Last week, I was given the opportunity to teach a lesson called “Social Media; What’s in, what’s out and what’s trouble?” to any middle or high school parent who was interested. About thirty parents arrived, a few with notebooks in hand, to hear what I had to to say. I started by admitting I am no expert on Social Media. But, I do have a different perspective on how their children use social media since I’m around them every day in so many different capacities--as teacher, coach, advisor, mentor, and friend. I decided to start my presentation by scaring the parents, then presenting my more optimistic thesis about teen social media use: that with the right mentoring, they can harness its potential to pursue passions and express creativity.
The Apps:
I felt obligated to start with Facebook largely because the adults in the room to whom I was speaking all admitted that they had facebook accounts. I moved away from it quickly, though, because teenagers are doing the same. Next, I moved to Tumblr and Twitter to give the parents a landscape of the social media their children use. I also used these apps to highlight how our economy values social media start-ups: Yahoo paid $1.1 billion for Tumblr, and Facebook paid $750 for Instagram. I showed a video, explaining how much a stranger can learn about someone by searching nearby social media pages, that understandably terrified a lot of the parents in the room.
Relentless, I then moved to the apps that I red-flagged for the parents: Snapchat, Vine, Tinder, and Chatroulette. Snapchat, an app that turned down $3 billion from Facebook, moves 350 million photos a day. I told the parents a story of a sophomore girl who, upon checking her snap profile, realized she had sent 28,000 snaps since she downloaded the app the previous year. I used my math skills to highlight that she sent, on average, over 50 snaps a day! Naturally, the parents hoped that it wasn’t their kid, so I shared the story of a junior girl with 33,000+ snaps sent since she created her profile. The scary thing about “snaps,” of course, is that they don’t actually disappear, as teeangers think they do. Others take screenshots, and Snapchat holds them in a database. After my Snapchat warning, I told the parents about the meme “do it for the vine,” and implored them to discourage their teens from doing something stupid or dangerous for internet fame.
Finally, when I got to Tinder and Chatroulette, the parents started to speak up--even though I had said I would take questions at the end. Fortunately, I don’t think a lot of our students are on these apps, but they exist, and they’re popular. Tinder is a “dating” site based on proximity that allows users who have mutually “liked” one another’s photo to chat and perhaps meet up! In February, Tinder boasted 750 million swipes a day. And, Chatroulette is one of the scarier apps--through Chatroulette, users can connect to anyone with a webcam anywhere in the world with just a click.
The Argument:
Despite all the negatives associated with these apps, and the overarching disconnect teenagers are facing, I tried to spin this talk optimistically. Acknowledging the negative, I urged parents to speak to their kids about this stuff. I argued that students are sacrificing their physical relationships, basing their self-worth on the number of “likes” on their online profile, and that’s not okay. I told the parents a story of a 16 year-old girl who I caught during check-in at 10:15 putting make-up on so she could go take a “selfie” with another student. The next day I asked her why she was on her phone while I was talking, and her answer was that she was checking how many “likes” she received. Unfortunately, this happens when students don’t find anything else to post about, and therefore put themselves out there for the digital world. We, parents and teachers, need to be on the look-out for this behavior and find other ways to help our kids evaluate their self-worth--hopefully based on interest.
Again, in an effort to emphasize the positive, I looped back around to an opening statement I made about the Arab Spring revolutions and their dependence on social media. I pointed out that social media has potentially immense value. Though I argued students were stuck using apps for “social” updates, I hypothesized that they could be using them for information updates. In order to get students from “social” to “informational,” I hope to help them explore their passions on social media. I talked about Tumblr blogs, Twitter accounts, and Facebook pages that students could “like” to get updates that help them become deeper thinkers, informed citizens, and inspired creators. Unfortunately, our students struggle to get outside their social circles and into the part of social media that benefits the 21st century student. Social media has beneficial, informational uses, including opportunities for personal and professional development and networking, a platform from which to ignite regime change, a source for promoting a worthy cause, and an outlet to help a boy fighting cancer become batman for a day. I’m convinced my students can be inspired by these uses, and though I didn’t say it explicitly, I think schools have to be teaching this stuff. Fortunately, I didn't have to say it: The parents did in their follow-up questions, which turned out to be more of a discussion and less of a Q&A. I couldn’t have been happier; it was a great first step!
