If one were to talk to a parent, grand parent, or basically anyone who is older than thirty years old, they are likely to suggest that social media is ruining childhood. You hear it all the time “kids these days, can’t put their damn phones down to see what is going on around them”! Or maybe that is just something that my grandpas says, but I doubt it! Growing up somewhere in the middle, where it felt like cell phones became prevalent about half-way through high school, I am inclined to agree. This BBC article that suggests almost 2/3 of a parenting group believe that childhood ends at the age of 12 is both surprising and alarming. I know that many of us have a penchant for romanticizing our youth, or the “good old days” as described in this USA Today essay, but I believe that being born in 1989 excuses me from romanticizing the techless 1970’s summers. The “for side” of the debate group strongly supported this with Carly Bizieff’s piece on The Impact of social media on Children. In her research, she provides ample evidence that the negatives associated with children participating using social media largely outweigh the positives of children participating in social media. As a teacher I can think of countless anecdotes that would support this work. At this point I recognize how unbalanced I have been. I must credit the “disagree” group as I believe that were in a position where they had to battle uphill from the start. Excellently, they used the inspiring story of Bana Alabed in this Girl with a Voice article to demonstrate what can happen when social media and digital tools are used for good. This acted as a strong counterweight for some of my predetermined biases around the impact of social media on childhood.
While I still believe that social media has a strong potential to negatively affect childhood, like with anything else, it also has the potential to create good when used appropriately. It reminds me of the expression “to a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. If I use a hammer for all of my chores, more often than not, something is going to get wrecked. If I use the hammer in a measured and appropriate way, I am going to find some workable solutions, without encountering collateral damage. A hammer for all home projects will be detrimental as will social media if applied to all aspects of childhood.
5 Comments
6/7/2022 07:46:53 pm
Hey Chris, I like the hammer analogy that you used to conclude your thoughts. Social media can absolutely be harmful to childhood if we let it. For children under the age of ten, I believe a lot of the responsibility falls on the parents whether it be television, computer, tablet or phone time. Teachers share some of this responsibility in school buildings but our reach can only go so far. Do we blame society? Maybe. But that wouldn't actually solve the issue. I felt very torn at the beginning, but I thought the disagree side had a very strong argument for social media not ruining childhood.
Reply
Chris
6/12/2022 01:04:24 pm
Hi Kat,
Reply
Brittney
6/8/2022 03:21:50 pm
Great post Chris! The analogy makes perfect sense and I have to agree with you. I wouldn't go as far as to say that social media is ruining childhood, but it can definitely have some strong effects - both positive and negative. Tech is something that is only increasing in popularity (as well as social media). I think in the end it really comes down to parenting and what they decide to enforce/not enforce. Too much of one thing is never good! Especially unsupervised and uneducated use when talking about tech & SM.
Reply
Christopher Kampman
6/12/2022 01:16:46 pm
Hi Brittney!
Reply
Social media can be a double edged sword for sure, however, to say that it is ruining childhood is a drastic statement in my opinion. Too often we seem to blame kiddos for all of the troubles in their generation, but we fail to see that parenting has a big role in it all, and we often neglect to put more responsbility onto parents and the role that they play in it all.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
|