Before the debate, I was a staunch believer that social media ruins childhood, and after the debate, I find myself in the same boat. There are many times as a parent and a teacher that I wonder if kids know how to be bored anymore. It also makes me feel a bit like a Boomer to say things like that, but I honestly see the truth in it.
Kids don’t know how to handle being bored. Social media, used by both parents and kids alike, manufacture childhood to be instantly gratuitous, and with the constant barrage of dopamine-inducing videos and games, there isn’t time to just sit and be. One of my biggest fears is that my kid will grow up to be an i-Pad kid.
I watched this video on manufactured childhoods and I think that it is so important that we as educators do not blame the kids for their inability to switch off from their devices – it often starts at home above them with their parents. When seeing all of the glamourous childhoods online there is a competitiveness that happens with parents and children; I want that too! This comparative nature of social media harms both parties, child and parent, and strains already naturally somewhat rocky (especially during teenage years) relationships. It is here where I think problems begin.
I have heard often that millennials have a parenting problem and that that problem is reflected heavily in Gen Alpha kids – our predominant student body. Statements like “your kids can’t read” (by teachers/adults) or “I can’t read!” (said in [hopefully jest] by students) are common, but it isn’t that students are illiterate – it is that they lack literacy skills like critical thinking and processing skills because the information they are taking in is so fast and rewarding that they don’t have to really grapple with anything difficult. This inability to develop and utilize critical thinking skills is hitting hard in the classroom, and I think I speak for the majority of teachers when I say that it makes our job so much harder when we are supposed to be preparing them to enter the world as a literate person, able to see, understand, and interact with the world around them.
Beyond the inability to concentrate for long periods of time, be bored, and be critically literate, there are numerous safety issues with social media as well. I teach high school and have for my whole career, and the sheer amount of inappropriate things that happen through social media is insane. That’s not to say that having unrestricted access to the internet when I was young didn’t happen – we all know the videos that circulated that we definitely should not have been watching – but that viewing did not happen during school hours or get shared so instantaneously. I have had students arrested for child pornography that they had viewed while during school hours (nude photos of teen girls in the school), cyberbullying and threats, and even human trafficking into the cities via social media.
I can’t help but think that children want to get away from all of the social media and problems that come with it, but they are so indoctrinated and absorbed in to their phones that they don’t know how. The validation students get when they get likes or shares, or when they are the topic for gossip has to be filling a hole that parents and trusted adults have created for them.
The global community and connectivity that social media gives students is only a fraction of the things that social media provides, and I don’t think that it outweighs the issues that surround social media and childhood. Social media might not be the start of the problem, but once it has its grips on our kids, it subsumes the problem and creates entirely new monsters. Perhaps our cellphones and social media have become the ultimate panopticon – constantly viewing and judging – and we are nothing but prisoners in a self-made prison.
Your statement, “I think that it is so important that we as educators do not blame the kids for their inability to switch off from their devices” struck a chord with me. It’s sad to me that many of the issues kids have around social media have developed because of parenting and not the kids themselves. It makes me wonder how our students today will parent their children around technology when they become parents. Technology has changed so fast and each generation has different experiences from each other because of this.
I also wonder about how my child will parent their children (if they want children)! I feel such an immense amount of pressure knowing that who I raise will influence how their children are raised as well – and I cannot fathom what technology will look like by then. I know that I am going to be the parent who doesn’t understand the memes of tomorrow (which makes me kind of sad) but I will always try my best to keep up the youngsters!!
Thank you for sharing this thought-provoking post, Savannah! Your analogy of social media manufacturing childhood is both poignant and relatable. The detailed exploration of how social media affects children’s ability to handle boredom and develop critical thinking skills is compelling. Your call for educators and parents to address the root causes rather than blaming the kids is crucial. How can we best support children in developing healthy digital habits and coping skills in this technology-driven world?
I think that we are trying our best as teachers and parents in supporting our children through healthy digital citizenship – but that can be hard if you yourself don’t have any healthy habits. I think often of breaking intergenerational trauma and to not pass on the sins of our parents to our own children, but it can be really hard to break away from coping skills and things that peak our interest. I don’t have a realistic fix-all answer to how we support our children besides being the best and most educated about issues we can be so we can (try to) be on top of the game!
Savannah, your reflections on social media and childhood really hit home. It’s true that the constant buzz of social media can make it hard for kids to deal with boredom or focus on anything for too long. The way social media creates unrealistic expectations and pressures can strain relationships and impact kids’ critical thinking skills. Thanks for sharing your perspective.