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A teachers union says it’s fed up with social media’s impact on students (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The nation’s second-largest teachers union said Thursday it was losing patience with social media apps that it says are contributing to mental health problems and misbehavior in classrooms nationwide, draining time and money from teachers and school systems.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I think the problem there is (likely) more the social media than the phones. I grew up with high schoolers having phones in the classroom in 2009-2013; Twitter and Facebook were the big two, and Instagram wasn't what it is now. Even then, Facebook & Twitter could kind of suck/cause drama way more than just the more basic things phones can be used for cameras, calculators, web browsers, and messaging family & friends.

"Addictive social media" in particular, is probably where congress's eyes need to be placed. That sounds like what this union is saying as well doing a quick skim, so 👍👍 .

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago

What were we warned about back in the prime Facebook/Twitter era? Short term dopamine driven feedback loops or some such?

This is the result of not heeding that warning.

You're right that blaming phones is dumb. The phone is a tool, just like a hammer. You can use a hammer to build something, or destroy something. It's all about how it's used.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

As a parent with a kid entering middle school who just got a phone (average age for one in this area) here is my 2 cents:

I want my kid to have a phone more for me than her. There are no pay phones and if, heaven forbid, some shit goes down (we are on America and shit goes down in schools) I need to not only be able to allow her to easily contact us and us to contact her, I need to know her location. Past events have shown we can't count on anyone else. Barring school shootings, I would not be anywhere near as concerned about her having one. I know parents of kids with severe allergies also want kids to have a phone on them.
Since she could talk we have talked about media and it's influence on her mind and life. That talk has evolved as she has grown. I studied the impact of harmful media, so in this way I have the privilege of knowing why this education is so vital. She knows what she watches and puts out there can impact her in insane ways. And though I have to slowly trust that this took root in her as I cant control what she watches forever, things like Google family link can help me block sites and apps, make her ask for permission etc. She knows I do this and why and she will talk to me when she thinks she should have access. It's a conversation.
I know her friends parents don't do this. Which I also know allows her access other ways, again, I have to slowly hope this education worked. I wonder if more parents instead were taught to take these steps if it would help and if we taught students directly. There are privacy concerns too though, my kid knows I'm here parent, not the government, she has no expectation of privacy on her phone (mostly anyway) at this age from me, but she should from her school so I wouldn't want them to be allowed to block etc.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You sound like a parent who manages to be caring and involved, without being overbearing. That’s difficult. Congrats!

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

We work with high schoolers and have for over 25 years. My husband is a high school band director. This is absolutely completely true and getting worse each year. COVID really contributed to very rapid decline in mental health, and we're only more seeing kids get just a tad better. Many parents aren't willing to make the hard choices for their kids and turn off these devices. The kids are not ok and we as a society are doing nothing to fix it.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Social media impacting mental health is definitely happening, but its a symptom of a larger problem. And COVID definitely accelerated it. But this is a problem that has been going on for decades IMO. American society is crumbling and fixing it will be a multi-prong, multi-decade, probably multi-trillion dollar effort.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

but its a symptom of a larger problem

American society is crumbling

I've heard this before about a billion things, it's not a particularly useful take. IMO we've got a youth depression problem because of extremely hostile messaging about "how screwed our country is", "how screwed our planet is", and addictive mind manipulating social media apps.

I'm in my late twenties, my generation was plagued by hot take social media, and I think the current generation has it even worse. I'd love it if we could avoid these hot takes on Lemmy. Break the problems down into their pieces and attack those things; IMO, like solving any big problem, that's how we get through this.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ve heard this before about a billion things, it’s not a particularly useful take.

It wasn't really intended to be, as that is a larger conversation. But I didn't mean it the way I suspect you thought I did, in a boomer "tight pants and rock music are all of society's ills" way.

My take on it is that ever since corporations got away with prioritizing shareholder profits over everything else, the safety nets that kept families strong started to crumble. Parents had to work more hours, people were more stressed, neighborhoods became more distant, urban spread increased. Add that to hysteria over crime and we get parents that aren't able to raise kids and think schools can do it. No sense of community responsibility and no safety net of a village helping to raise the kids because everyone's at work and scared that someone's going to shoot or kidnap them. So you get generational radicalization with acting out behavior getting worse and worse.

Social media makes all this worse because it optimizes for engagement, and nothing gets engagement like misery and jealousy all while giving an illusion of actual socialization. COVID was gas added to this fire that has been burning for decades.

Break the problems down into their pieces and attack those things; IMO, like solving any big problem, that’s how we get through this.

I definitely agree there. Which is a challenge in and of itself. Like I said, this is a multi-pronged issue. It didn't get to where it is quickly and it won't get fixed quickly either. It will be a generational effort. And I don't think all the fix actions needed are agreed on or even known.

I think part of it will be strengthening neighborhoods and creating a sense of community and pride in it. Another part is allowing parents to actually parent and giving them the tools that their parents didn't pass on to them because they probably didn't have them either.

It's a large conversation to have.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Maybe I'm not thinking through everything here, but why not have a phone locker by the classroom door? Student comes in, phone goes in the phone locker. Student leaves....phone comes out.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Parents throw a fit, and honestly I can’t blame them. With school shootings as prevalent as they are I’d want my kid to have a phone at all times too if they need to call for help.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There have been multiple times that my daughter has had emergencies at school that she was able to solve by calling us. I'm glad she has a phone. But she also uses it responsibly.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Principal Skinner meme:
Is it the state of the world and lack of credible future that causes mental health problems?

NO, it's the social media that is to blame.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

The solution: All these students should be on lemmy making us content! #DoItForTheFediverse /joke

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