A Knitting Bean, the Instagram Map, and Taylor Swift remind Students About the Importance of Balance Online
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A new app helps students focus just in time for the new school year
The Gist: A popular YouTuber, famously nicknamed “The Internet’s Dad,” Hank Green has launched a new app, and it comes with a smiling bean that wants you to stay on task. Focus Friend quickly soared to #1 on Apple’s Top Free Apps, passing Google, ChatGPT, and Threads. Unlike typical productivity apps, this one turns focus into a game: you set a timer, distractions are blocked, and if you succeed, your bean keeps knitting socks. If you get distracted and grab your phone, the bean drops its needles. The more you focus, the cozier your bean’s world becomes, offering a mix of productivity, nostalgia, and fun.
What to Know: Released as a passion project between Green and developer Bria Sullivan, Focus Friend has already been downloaded over 100,000 times. It enters the spotlight during a wave of A.I.-generated content, often deemed A.I. slop, that keeps students glued to their screens, which can impact their ability to sleep, in turn impacting their focus during the school day. The app is ad-free, reinforcing its goal of reducing digital noise. For Hank Green, who has long reflected on the challenges of internet fame, this is about giving people their time and attention spans back.
TSI’s Take: Between the constant rings, pings, and dings of their devices, it is harder than ever for students to stay focused. Focus Friend shows that staying on task can be both fun and rewarding. Educators can help students go beyond that app and reclaim their attention spans by encouraging them to:
- Turn focus into a game with small rewards, checklists, or fun competitions.
- Use timers to break up tasks into smaller, more manageable chunks.
- Encourage intentional breaks that refresh, like stretching, journaling, or going outside instead of picking up their phones.
As technology evolves, tools like Focus Friend remind us that digital habits can be reshaped for the better. Students can build stronger attention skills, build healthier tech habits, and maybe even help their beans knit a few extra socks along the way. Interested in equipping your students with the skills to strike a balance in class? Preview the #WinAtSocial Lesson, Navigating the link between dopamine, algorithms, and screen time.
Instagram’s new Map feature is empty. Why that might be a good thing
The Gist: Instagram’s newest feature, the Map, was designed to let users share their real-time location with friends and browse posts tagged to specific places. Rolled out to 170 million people, the feature seemed destined to reshape how we connect online. Instead, for many users, the Map is empty. Few users are opting in, and many who try it quickly turn it off.
What to Know: What seems like a flop for Instagram may actually signal something encouraging: people are taking their privacy and security more seriously. While Instagram says the Map is opt-in only, confusion and concern spread quickly after its launch. Some users thought the app was broadcasting their live location when, in reality, it was just showing tagged posts. Still, privacy experts warn that location sharing comes with risks, from unwanted attention to safety concerns for teens and vulnerable groups. Meta insists the tool is safe, but given the company’s track record on data, many users are hesitant. The result was widespread reluctance to use the feature, with many choosing to keep their location private. Far from being a failure, this shows that people are learning to protect their privacy.
TSI’s Take: For students, the Instagram Map is more than a new app feature; it is a reminder of how critical privacy awareness is in the digital age. The fact that teens are cautious about allowing an app to know and share their location with their followers and friends is a healthy step toward protecting themselves online. Educators can continue to help students protect their privacy like they’re famous by:
- Reminding students that location data reveals sensitive patterns, from daily routines to personal beliefs.
- Encouraging students to review app permissions and turn off features like live location.
- Having open conversations about what is safe to share online, and when it is better to keep things private.
By pausing before adopting Instagram’s Map, students are showing that they value their safety over novelty. That cautious approach to technology is exactly the kind of social media literacy they need to thrive. Equip your students to protect their privacy with Social Media Literacy lessons like, Polishing your privacy settings on go-to apps, browsers, & devices.
TikTok staff’s warning of the app’s addictive nature and Taylor Swift spotlight the need for balance on social media
The Gist: In a recent podcast, Taylor Swift shared thoughtful advice on how social media can distort our sense of self and why stepping back is necessary for balance. Around the same time, newly unsealed court documents revealed that TikTok employees themselves raised alarms about the app’s addictive design. Together, these perspectives highlight an ever-growing challenge: how students can strike a balance between their time spent on devices with in-person connections and responsibilities.
What to Know: On the New Heights podcast, Swift reflected on the constant stream of praise and criticism that social media serves up, warning that it places users at the “centerpiece of the table.” She urged listeners to see their attention spans as a limited resource, comparing them to an expensive luxury that should be spent carefully. Swift shared that she balances her own online time by turning to small, lighthearted communities, like sourdough blogs, while also allowing herself to disconnect when needed.
Her comments echo what insiders at TikTok have admitted: the app is designed to maximize screen time, even if it risks harming users’ well-being. In unsealed video evidence, employees described features that encouraged compulsive use and algorithms that kept users “never wanting to leave.” Lawsuits now allege that the company knowingly fostered addictive behavior to drive advertising revenue.
TSI’s Take: For students, these moments can be a helpful reminder. If someone as influential as Taylor Swift can admit the need to step away, and if insiders acknowledge how apps are designed to keep us hooked, then finding balance is not just wise but essential. Help your students strike a balance by huddling with them about:
- How algorithms shape what we see, and help students spot when they are scrolling out of habit rather than curiosity.
- Strategies like time caps, focus apps, or device-free breaks that give students more control over their routines.
- Finding positive role models who encourage healthy tech habits.
Social media may be designed to pull us in, but awareness and intentionality can help students write their own narrative. In the #WinAtSocial Lesson, Debating tech giants’ newest features around screen time, students are empowered to recognize which different tech features trigger the release of dopamine and analyze their own screen time stats and how they align with goals. Preview the lesson now to start helping students strike a balance.
Whether it’s a cartoon bean knitting socks, an empty map on Instagram, or Taylor Swift reminding us to guard our attention like gold, students are sending a clear message: balance matters. When schools create space to huddle about privacy, focus, and features designed to keep their attention, students build the mental muscle to make thoughtful choices online and off. When we equip students with these skills, we are preparing them for their tech-fueled and social media-filled worlds. Ready to start fueling students’ health, happiness, and success? Request a demo of our positive and proactive approach to modern life skills that impact students’ learning, well-being, and future.
The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in equipping students, families, and educators with modern life skills to impact learning, well-being, and students’ futures. Through #WinAtSocial, our interactive, peer-to-peer learning platform, we integrate teacher PD, family resources, student voice insights, and more to empower entire school communities to make positive choices online and offline. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach essential skills while capturing student voice and actionable insights for educators. These insights help educators maintain a healthy school culture, foster high-impact teaching, and build meaningful relationships with families. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips students authentically, enabling our solution to increase classroom participation and improve student-teacher relationships. Through our one-of-a-kind lesson development process, we create lessons for a variety of core and elective classes, incorporating timely topics such as social media, A.I., screen time, misinformation, and current events to help schools stay proactive in supporting student health, happiness, and academic success.