Technolandy

If Only We Had a Place to Teach Kids About Social Media…

Bill C-34 has me wondering about an unintended question for schools:

Should schools shutter their social media accounts?

If Canadians under 16 are going to be restricted from having accounts on some social media platforms, what does that mean for the schools that are actively creating content for those same spaces?

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There is something a little strange about warning young people about the dangers of social media while simultaneously producing content designed to encourage them to engage with it.

But I don’t think the answer is for schools to leave social media.

I wonder if it might be the opposite.

New Media Makes Us Nervous

Social media is still a relatively new form of media.

And we have a pretty predictable relationship with new media.

Comic books were going to ruin reading.

Radio was going to ruin imagination.

Movies were going to turn everyone into deviants.

Heck, books were going to end creativity and critical thinking because information was going to be waiting there to be explored… think of the independent thinking that could occur!?! – we don’t want that!

Television was going to ruin our brains.

Video games were going to make kids violent.

The internet was going to destroy attention spans.

Phones were going to destroy classrooms.

AI is going to destroy thinking.

And social media?

Well, apparently we’re increasingly wondering whether young people should be there at all.

Some of those concerns are legitimate. Social media platforms are deliberately designed to capture attention. Algorithms influence what we see. Advertising isn’t always obvious. Misinformation travels quickly. Likes and shares can become measures of self-worth. Privacy, permanence and audience are complicated concepts even for adults.

Which makes me think young people probably need some help learning how all of this works.

What If We Taught It?

Maybe the educational response to social media shouldn’t simply be:

Don’t use it.

Maybe schools could help students understand algorithms.

Recognize manipulation.

Question why something appeared in their feed.

Understand the difference between creating and consuming.

Think about privacy, permanence and audience.

Recognize misinformation.

Understand parasocial relationships.

Notice when scrolling stops being enjoyable.

Learn when to put the device away.

And perhaps even learn how social media can be used positively — to create, communicate, advocate, connect and learn.

In other words, perhaps we should treat social media literacy as literacy.

Because social media isn’t magically going to disappear when someone turns 16.

If we believe these platforms are powerful enough that young people need protection from them, perhaps they’re also important enough that young people need education about them.

If only we had a place where kids could gather to learn how to effectively and responsibly use this (relatively) new media…

Or do our schools model shuttering our social media outlets – no more youtube pages with graduation events, no more instagrams showing daily successes, no edutiktoks, no more facebook messages… I’m still stuck on this as I see social media as the most interactive media that has ever been released… for good and bad reasons…