• over 90 percent reported that they believed their digital technology was negatively impacting their everyday lives. However, when we matched these reports with school administrative records, clinical assessments, and reported mental health symptoms, we did not find evidence of impairment.
• when researchers frame social media as addictive (versus neutral), they are more likely to find negative associations.
• in her laboratory-based study, Simone Lanette and colleagues (2018) reported that over 90 percent of parents and teens responded to open-ended questions about their phones using language that suggests feelings of addiction, defensiveness, and/or shame.
• ngela Yuson Lee has shown that the most harmful thing about social media with respect to mental health may be how much control, or agency, adolescents perceive themselves to have when interacting with it
• However, it is through many of these same channels that students seek out help and support. Many teens go online to seek out information about mental health, especially when they are struggling. In a nationally representative survey of 1,300 adolescents (Rideout & Fox, 2018), 90 percent of those with depressive symptoms reported going online for information about mental health, compared to 48 percent of those without symptoms.
• Simply put, pointing a finger at unproven causes of mental disorder will not make the youth mental health crisis go away. Instead of rushing to implement restrictions on social media, consider teaching children that such platforms are tools over which they have control. Teach them self-efficacy, and self-regulation will often follow. Instead of scaring children about “strangers” and “predators,” teach them about problematic behavior, both in people they know in person and for those they may not know online
• Instead of making the problem about a tool that provides access to information and data, teach children to critically examine their sources and turn information into knowledge. Misinformation and data illiteracy are some of the greatest threats to society today, and schools have a unique opportunity and responsibility to influence our future in this regard.
• Use your own phone and social media in responsible ways, think critically about your own media consumption,
• Above all else, model the behavior we want to see in our children.
• and engage with students and their devices thoughtfully and intentionally.
• Have a conversation with the young people in your classrooms about who they are interacting with online; what interests them; and what type of information, support, and experiences they seek when they spend time in online spaces and turn to social media feeds.
• Young people are early and enthusiastic adopters of new digital technologies, and simply restricting access is not going to work.
• Choose communication over conflict when it comes to managing devices
• A first step in supporting the young people in our classrooms with their digital technology and social media use is to question the narratives we are fed about these issues. If we continue to just accept the messages that we are hearing about social media, we risk driving a wedge between generations and restricting access to the larger set of supports for students who need that lifeline.

12 more annotations...