Social media in a teens life; understanding the impact on your students and what you can do as a teacher.

We know that teens today spend hours on social media networks socializing and communicating with peers. As a result it is important to understand the effects media choices are having on a variety of skills (communication and cognitive processing) and learning preferences of teens.

*Remember Prensky's article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" (2001) I referenced in an earlier blog. Prensky reports the average college graduate has:

• spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading
• over 10,000 hours playing video games
• 20,000 hours watching TV

Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives (I want to know how a college graduate gets through high school and college reading under 5,000 hours!)

"This research study provides a snapshot of how U.S. teens experience the role of social media in their social and emotional lives. Using survey data from a nationally representative, probability-based sample of 13- to 17-year-olds, we address these questions:

• How often are teens texting and using Facebook and Twitter?
• What are teenagers’ favorite ways to communicate with their friends and family?
• How do teens think these new communications tools are affecting their friendships and family relations, if at all?
• How does social networking make most teens feel about themselves and their relationships with their peers? Does it make them feel more connected or more isolated? Better about themselves, or more depressed and lonely?
• How do the heaviest social media users compare to other teens in terms of their social and emotional well-being?" (Common Sense Media, June 2012).

The below link will take you to an amazing report that Common Sense Media completed and published answering the above questions and more (from http://www.commonsensemedia.org/)

Social Media, Social Life: How Teens View Their Digital Lives

Images from Google search