Social Media

Netflix’s recent documentary The Social Dilemma has become a topic of conversation on television, radio and podcasts lately, and many teachers and parents are using it to teach digital or media literacy. The definition of digital or media literacy – according to the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) – is “the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, CREATE, and ACT using all forms of communication” and there couldn’t be a timelier topic. Take a look at this article  from the MiddleWeb site for some ideas on places to start with your kids at looking at this topic, and as a guide to the documentary.

The advertising boycott of Facebook that took place in the summer of 2020, joined by at least 1,000 brands, forced the social media platform to reflect on its operations and take steps to thwart hate speech and misinformation, said global advertising chief Carolyn Everson during the Association of National Advertisers' Masters of Marketing conference. She called the summer the most challenging time of her career, and noted, "It forced us to take all the work we were doing for the past several years, get it in an organized fashion and add some accountability."

Adults aren’t the only ones trying to keep up with the latest on Covid, but most adults younger than 40 get news from social media platforms, not midday press conferences, says palliative care physician Naheed Dosani. Early in 2020 he took to TikTok, Instagram and similar platforms to share information about palliative care with a young audience, but has since begun sharing information about COVID-19. He's joined by On COVID-19 Project (Canada) founder Samanta Krishnapillai and science communicator Samantha Yammine in harnessing the reach of social media to educate the public on COVID-19. If you are trying to reach your teen on the continuing seriousness of Covid, you may want to view and share some of their videos on TikTok.

An investigative report by New York regulators revealed that several high-profile Twitter accounts were hijacked this summer using only basic social engineering techniques because Twitter has poor internal security controls. The regulators recommended creating an oversight council with a qualified regulator to monitor and supervise popular social media platforms' security practices. This report may foreshadow more government scrutiny of social media, but also is a reminder to everyone that social media accounts are easy to hijack for nefarious purposes.

About 54% of Americans don't think any political ads should be allowed by social platforms, and 77% say it's unacceptable for their personal information to be used by social platforms to serve them political ads, says the Pew Research Center. Their recent study breaks down the findings by age, race/ethnicity and political leaning, with those ages 65 and older most likely to favor not allowing political ads on social media. Some 64% of those 65 and older say these sites should not allow any political ads on their platforms, compared with slightly over half of those ages 30 to 64 and 45% of those 18 to 29. By contrast, those in the youngest age group are more likely to favor allowing only some ads on the site, with 30% holding this view, compared with about one-in-five or fewer of those in older age groups.

Parents are concerned about an uptick in social media use among children during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey done in the Spring of 2020 by Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. More than half of the 2,900 parents surveyed said they think social media negatively affects children, for reasons inclusing bullying, hate speech and being too sexual in nature. Claire Coyne, a pediatric psychologist at the hospital, says that in spite of these concerns, social media use does teach teens how to self- regulate. Coyne reminds parents to keep the conversation going and monitor your teen’s mood. She says this is critical in helping kids develop good habits and safety when it comes to social media.

Zoom calls, Slack pings and email, tweet and social media notifications… they can all drag down productivity. While an article from Fast Company  outlines 4 things you can do to better manage cascading amounts of communication is written from a business perspective, there are still some lessons here for all of us, including children, on becoming more conscious of how we are using and overusing our digital devices.

No one wants to imagine that a predator will contact your child. But it's also something we need to prep our kids for if they're going to be online. How do you start that conversation? Check out this list of conversation starters and possible answers to kid’s questions. For example:

Ask your teen: What should you do if someone you don't know contacts you online?

Best answers:

• I wouldn't respond to them at all. 
• If they were persistent, I'd type, "I don't want to talk to you. Do not contact me again." 
• If they continued, I'd block them and report their user information and wouldn't respond anymore.

Facebook plans to start globally blocking or removing any content that poses increased regulatory or legal risk beginning October 1, 2020 as part of its amended terms of service. The rule stems from a proposed law in Australia forcing the social platform to pay media firms for articles but is being enforced globally, marking a departure from CEO Mark Zuckerberg's stance on the importance of free speech. It will be interesting to see if this new stance will have any effect on cyberbullying complaints as well.

Psychologists and neuroscientists are concerned there will be lasting effects from the social isolation of the shutdown, particularly an atrophy of social skills, similar to what happens to hermits or prisoners. "The signs are everywhere: people oversharing on Zoom, overreacting or misconstruing one another's behavior, longing for but then not really enjoying contact with others," writes Kate Murphy in an article entitled “We’re All Socially Awkward Now.”