When I graduated Highschool in 2007 we had flip phones with no real access to Facebook, Tik Tok, Snapchat, or even MySpace (the social site of the time). We weren’t living our whole lives online where we had unfettered access to everyone and everything 24/7. I find myself questioning the difference between high schoolers in 2007 and in 2022. We are now facing the repercussions of kids who have had access to smartphones, social media, and the internet all-day-everyday.
One of the issues I have seen parents and teachers have is cell phones and how kids are on them all day long. I have also heard rumors about the teachers being discouraged from requiring they be put away. What are our kids being subjected to? Well, despite the increase in mental health issues, there are also cultural issues that stem from rewarding certain behaviors.
The reward is not a sticker or candy, it is the dopamine hit kids are getting from the “like” on their comment or video. When questionable algorithms on Tik Tok (Chinese owned company) push dangerous challenges, some that are even directly harmful to their schools and staff, kids are always “plugged in” and in desperate need of a dopamine rush, we end up in a spiral of being the "edge.” LibsofTikTok, chronicles this phenomenon really well (even teachers race to the bottom).
There is no real dissent to what they are experiencing. Their favorite influencers, their favorite actors, their teachers are all into the orthodoxy. Twitter, Facebook and Youtube “shadowban” (hides) content that does disagree with certain opinions. When they are faced with dissent, kids and other believers brush them off as “bigots,” “racists,” or some kind of “-phobe.” Cell phones have made this worse. Instead of having to contend with opinions face-to-face, our kids are growing up in a space where most discourse is done on a cell phone that is on their person almost 100% of the time and in a setting where it is easy to gang up on the dissenter. Instead of backing up good arguments with complimentary commentary, they get “likes.” Instead of constructive criticism, they get blind encouragement from people who aren’t impacted by their decisions, or worse, people who want to watch your kids fail or maim themselves. Instead of constructive disagreements, they provide name-calling and calls of fallacy. When our kids are the dissenters they are subject to being bullied, ostracized, and harassed in person and online all hours of the day and night.
Maybe it’s time that we reconsider the social media that our kids use and when we allow them to have their cell phones. Maybe it is time to encourage schools in making classrooms cell-phone free. Also, as parents, maybe it’s time to step up and get our kids out of these vicious social situations that have bad emotional and social outcomes while also teaching our children that there are bad decisions that they can and should avoid even if it makes them unpopular for a minute.
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