take their phone out and bury their face. They don't want to face the reality of the situation that they just caused. From their point of view, why would they? They have the ability to access the internet or scroll social media. Young adolescents are grooming themselves to create temporary solutions rather than facing a conflict head on.

The topic that the authors touched on that really stands out the most is the lack of concentration that is associated with social media use. This topic is an aspect of social media that I never thought about. However, I believe this issue is even more crucial with young adolescent students. We have learned that the development of learning disabilities are apparent in elementary and middle school students. ADD and ADHD also play a major role in young adolescents. It can be extremely difficult for students to manage because often times they are unaware of their lack of focus. Excessive use of social media only heightens that inability to focus. As someone who has suffers from both ADD and ADHD I struggled mightily with my focus in the classroom. I had difficulty staying on task and getting through reading a single book. Putting that perspective into the shoes of a student who struggles in a similar way, but in addition has access to social media, I know that I would have had an even tougher time succeeding in school. I believe lack of concentration needs to be a focal point for educators to tackle and inform parents about, especially for students who suffer from lack of concentration by their brain's chemistry.

Source:  Impact of Social Media on Mental Health of Adolescents
-  Dr. Ramandeep Kaur & Hilal Bashir

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In addition to the resources posted to my middle school educators, here are my sources used to back up my arguments.

Roehl, Amy, and Alyssa Humphries Stewart. “Impact of Social Networking Sites and Digital Applications Upon Teens.” Journal of Family & Consumer Sciences, vol. 110, no. 2, 2018, pp. 37–42., doi:10.14307/jfcs110.2.37.

Anderson, Monica, and Jingjing Jiang. “Teens, Social Media and Technology.” Pew Research Center, 2018.

Kaur, Ramandeep, and Hilal Bashir. “Impact of Social Media on Mental Health of Adolescents.” 2015.

Barker, Eric, and Barking Up The Wrong Tree. “How to Overcome FOMO: Fear of Missing Out.” Time, Time, 7 June 2016, time.com/4358140/overcome-fomo/.