Are the Kids Alright?: How Social Media is Affecting Childhood.
“Mom, can I use your phone to find my friend’s TikTok account?”
“Mom, can I use your computer? I want to play Grow a Garden on Roblox.”
These are two questions I got from my children before breakfast this morning. As a mother of two pre-teen children, the topic of social media use is a common one in my household. I think we can all agree that this is very much part of our reality now and for the foreseeable future, so we may as well do our best as parents to get informed on how social media is impacting our children.
I want to start by saying that social media is not all bad. It can be an excellent tool for kids to stay connected with friends and family who are far away. My own children use it to video chat with their grandparents and play games with their cousins who all live in different parts of the United States. My daughter uses KidsMessenger to stay close to a school friend who moved several provinces away years ago.
Social media can also be a tool for learning new skills or hobbies. My son, who loves baseball, watches YouTube videos about how to improve his pitching skills or drills he can practice to become a better hitter. My crafty and creative daughter uses Pinterest and Shuffles to learn how to crochet, cook new recipes, and create virtual collages to share with family and friends.
While these positives are worth noting, it is even more important that we understand the risks involved. One of the most apparent risks connected to social media use is the negative impact it can have on mental health. By projecting themselves on social media, children become dependent on the approval of peers and even strangers to validate their worth. While this opens doors for possibly positive connections, it can also create opportunities for cyberbullying, which research says has only been increasing as young people are becoming more connected online.
On top of all of that, kids struggle with the pressure to “measure up” to what they see online. They often fail to understand that what people share online is typically a glamourized or “filtered” version of their lives. It is difficult to see that even people who appear happy, beautiful, and put-together online struggle with the same things they do.
Along with more time spent on screens, we see children spending less time outdoors. This raises a variety of concerns in itself. This can lead to a drop in creativity and physical activity and an increase in mental health concerns, such as reduced attention, and increased anxiety and depression. These concerns may be founded in more than just the content kids are engaging with. Scientists have been researching the impacts of EMFs, or electro-magnetic fields, that technology emits and how they may be disrupting our bodies. Some countries are even putting laws in place to help limit the exposure children have to EMFs. Another concern regarding children reducing the amount of time they spend outdoors is that they may feel less connected to the natural world around them and therefore have less appreciation or respect for nature, when our world is already experiencing a global climate change crisis.
Our children are growing up in a digital world, so allowing safe use of digital tools also allows them to develop and strengthen skills they will need to navigate our technological world. The key here is finding the balance between “safe” and “unsafe” use and giving our children the tools and support to know the difference.
Experts, like Dr. Becky Kennedy, give advice for parents on how to support safe use of social media with our children. She stresses that it is important to have open, healthy conversations with children about social media – the good and the bad, and to have clear expectations and boundaries for not just our children, but ourselves as well. After all, our children emulate what they see the adults in their world doing above all. It is important that we not only protect our children but also prepare them as well. We do them a disservice by keeping them completely sheltered from the digital world. Without adequately preparing them by modelling good usage, helping develop critical thinking skills and supporting healthy emotional processing, we can set our kids up for disaster later on in life.
3 thoughts on “Are the Kids Alright?: How Social Media is Affecting Childhood.”
Beautifully said. I like your open-mindedness about equipping our children for a successful digital future. As technology evolve, so should parenting strategies and conversations. there is no need turning a blind eye and keeping our children in the dark. This is their era, thus as parents we need to keep up and be informed so we can better guide them in cyberspace. I like that they also don’t have a phone just yet; that ways you can better manage their screen time and activities. When it is time for them to have their own device your ongoing family conversations will hopefully guide them to model responsible digital citizenship.
I agree with your viewpoint. In Nepal, I have observed students increasingly choosing TikTok, Facebook and Instagram over playing outdoor games after class. The playgrounds are now empty as children prefer to live in the digital world rather than the real world. This shift away from outdoor, spontaneous interaction is undermining their ability to collaborate, brainstorm, and approach problems deeply and imaginatively.
I also notice students relying heavily on online chats while feeling anxious or awkward approaching peers in person. Face to face friendships are becoming rarer, which impacts their confidence and sense of belonging. Moreover, social comparison like FOMO is common among Nepali youth, scrolling through others’ highlight reels often leaves them feeling inadequate or disconnected from their real lives.
Balancing safe digital use with time for outdoor play, genuine in person interaction, and self awareness isn’t merely healthier, it’s essential for cultivating next generation of creative thinkers, empathetic communicators, and socially confident young adults.
Hi Vanessa, I too have witnessed a disparagingly obvious shift in children no longer wanting to explore the outdoor environment and spend time in nature and outside. As an educator, I find this is one of the fundamental issues that my students complain about – the dreaded outdoors.
“It’s too cold.”
“It’s too hot.”
“Do we have to?”
These are all common responses when I plan our plethora of outdoor activities.
Having come from an outdoor school, I will always value outdoor education, learning, and exploring because I have witnessed the benefits inherent in that form of education. There is a greater sense of creativity, problem solving, critical thinking skills, and even just relaxation! Students that struggle with neurodiversity and their own learning are suddenly calm and responsive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV5MEP3Bgkc
I am fortunate enough to have found my current position in an Indigenous school in Northern BC. The Tahltan Nation is in a process of language, culture, and art reclamation and, as such, I am thrilled that we follow a cultural calendar that is braided into our academic one. This means the students have so many opportunities to explore their natural world, while simultaneously connecting themselves with their ancestors and elders in a beautiful learning experience.
Yes, the outdoor world will always hold a special place in my heart.