Weekly Reflection #1 – My Experience with Social Media
The first exposure I had to social media was Facebook (FB), way back in 2009. Up until this point, it was email and the good ‘ol telephone for connection with people. I originally loved FB to connect with friends and family all over the world. My use of social media evolved into a scrapbook of photos as my kids grew up and my time for scrapbooking disappeared. I loved taking photos of my kids and documenting our adventures as a family. It was an easy way to share photos with family and friends, especially after we moved from Alberta to BC.
After my kids got a bit older, I used FB to share their homeschooling projects, organize field trips and advertise our homeschooling activities in the Cranbrook area. I also started a business and used FB to advertise, run giveaways and create a peer support network for breastfeeding moms. It was an amazing resource and for the most part, didn’t cost me a penny. I am not part of the 1.59 BILLION monthly users of TikTok! (I actually can’t even believe that number) I have never used snap chat. I do, however, still enjoy Facebook and Instagram. I have felt over the last number of years that the connection online is less and the ads and unwanted information is more. I find myself “x’ing” out pages that pop up and ignoring ads more than I do interacting with friends and family. I do enjoy a good marketplace find or CBK Bid Wars win.
As a mom, I have a love-hate relationship with social media for my kids’ sake. I think kids see too much, know too much and experience too much in early childhood, because of their access to the internet and social media. I have had very open conversations with my kids about their social media usage and the wi-fi still turns off in our house before bedtime and parental controls have always been enabled in our house. My kids also didn’t get a phone until they had their first job at 14 or 15 years old. I think that parents need to be more involved in their kids’ social media usage. I can’t even get into the epidemic of mental health issues that can be linked back to social media. That’s a whole different topic.
Recently, I was convicted that picking up my phone first thing in the morning or using it last thing before bed is not healthy. It’s been a bad habit to break, but I’ve found that I sleep better, am more relaxed overall and to be honest, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. My life feels like it has way more balance now, which is amazing.
According to the Canadian Social Media Statistics website, Canadians spend an average of 1 hour and 53 minutes on social media every day. Their total time spent on the internet is a mind-blowing 6 hours and 45 minutes. Wow. Additionally the website states that “19% of Canadians say they have lost sleep and 22% have been less active physically because of their social media use. Social media has also made concentrating on their activities or tasks harder for 18% of Canadians and 12-14% have had negative emotional experiences. These include feeling depressed, anxious, angry, frustrated, or jealous of other people’s lives.”
I wonder what it’s going to take until people realize that something needs to change. Psychology Today has a few really good ideas. Setting time limits on social media, avoiding apps that use algorithms, taking social media vacations and if you do use platforms that use algorithms, making those algorithms work for you by choosing to interact with content that is uplifting, positive and encouraging.
As a student, it’s a constant battle. I spend a lot of time on my computer, researching, completing assignments and looking at messages, emails and Brightspace notifications. I need to be very aware of the other internet windows that are open, so I’m not nearly as tempted to just scroll. I feel like I’m doing really good with that, but it might also be due to the shear amount of homework I have to do on a daily basis. There isn’t nearly as much time to do the death scroll.
As a teacher, I will also use the internet a lot, for ideas, feedback from colleagues, lesson plans, Pinterest board inspiration, blogs and other educational websites. I feel like the same risks will exist in regards to social media usage and I’ll have to employ the same self-control in order to not get sucked back into the abyss of FB and Instagram. I’ve decided to only use Pinterest a professional teacher platform. I don’t think it’s wise for me to spend time posting professionally to FB or Instagram. I know I run the risk of not being as relevant as other teachers, but I’m going to take that risk and do my best to find a balance between my internet usage and connections in real life! I am thankful for the district-wide cell phone usage policy that came out recently. I will commit to including healthy social media practices into my regular conversations with students. I think the more we talk about it the sooner change will happen.
After thought: My very first introduction to “social media” was actually a old-school chatroom on the massive COTR desktop computers during my first year at college in 1996. I remember chatting with a guy from North Carolina and wracking up a lot of long-distance charges on my landline, back in the day when you still paid for long-distance calls and had landlines. It’s funny how we forget, or block out certain things from our past. I also remember my first handheld device was not a phone but some kind of electronic device that I used as a planner I think. Wow, how times have changed!
Cover photo credit to: Dimitar Meddling. Photo below credit to: Mariia Shalabaieva
