Teacher Amy Clancy: Wake up, parents. Your children are in danger from social media; time to step up

Social media took the world by storm and as parents, we had to ‘fly the plane’ while it was being built. We were unaware of the dangers of social media, and there are many. As studies and life itself has commenced, we have all seen horrible things come from social media: suicide, predators, actions led by disinformation, exploitation of children and so much more. Our children hold a tool in their hands that is powerful and we must wake up to the dangers that exist. We must take control of this tool for our children’s sake.

First, social media use is addicting. These platforms are persuasive technologies designed to shape our attitudes, behaviors, and even values. “From features like infinite scroll to algorithmic recommendations, social media presents a special case of persuasive technology where psychological buttons are poked and prodded again and again, often without our awareness.” (Humantech.com) Everything about the design of a social media platform, like Tik Tok and others, centers on getting and keeping our attention. But how?

Every time you hear a ding on your phone, or see you have notifications, even when just scrolling, your brain releases dopamine (the feel-good hormone). This becomes habitual as children spend more and more time online. “Our constant scrolling comes as a result of its chemistry and biological need for dopamine.” (Floreshealth.com) So it isn’t like one can just stop – especially a teenager. They do not understand (or maybe even care) what is happening to their brains as they spend hours scrolling or gaming.

As informed parents/guardians, we must step forward and take the lead. They’ll throw a fit? Of course they will- they are addicted. If you are allowing your child to take their phone to their bedroom at night – you are feeding their addiction. We must step up, parents, as there are other dangers involved as well.

Do you see Lazy Kids who don’t want to do anything? That also has a direct correlation to excessive use of social media and the brain. “Social media also reduces the amount that our brain needs to think — meaning that, just like a muscle, it can atrophy… by constantly checking social media and using an app to keep us entertained, the brain needs to do less thinking and creating of its own.” (Floreshealth.com)

Is social media making us dumber? It would appear so. As our world continues to put things at our fingertips, we must maintain our brain muscle! No One wants to work, but we must or what will become of us? Our society? When students have apps that instantly entertain and reward their brain with dopamine, what can a teacher do in the classroom to compete with that? We can’t relegate the content to 30 second sound bytes. Students must put forth effort to read and write and to learn. Social media use is having an impact on students in the classroom, just ask teachers how many zeroes students have for failure to do the work. And in the halls, on the sly, at home, “Social media users continue to return to their dopamine dealer — i.e. their favorite platforms — to get their fix of the molecule as well as a sense of social interaction, even if they aren’t getting any meaningful experiences at all.” (Floreshealth.com)

And that’s just it. Studies have shown that excessive social media use leads us to loneliness and depression. Just like forgetting everything we see, studies have shown we leave the experiences feeling empty.

Forbes cites a study that linked Facebook usage with a lowered level of moment-to-moment happiness. The primary reason for this negative impact revolves around the platform’s ability to feign a sense of connectivity, only to leave users with a feeling of isolation.” It goes on to note this is true for more than just Facebook: “the more time people spent on these (social media) sites, the more socially isolated they perceived themselves to be. And perceived social isolation is one of the worst things for us, mentally and physically.” (Forbes) When teens view others on social media, two things are naturally triggered- depression when comparing themselves to others and/or jealousy is a rooted problem in social media sites. We get to see others’ lives and as a newer study noted, according to Forbes, “About a third of the participants said they experienced mainly negative feelings, like frustration. And, as the researchers determined, the central cause for feelings of frustration was overwhelmingly envy, above others.”

How are you dealing with that, parents? How do we teach our children to be happy with what they have regardless of the kids on facebook who seemingly have perfect lives. We need to talk to our kids about these issues, because I can assure you, it is happening and contributing to their mental health issues.

So isn’t it possible that our children’s mental health is not from the pandemic, but from what they did during that time and from what we continue to allow them to do unchecked on these social media sites?

Studies have even shown there are physiological effects on the body when breaking social media addiction. “Studies have confirmed that people tend to undergo a kind of withdrawal: A study a few years ago from Swansea University found that people experienced the psychological symptoms of withdrawal when they stopped using (this went for all internet use, not just social media). Their recent follow-up study found that when people stop using, they also undergo small but measurable physiological effects. Study author Phil Reed said, “We have known for some time that people who are over-dependent on digital devices report feelings of anxiety when they are stopped from using them, but now we can see that these psychological effects are accompanied by actual physiological changes.” (Forbes) So don’t be shocked when your child acts and feels this way as you try to break this dangerous cycle.

Amy Clancy

We are hearing over and over that our children’s mental health is at stake, blamed on the pandemic. But what did your kids do during the pandemic? Some became full-on social media addicts and you know it by the way they react when you ask for their phone or when you tell them time’s up on a game and you stick to it. Those addicted students will get angry, lash out, and may even act out to retrieve their phones.

Exactly what a heroin addict would do if you took their drugs and they thought there was some way to get it back – desperate to get it back.

This, my friends, is addiction. Would you leave alcohol in the house if your child was addicted to it? Then why are you ignoring the phone and your child’s use of it? If we want to see positive societal changes, parents must take control of these devices and how long children are permitted to use them. No one going to sleep needs their phone – so why is it in their bedroom? Sitting for hours on a game or a site, why are you allowing that? There is so much research available that at the start we never knew. But we do now. Getting sufficient sleep, learning how to communicate with others face to face, being active, focused human beings, building our brains and critical thinking, rather than allowing our minds to turn to mush and our bodies to fail, THIS is the responsibility of every parent of every child if we hope to see any improvement in our society including the success of our children.

Amy Clancy is a National Board Certified 24-year teacher veteran at Walton-Verona Middle School. She is the ELA Specialist and teacher of reading for grades 5-8.

Sources:
Brian A. Primack, MD, PhD , Ariel Shensa, MA, Jaime E. Sidani, PhD, MPH
Erin O. Whaite, BS, Liu yi Lin, MD, Daniel Rosen, PhD, Jason B. Colditz, MEd, Ana Radovic, MD, MSc, Elizabeth Miller, MD, PhD “Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the U.S.” PLOS One. July 1, 2017. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0069841&mbid=synd_msnhealth Retrieved 1/9/23

Center for Humane Technology. “Social Media and the Brain”. Human.tech.com 8/17/21. https://www.humanetech.com/youth/social-media-and-the-brain. Retrieved on 1/8/23

Ethan Kross ,Philippe Verduyn,Emre Demiralp, Jiyoung Park,,David Seungjae Lee,Natalie Lin, Holly Shablack, John Jonides, Oscar Ybarra “Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults” August 14, 2013 Retrieved on 1/8/23 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0069841

Health Essentials. “Effects of Social Media on Children” 12/3/21 https://health.clevelandclinic.org/dangers-of-social-media-for-youth/ Retrieved on 1/9/23

The List. “Here’s how Social Media Affects Your Dopamine Levels” 4/14/21 https://www.thelist.com/382688/heres-how-social-media-affects-your-dopamine-levels/ Retrieved on 1/7/23

Walton, Alice G. “ Six ways Social Media Affects our Health” Forbes. June 30 2017 https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2017/06/30/a-run-down-of-social-medias-effects-on-our-mental-health/?sh=6dd6f8d92e5a Retrieved on 1/7/23