One would think all this near constant “socializing” would make teens feel more connected than ever before.
In her classroom, says teacher Cori McAbee, the opposite is true.
“Social media has crippled my students when it comes to interacting with one another in person. Their very ability to communicate is deteriorating,” says McAbee, who teaches 11th grade English in Rutherford County, North Carolina.
The very definition of “social” media may be misleading, according to experts who are finding that the more time teens spend on social media, the lonelier and more anxious they are.
There’s a correlation between smartphone usage and lower satisfaction with life, according to Jacob Barkley, professor of health sciences at Kent State University.
If teens were to follow up high social media usage with lots of time spent socializing in person, the effects perhaps wouldn’t be so adverse. But in most cases, they aren’t. It turns out, liking a post, commenting “Cute,” or keeping up with a “snapchat streak” isn’t the same as catching up. It’s not even close. Yet too many teens, according to these experts, are substituting real life interactions for instagram posts, and paying the price.
Because research into social media and education is still generally in its infancy, many educators are still trying to fully understand the effects of these technologies. Social media can be an effective teaching tool, but many educators are alarmed at the role it plays in heightening student anxiety and stress.
In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control issued some sobering statistics about student anxiety and depression. Teens are more lonely, anxious and depressed than ever. About a third of teens surveyed by the CDC said they’d felt persistent sadness or hopelessness. Social media, says John Richter, director of Public Policy at the Mental Health Association, believes social media is exacerbating this trend.
“Researchers are finding that when someone develops depression and withdraws from peers, they see other people on social media smiling and at parties with friends. It magnifies their sense of isolation,” says Richter.
And yet, students have trouble putting their phone down for too long, says Crystal Huset, counselor at Pardeeville High School in Wisconsin.
The lack of real life communication, the comparison, and the bullying are too much for some students to bear, Smith adds.
Ideally, every school district in the nation would be equipped with a comprehensive, systemic program to address students’ mental health challenges. Despite renewed attention to the problem in recent years, t’s clear schools have a long way to go.
In 2018, New York and Virginia became be the first states to require mental health education as part of the public school curriculum. It’s a start, says John Richter, because the curriculum will help teach kids how to deal with some of the pressures in their lives.
“How do we help kids who experience anxiety because of social media? The first step is teaching kids to recognize what anxiety actually is and feels like, and how to seek help,” Richter said.
While many districts are taking significant steps in designing new evience-based programs, helping students navigate social media is a challenge that many educators are taking on at the classroom level.
Larissa May, CEO of #HALFTHESTORY, a company dedicated to healthy social media use, believes that educators, first and foremost, should simply be aware of their student’s experiences on social media.
“Every adult has experienced scrolling through Facebook for too long or comparing themselves on social media. Let your students know you understand these issues,” she says.
Showing students other ways to use social media in the classroom can also help prepare them for healthy use in adult life, says teacher Anne Braun.
Larz suggests integrating a social media component into every project. “Social media is an extremely useful and powerful tool, and we can’t run away from that,” she says.
It’s not about educators controlling their students’ social media usage, adds Larz, it’s about holding a conversation that many students want to have.
By high school and college, many students have run out of steam. Anxiety—the mental-health tsunami of their generation—has caught up with them.
With one in five children living with a mental health condition, more schools are creating comprehensive, systemic programs to address the problem.