Social Media

Social media is everywhere. Our School shares some of our stories using online media. Like many parents I must admit that I too hold several personal accounts – on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. One of these I use as Principal@Calrossy (though I don’t follow any students of course). Early this year I deleted my TikTok account and now only use SnapChat to communicate with my own adult children. Some phone apps were added as an experiment to learn and understand what was happening in the lives of our students, in the belief it is important for educators to know about the world of our students. Whilst there are some benefits to social media for me as an adult, what I noticed is how addictive it can be. It is purposely designed to be that way.

The following recent article (NPR Magazine, Cory Turner -16 February 2023) explores how social media impacts on teen brains and is relevant to parents of adolescents but also of those younger, who will confront these issues soon, given that many young people now learn to swipe, before they can talk. I found it thought provoking and balanced, providing good food for thought for us as parents as we think about how children use their devices and procure social media:

10 things to know about how social media affects teens' brains

Between 2009 and 2019, depression rates doubled for all teens. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The question is: Why now?

"Our brains, our bodies, and our society have been evolving together to shape human development for millennia. ... Within the last 20 years, the advent of portable technology and social media platforms [has been] changing what took 60,000 years to evolve," Mitch Prinstein, the chief science officer at the American Psychological Association (APA), told the Senate Judiciary Committee on February 14, 2023. "We are just beginning to understand how this may impact youth development."

Cory Turner broke Prinstein’s submission down to 10 key takeaways:

Social interaction is key to every child's growth and development.

Prinstein said that “children's interactions with peers have enduring effects on their occupational status, salary, relationship success, emotional development, mental health, and even on physical health and mortality over 40 years later. These effects are stronger than the effects of children's IQ, socioeconomic status and educational attainment."

This helps explain why social media platforms have grown so big in a relatively short period of time. But is the kind of social interaction they offer healthy?

Social media platforms often traffic in the wrong kind of social interaction.

What's the right kind, you ask? According to Prinstein, it's interactions and relationship-building "characterized by support, emotional intimacy, disclosure, positive regard, reliable alliance (e.g., 'having each other's backs') and trust." The problem is, social media platforms often (though not always) emphasize metrics over the humans behind the "likes" and "followers," which can lead teens to simply post things about themselves, true or not, that they hope will draw the most attention.

It's not all bad.

For some teens, "digital platforms provide an important space for self-discovery and expression" and can help them forge meaningful relationships that may buffer and protect them from the effects of stress. In fact, when used properly, social media can feed teens' need for social connection in healthy ways.

Adolescence is a "developmentally vulnerable period" when teens crave social rewards, but don't have the ability to restrain themselves.

That's because, as children enter puberty, the areas of the brain "associated with our craving for 'social rewards,' such as visibility, attention and positive feedback from peers" tend to develop well before the bits of the brain "involved in our ability to inhibit our behaviour, and resist temptations," Prinstein said. Social media platforms that reward teens with "likes" and new "followers" can trigger and feed that craving.

"Likes" can make bad behaviour look good.

When teens viewed these same illegal and/or dangerous behaviours on social media alongside icons suggesting the negative content had been "liked" by others, the part of the brain that keeps us safe stopped working as well, Prinstein said, "suggesting that the 'likes' may reduce youths' inhibition (i.e., perhaps increasing their proclivity) toward dangerous and illegal behaviour."

In other words, bad behaviour feels bad — until other people start liking it.

Social media can also make "psychologically disordered behaviour" look good.

Prinstein spoke specifically about websites or online accounts that promote disordered-eating behaviours and self-harming.

Extreme social media use can look a lot like addiction.

"Regions of the brain activated by social-media-use overlap considerably with the regions involved in addictions to illegal and dangerous substances," Prinstein told lawmakers.

The threat of online bullying is real.

Online bullying can take a terrible physical toll, Prinstein said: "Brain scans of adults and youths reveal that online harassment activates the same regions of the brain that respond to physical pain and trigger a cascade of reactions that replicate physical assault and create physical and mental health damage."

It's hard not to compare yourself to what you see in social media.

Even adults feel it. We go onto social media sites and compare ourselves to everyone else out there, from the sunsets in our vacation pics to our waistlines – but especially our waistlines and how we look, or feel we should look, based on who's getting "likes" and who's not. For teens, the impacts of such comparisons can be amplified.

Sleep is more important than those "likes."

Research suggests more than half of adolescents are on screens right before bedtime, and that can keep them from getting the sleep they need. Not only is poor sleep linked to all sorts of downsides, including poor mental health symptoms, poor performance in school and trouble regulating stress.

A complete copy of Prinstein’s submission can be found at: https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/download/testimony-prinstein-2023-02-14 (It is very heavy reading.)

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My Principal takeaway is that social media is not all bad, either for students or parents but it is clear that we need to be aware of the dangers and threats. Healthy conversations with teens and pre-teens are important to establish healthy habits. It stuns me that some parents who are incredibly protective of the physical environment of their child, can be blasé about what their children do online. It reinforces to me that our limiting of mobile devices at school is a helpful thing and I encourage parents to do as we do at school, which is to continue to talk about and model healthy social media use. We are all committed to the same goal – growing great children to be adults who relate effectively with those around them.

As Paul wrote to the believers in Philippians: Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4: 8 – 9)

D. Smith

Principal

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