The world has evolved a lot in terms of technology and communication. The way we talk, interact and engage with the world has become more and more digital over the years and it will only continue to grow this way.

I found a lot of the number regarding social media and online usage to be very expected and in some ways I thought they may be higher. All the data I will discuss here comes from Pew Research Center and the study can be found here. It’s not surprising to me that YouTube and TikTok are the most visited online platforms to me as they offer so much content that kids will never run out of things to watch. I am surprised that only 54% of teens would find it hard to give up social media. I figured that number would be much higher with how reliant teens are on social media for communication and entertainment. Somewhere my opinion may differ from others is when it comes to being reliant on social media. I don’t see this as a major problem as it is just a part of the evolution of technology. Every generation teens will become obsessed with something that the older generations hate because back in there day they didn’t have all this dumb technology and social media is no different. It allows teens to communicate easier and share experiences which I see as positives. Yes there are negatives to social media and they can’t be ignored but I think the positives get overshadowed by these negatives. That’s just my opinion though, I would love to hear others thoughts on this as well.

YouTube may just be the easiest way to reach tons of people in seconds. The video below where Michael Welsh discusses how his video blew up on YouTube was very interesting. We now live in a world where we can make and upload videos for free which can reach millions of people. I find it interesting too how videos of which come out small communities like anthropology can spread to many others who aren’t even interested in the topic.

There is a lot of good we can use social media and new technology for in our classrooms. Whether it be using social media to interact and engage students in our learning, posting education videos on YouTube to help our students which could grow and reach many others, or just being able to communicate with students outside of class time to help them with homework. These advantages are great and can certainly create more learning, but there will also be challenges, too. The digital world is very distracting and students are very likely to get distracted during class or abuse the use of technology in the classroom. As teachers we have to balance the use of technology with other means of learning and ensure we keep an eye on students are doing with technology.