Welcome back to my Teaching Toolbox! This post will be about media balance and well-being. Enjoy!
It is undeniable that social media and overall internet usage is a large part of life these days. As a teacher, I always want to promote a healthy balance for all of the parts of my student's lives, whether that be homework, sports, relaxing time, etc. It is hard, especially at a young age, to figure out how to harmonize all of the crazy aspects of our modern lives. Content is important, of course, but becoming a happy, healthy young adult is also a non-negotiable part of what I want to teach.
Social media has a vast amount of positive attributes. Being able to connect with friends and family that you may not be able to see often stands out as one of the greatest benefits that social media offers. Furthermore, I love the ability to connect with communities of interest via social media, whether that be a band you like, travel pages, or so many other specific, interest focused pages that exist on the web. I also think that students of traditionally underrepresented populations may be able to find some community on social media, which is an invaluable asset. As a member of the LGBTQ community, I have found myself on many occasions following pages that tailored their content to support followers that looked like me. I also know that there are many profiles designed for people that may have a mental illness that put out positive, validating content, many times including coping mechanisms. As someone with generalized anxiety, following pages about anxiety has given me so many tools that I have used consistently in my everyday life. On the whole, social media has so many potential benfits for students.
All that said, it is important to acknowledge the potential negatives of social media. Cyber-bulling, inappropriate content, and overuse all immediately come to mind. All of these concerns are valid.
The point is, while social media and media as a whole can be a great tool, it can also have a great amount of consequences if used for the wrong reasons. It is all about balance! Media has so much potential to be an amazing tool in my future social studies classroom. I think about fun projects like designing an Instagram or Twitter page for a historical figure-- who wouldn't love that! As a teacher, I hope to be able to strike that balance inside the classroom so that my students have a model to use outside of the classroom.
The following resources are tools that my colleagues and I came up to help achieve that healthy media balance. Check them out and leave a comment if you tried any of them!
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