It’s been an incredibly busy few weeks with back to school in full swing and the latest social media research backing up much of the work that I shared in my latest book, Social Media Wellness.
Earlier this month, I helped Instagram launch their new resource guide for parents. I partnered with them to design ten parent-child discussion questions because, after traveling the country researching and working with teens and parents on social media, I know that many parents don’t have a foundational understanding of where to start. You can find the online resources here.
And, I was thrilled for the release of this video I did with Atlantic magazine for their Home School video series. I was interviewed for an hour on my thoughts around social media and teens, and they edited it down to about 3 minutes and set my voice to animation. The loveliest surprise? They chose some of my favorite colors.
Here are a few extra resources:
Pew Research’s new report “How Teens and Parents Navigate Screen Time and Device Distractions” revealed what many of us all know—that adults are dealing with these same issues around being distracted. About a quarter of parents (23%) say they spend too much time on social media, and 58% of parents say they check their phones for messages as soon as they get up.
Teens seemed pretty revealing about their own use: 54% of U.S. teens say they spend too much time on their cell phones, and 41% say they spend too much time on social media. In addition, 72% of teens report they often or sometimes check for messages/notifications as soon as they get up, and 57% feel they often or sometimes have to respond to messages from others immediately.
Most interesting for me? That 52% of teens report taking steps to cut back on their mobile phone use and 57% have limited their time spent on social media. I’ve seen tweens and teens change their behaviors around screen and social media use in a desire to have more intentional experiences online and in real life, and I am glad it is showing up in the research data.
Also, Common Sense Media’s 2018 Teen and Social Media Statistics came out last week. Among the interesting stats:
* 57% of teens using social media say that it distracts them when they should be doing homework
* 29% of teen smartphone users have been woken up by their phones during the night by a call, text, or notification
(My tip: Ideally, take phones out of the room at night, or use iPhone settings or apps like Our Pact or Circle by Disney to turn off social media apps after a certain time.)
I am off to Atlanta and New York City next week to visit schools. Please contact Emily if you are interested in having me come visit your community.
