Students share pro tips on how to strike a balance online
Be sure to check out the suggested Huddle question at the bottom of this article to discuss this important topic with your students in class, if you feel it is appropriate.
With 91% of students having a smartphone by age 14, educators and families are looking for advice and tools to empower students to navigate social media in positive, high-character ways.
Here at The Social Institute, we believe that to prepare students for a social media-filled world, educators and families can ease students into social media slowly so that they can be prepared to navigate their online world positively. Educators can do this by huddling with young students on topics that will empower them to use technology positively – like how to strike a balance with tech. To help educators huddle with students and prepare them to use social media, students recently shared their advice with CBS for using social media to coach younger students.
From setting time limits online to taking social media ‘detoxes,’ let’s explore advice from high school and college students on using tech and how educators can huddle with students on their pro tips:
Striking a balance with tech: Advice from older students
CBS recently huddled with students to get their advice on their experiences with tech and what they wish they knew before they first got online.
For many students who are about to graduate from high school and start their college journey, tech is a big part of their life and will not be gone any time soon. With 93% of teens using social media, many students are social media experts and have learned to navigate tech over the years positively. By amplifying student voices and listening to their perspectives, educators can learn from them and share tips with other students on how to strike a balance.
To empower younger students to do the same, here is what these young students had to say about navigating social media:
Set time limits: “If there was advice that I could give to my younger self, it would be to tell my parents to set up time limits for me — even though I would have never said that when I was starting social media.” –Sienne, 17
Take time to interact with the world around you: “You can use social media to amplify your passions, but to do that you need to do a lot of work outside of social media, to discover who you are as a person, what matters to you, and what contributions you can make to the world.” –Lea, 18,
Monitor screen time and set tech-free breaks: “When you first get these apps, it hits you — like, BOOM, there is so much content. Styles, fashion models. It really impacts you heavily when you first get it, this feeling of: ‘How do they do it? How do they look like this? How do they get clothes like that?‘ When you’re new to social media, these trends can overtake you. I started to use Screen Time (monitoring) on my phone and limit the amount of time I am on social media. I’ve been taking phone detoxes. On weekends, I’ll take a social media detox for 10 hours or the majority of the day. I’ll hang out with my family, ride my bike. I only have notifications for my messages and workspaces. I don’t have any notifications on for social media apps.” –Ava, 18
Social media is not real life: “It’s so easy to look at your friends’ stories and feel this feeling of FOMO, of missing out and comparing yourself, like: ‘Oh, my friend just got a new car.‘ It’s like this overwhelming sense of comparison, but the things that people post on social media, it’s just the highlight reel, like the 1% of their life that they want to showcase to other people.” –Bao, 18
With 75% of students viewing their teachers as role models and mentors, educators are powerful mentors when it comes to empowering and inspiring students to make positive, high-character decisions online. When students feel like they have a voice, they are 7x more likely to be motivated to learn, 8x more likely to be engaged in school, and 9x more likely to experience purpose in school. By huddling with students on these tips to positively navigate tech and strike a balance online, educators are not only sharing helpful strategies but are actively listening to students’ experiences.
TSI’s Take: Easing students into tech
Effectively striking a balance with technology is a powerful tool to prioritize important activities, like studying, hobbies, or spending time with friends. For young students, getting a new device or an Instagram account is exciting, and they may be eager to spend a lot of time online. While social media is great for helping students connect and learn more about the world around them, it is best in moderation so students are able to focus on what they value most.
To ease young students into technology and avoid those high screen times, here are some tips you can implement in the classroom:
- Share the Screen Time Pyramid: The Screen Time Pyramid shows that not all screen time is created equal and how students can balance time online to connect, socialize, learn, and relax.
- Ask students for advice on striking a balance: Huddle with your class on the advice from students to strike a balance. Afterward, educators can amplify student voices by asking for their advice.
- Ease students into tech: Zigazoo, the world’s largest social network for students, is creating a community led by students. By forming a space where students are eased into tech at a young age, they empower students to make positive choices online through project-based learning, mentorship, and innovative approaches. Learn more about them here!
When students are empowered to strike a balance, they can make decisions that fuel their health, happiness, and future success. To discover more ways educators can inspire students to strike a balance with devices, check out our #WinAtSocial lesson, Learning from the pros and balancing time on tech to reach our goals.
#WinAtSocial Huddle Question
Huddle with your students
When you find yourself spending long hours on social media or struggling to put your device down, how do you figure out how to step away? Share your tips!
The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in empowering students by understanding students. Through #WinAtSocial, our gamified, peer-to-peer learning platform, we equip students, educators, and families to navigate their social world – in the classroom and beyond, online and offline – in healthy, high-character ways. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips, rather than scares and restricts. We incorporate timely topics about social media, tech use, and current events that are impacting student well-being and learning. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach life skills for the modern day, capture student voice, and provide school leaders with actionable insights. Through these insights, students play an essential role in school efforts to support their own health, happiness, and future success as we enable high-impact teaching, meaningful family conversations, and a healthy school culture.