Blogs What’s your opinion about social media use?
We are on screens more than ever before: work, school, play time, and friend time. COVID is keeping us from face-to-face interactions every day. For some, social media has become our porthole to the world, and we rely on social media platforms to schedule events, talk with groups, and maintain our connections to one another.
I’m writing this shortly after I’ve given a stern reminder to my (10yo and 7yo) children to get off of TikTok and back into their respective virtual classrooms. The struggle is real.
Research studies from Common Sense Media, Pew Research Center, The Child Mind Institute, and the Center for Humane Technology indicate that too much social media use on popular sites like Instagram, TikTok, and SnapChat can lead to depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia in children.
Course 5115: Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Students, Wellness, and Society seeks to decode that research into understanding the effects of social media’s on us; we can actually use technology as a tool that works for us instead of against us. This course is the second in an ongoing partnership with IndieFlix, as we support learning with clips from the film, LIKE. If you are familiar with the IndieFlix film Angst, or our anxiety course, 5102: Anxiety Awareness: Empowering Students with Help and Hope, you will love this course too!
This course seeks to demystify social media by educating adults on the different apps under the umbrella of “Social Media”: what is Snapchat? What is “Insta”? How do these apps even work? We’ll also cover how social media is monetized to increase engagement, and most importantly, we’ll discuss how the use of social media affects students’ mental health.
No matter what your opinion on social media, Course 5115: Exploring the Impact of Social Media on Students, Wellness, and Society helps us recognize that social media is a tool – without its own inherent goodness or badness – we have to be intentional about how it’s used. You’ll leave this course filled with the knowledge of how it all works, and how you can use technology, instead of technology. If you’re ready to to use social media for active social emotional balance, productive learning, and creativity, we hope you will join us!
Learners Edge Offers 100+ Self-Paced, Online,
Graduate Credit Continuing Education Courses for Teachers
