In the broadest sense, social media is any online environment that allows the people that use it to create and share their own profile with other people.
Young people typically spend a lot of time on various forms of social media. Even sites such as YouTube now function this way, as people have a personal profile where they can post comments, like and dislike content, and post their own videos. Although you are probably aware that most young people now have access to a smart phone, and have at least one kind of social media, what might be a little more surprising is that young people now spend almost a whole day a week online.
For some time, there has been growing global concerns around social media, and what social media might mean for the wellbeing of young people. After all, the young people of today are the first to have grown up using social media to this extent. Despite these prevalent concerns, research to understand the impact of social media on young peoples’ lives is still quite sparse.
We would like to raise awareness of: Fake News, Online Trolling, Cookies and personal data and some ways to keep safe online…
3 top tips!
- What is unique about social media is that young people typically know and use it more than the adults around them.
- It is important to be supportive if a student reveals troubles online, and refer them to organisations which help deal with cyber bullying and online abuse.
- As a teacher you can become familiar with the fake news, trolling, cookies, and targeted advertising; you can to use our resources to empower young people to be in control when they’re using social media.
