The story below is a preview from our July/August 2018 issue. For more, Subscribe today or view our FREE digital edition.
Digital media is pervasive in our society. From television to radio, PCs to laptops and cell phones, it is hard to escape. Adolescents are especially susceptible to its lure.
Growing up in the digital age creates new emotional and social opportunities and challenges. Opportunities include the ability to connect with people on a more frequent basis, create collaborations and learn on the internet. Challenges arise when we compare ourselves to others, overuse digital media and encounter cyberbullying. Researchers are also exploring potential links between social media use and the rise in teen suicide rates, addiction to technology and loss of real-life social skills.
The 2015 Common Sense Media Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens reported that tweens spent about six hours per day using media and teens spent almost nine. The types of usage varied based on age and gender, with females engaged more on social media and males playing video games. Almost 40 percent of tweens’ and teens’ use was passive, which includes watching videos and listening to music. Social media use jumped 12 percent from tweens to teens. When so much of adolescents’ time is in front of a screen, it is no wonder parents, educators and mental health experts are concerned about the effects.
“Screen time and social media can affect self-esteem. Fear of missing out (FOMO) can really occur with social media,” says Ashley Reynolds Marshall, Executive Director of Mental Health America Roanoke Valley (MHARV). “According to the Royal Society for Public Health study, Instagram was the worst (out of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat) because it is all pretty and curated.”
Instagram users often take several pictures and run filters before posting them on the app. This can be misleading since it is not a realistic picture.
Adults are not immune to FOMO. Advertisers count on that. However, children and teens are especially susceptible given that they are learning who they are and where they fit in the world. Peer pressure is common among teenagers, and now it is in real-time that a friend posts on Snapchat or Instagram that they got the latest trendy shoes. Or that a friend is out having fun with another friend and someone sees it and feels left out which can lead to feeling unpopular and lonely. They are also less likely to consider that life on the screen is not always an accurate or complete picture of the person’s real life.
“Let kids know what you see on the internet and social media isn’t always real, but you are and you’re awesome,” says Marshall.
Instant feedback in the form of likes and comments on posts can also create issues around self-esteem and confidence. This type of feedback also stimulates the reward center of the brain, creating an addictive quality.
“Much of this media is designed for obsession. App and video game designers use operant conditioning techniques to draw the user in,” says Decca Knight, a parenting educator, Roanoke County school counselor, Clinical Trauma Specialist and Love & Logic Facilitator. “This is especially troubling because a child’s brain is still developing. The pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain involving decision making, isn’t fully formed until our mid-twenties. This means that a child’s brain is particularly vulnerable to the addictive nature of tech.”
The pre-frontal cortex is also the part of the brain that helps with impulse control and relating consequences to actions. Since it is not fully developed in adolescents, this can also lead to impulsiveness and a disconnect between the actions they take in the moment and the possible consequences.
Knight, who is also the owner of Blue Ridge Parenting and Connected Child Counseling, says that since the introduction of the smartphone “studies have shown that our youth interact less with others, are more lonely, more unhappy, and get less sleep. It has also been found that personal social media usage leads to a decrease in efficiency and an increase in distraction.”
Maurie Sutton, PhD, has taught school for 18 years and agrees that access to cell phones during school creates distractions. She says, “Not only can students text each other in the class, they can cyberbully, Snapchat, cheat, play games and more. In a perfect world, cell phones and social media could be used to enrich learning.”
Some students do use their cell phones to track assignments. Often, homework is assigned and turned in via Google school accounts. Schools do encourage use of digital media for independent research, like looking up articles on Google Scholar.
One reason Google Scholar is encouraged is to keep students from finding random articles online that may not have validity. Teaching children that not everything they see online is true is one thing parents and educators can do to encourage responsible use of media.
Another important thing parents can do is help children feel comfortable coming to them when they feel insecure or have a question. This may dissuade them from seeking out potentially unreliable information online or through questionable apps. Commonsensemedia.org has a list of apps children might be using and notes those that are of special concern, including dating apps that have location information.
A 14-year-old female student from Lord Botetourt stated that she thinks social media can have negative or positive impacts on teens depending on what they follow. She says that she believes it has been good for her self-esteem because she follows people who post body positive messages and encourage individuality. However, she has friends who have body shame because they compare themselves to images they see online.
Although there are aspects of digital media use that may cause unwanted consequences, there are benefits as well. Adults and youth are finding ways to express themselves in new ways, sharing their talents online and being recognized for their abilities. They are using social media as a platform for causes they believe in and finding support from like-minded people. Marginalized individuals, like LGBTQ youth, can connect with new friends who understand the struggles they face. Introverts are more likely to reach out via social media and feel less alone. We are exposed to new ideas and challenged to open our minds in ways we might never have been if we were not able to communicate with those outside of our proximate communities.
While the potential for falling down the virtual rabbit hole exists, there are ways to stop the fall and mitigate the potential negative effects of digital media. The key is to be intentional in our use and establish boundaries about how we use digital technology so that it adds value to our lives and our children’s lives.
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