Our guest speaker this afternoon left me with lots to think about as I walked out of the class. Thoughts about my digital footprint and identity in social media, and the posts I have made in the past that could be used as fodder by potential students making their way around the web looking to uncover secrets about their teacher. It also brought up other thoughts about navigating using technology–photos in particular–to create portfolios and document learning in a way that doesn’t put me in a precarious situation. More than anything else, it made me think of the direction technology is moving, the speed at which it’s moving and what that means for young learners engaging with it and interacting. My thoughts here are on social media in particular.

The change seems to be almost too fast to keep up with and our guest speaker Jessie Miller seems to have taken a pragmatic approach to deal with it rather than advocating for moving away from the use of social media. But the question remains: what place should social media have in our lives and how should we embrace it? This isn’t just a question we should be looking at in the context of students and children because children see how adults use technology and tend to follow by example. So many of us are addicted to social media without even realizing it and only after checking the time do we realize how long we have been falling down the rabbit hole. The algorithms are set up in a way that directs us to content we may be interested in and we sometimes find ourselves endlessly consuming. This is not good. Next time you’re riding the bus just look around and see how many people are on their phones. If we are setting an example for our children or the young ones in our community, what kind of a model are we setting? Is this an example of behavioural addiction?

According to The Journal of Behavioural Addiction, although there are correlations between smartphone overuse and mental health issues like depression, stress, anxiety, and low self-esteem, the negative side effects of smartphone overuse are not the same as the presence of addiction. They also note one reason it may not be pathologized yet is that its effects have not been fully understood. With a little more research, I wonder what will come out. I wonder if likes on social media and listening to a few coins dropping from a slot machine will be found to have a similar effect on the brain. What would that mean?

Putting the addiction debate aside for a moment and going back to the idea of a digital footprint and identity. Whether we are conscious of it or not, when we post on social media we are putting together a representation of ourselves for the world to see–depending on our privacy settings. Elementary school students become high school students and shortly after high school, they become adults. If they aren’t taught how to be literate on social media and the internet, they may post something they regret, become victims of bullying, become bullies themselves, or any number of other negative outcomes. So where does this leave us?

Because the internet is almost unavoidable for anyone wishing to function in contemporary society, the impacts of one’s actions on the internet need to be fleshed out before a regrettable mistake is made. For this reason, digital literacy is extremely important and should not be overlooked and left to chance. But who should be responsible for this and at what age should it be taught? This is context-dependent and an area with far more than forty shades of grey. As our guest lecturer said today, “many children on social media are too immature to be on social media, but there are also many adults on social media that are too immature for social media as well.” At this point, it is an issue with far-reaching effects that runs through much of society and continues to get perpetuated with limited concern for the results of actions taken.

For myself and my child, I will spend time with him exploring the internet in a way that teachable moments don’t fade away into the abyss–interacting with technology in mitigated ways seems to be the best way forward. The harder you push, the stronger the resistance. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon so I embrace it in intentional and meaningful ways that act as a healthy model for my child and my students.