technology
CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON GIRLS
A SERIES OF RESEARCH AND INFORMATIONAL PUBLICATIONS BY LCRG
“Putting the world’s best research to work for girls.”
by Tori Cordiano, Ph.D., Rachel Herlein, Ed.D., Megan Weiskopf, M.A., and Grace Willer, Ph.D.
GUIDING GIRLS THROUGH A HIGH-TECH WORLD Digital technology may be ubiquitous in children’s lives, but parents and educators can play a significant role in shaping the ways children engage with and are engaged by various platforms and applications. Meaningful conversations about tech use can begin in early childhood.1 These conversations could be especially important for adolescent girls, who may be more susceptible to the negative psychological effects of excessive digital media use.2 When viewed as a tool, technology has the power to enhance learning, foster creativity, and deepen connection. Rather than viewing technology and digital media as inherently bad or harmful, adults can help children and teenagers consider how best to use technology in healthy and productive ways, even exploring together how social media and other digital tech can be leveraged to effect positive change in the broader world. STRONG RELATIONSHIPS AND SOCIAL MEDIA USE According to a 2023 report from the Office of the Surgeon General, most children ages 13-17 use social media every day with over onethird reporting almost constant use of social media platforms.3 Caretakers are wise to consider ways to bolster the benefits of their child’s online social networks while shielding adolescents from risky or addictive behaviors. While more research is needed to fully understand how technology use affects young people, the Surgeon General’s report urges immediate action to mitigate the harmful effects of social media on the mental health of adolescents. A key protective factor in helping children avoid problematic social
media use is positive “off-line” relationships with parents, caring adults, and peers. Girls are more likely to engage in intensive use of social media and can experience positive connections and feelings of belonging through their use of online platforms. However, girls reporting low levels of social support from parents, teachers, and friends are more likely to overuse social media and exhibit addictive behaviors.4,5 Students reporting high satisfaction with family life are less likely to engage in risky online behavior and are more likely to report overall positive social connectedness.6 One study suggests that helping children develop strong family and peer relationships in early adolescence can provide a protective factor in terms of risky online behavior, one that is not seen in those who have not established such connections prior to later adolescence.7 In terms of negative messages absorbed by young people through images seen on social media, adolescents who enjoy a positive relationship with a parent are less likely to report body dissatisfaction and the related issues that
technology: GUIDING GIRLS THROUGH A HIGH-TECH WORLD
The research is clear: young people are more likely to experience the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of social media use when they enjoy positive, strong relationships with adults and peers. can emerge, with a strong child-mother relationship being most promising in its mitigating effect.8 The research is clear: young people are more likely to experience the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of social media use when they enjoy positive, strong relationships with adults and peers. The caring adults in children’s lives do not need to be experts in technology to promote healthy social media use among young people. Prioritizing family dinners, hosting game nights, planning active outings with friends, and engaging in casual conversation about each other’s days are “low-hanging fruits” adults can embrace as they work to ensure their children’s healthy use of social media. Schools can implement a curriculum that promotes the development of social and emotional skills to provide an extra protective layer to mitigate mental health concerns while encouraging safe, positive social media interactions among students.
REFRAMING THE CONVERSATION In today’s fast-paced digital world, any prescriptive advice on navigating specific tech tools, platforms, and applications is likely out of date as soon as it is printed. The good news? Productive conversations with girls about technology use are more about how adults approach the topic and lean on already-established relationships of trust and respect. Beginning conversations with inquiry rather than assumptions and keeping a balance between the positives of tech and social media and the downsides and dangers can keep girls from feeling defensive about their technology use and promote more open conversations. Using daily routines—breakfast or dinner conversations or the morning or afternoon school commute—can help keep the conversation starters below from feeling stilted or contrived as parents create an atmosphere where social media is a normalized topic of conversation. The vastness of this topic needn’t be overwhelming when beginning with what is already known about social, emotional, and academic learning.
Conversation Starters & Activities For girls without access to social media • ask: what’s something creative you did today on your (iPad or other device)? • ask: what devices do you use at school? What do you like about using them? • try: using the camera on your phone to teach them about filters and how images can be manipulated to lay the groundwork for conversations later about body image and the digital alteration of photos on social media For girls with their own phones/access to social media • ask: what’s something you saw on social media that made you laugh/that inspired you/that gave you warm fuzzies today? • ask: what are your favorite qualities about yourself? How does your social media reflect them? Are you showing the “online world” the authentic you…without divulging private information? • ask: what social media platforms do you use? Why? Lay the groundwork for conversations about social media with general questions so she knows she can come to you to talk about it without judgment. Be curious! • ask: what do you do when you encounter ugliness online— racism, sexism, or other bigotry; unkindness, bullying, or other harassment? Strategize with girls about how and to whom to report these behaviors, and how to stand up for themselves and others without being pulled into the ugliness themselves.
• try: setting up a family digital challenge where you all agree to certain screen time limits with a reward (a family outing, a special dinner) if everyone sticks to it. Include yourself! It’s hard to encourage a healthy balance in your daughter if she sees you scrolling through your phone whenever you have downtime. For girls girls of all ages • try: looking for opportunities to bring up role models in STEM. • try: sharing moments of tech leveraged for good in the news, using a site like goodnewsnetwork.org as a resource. • try: regularizing talk of feelings and how to manage emotions, paving the way for parents/mentors to check in with older girls about how online spaces/communities make them feel. Note that online communities can be a source of connection and belonging, but they should not replace meaningful friendships in real life. • try: talking about a TV show or movie you’ve watched together in a way that primes them to be critical consumers of media. Even just asking what they liked or didn’t like about something they watched, and encouraging them to explain why they had that reaction, helps establish a habit of engaging with visual material rather than passively ingesting it. With older children, consider asking questions like the following as you transfer this habit to social media: Who is the creator of this content and what is their credibility? Is more than one side of the position or argument being presented in a balanced way? Does the content lean more on emotion than on logic and/or fact?
TECH HYGIENE AND HABITS Establishing good tech habits starting at young ages helps to keep technology in its place without crowding out other important activities. Working together as a family to create healthy habits ensures that all family members have shared expectations of where, when, and how technology is used at home. QUESTION TO ASK
INFORMATION TO CONSIDER
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS
Where does our family use devices most often?
Children who spend more time on devices in their bedrooms tend to spend more time on screens overall, which may displace other activities. More time spent using devices in private spaces also decreases how much parents can monitor and talk about media use with their children.9
• Designate common spaces for device use in the home • Consider what other activities may be displaced by bedroom tech use • Experiment with a limited window for bedroom tech use
How does our technology use impact our sleep?
The relationship between sleep and digital media is complex and bidirectional. Using devices in the hour before bed has been linked to poorer sleep outcomes. Large meta-analyses indicate that using devices before bed can negatively impact sleep and that those who struggle to fall asleep may turn to devices at bedtime.10, 11
• Experiment with a family-wide nightly device shut down time • Incorporate other methods of relaxation at night (e.g., yoga/stretching, deep breathing, reading, listening to music) • Maintain strong sleep hygiene practices (e.g., consistent bedtime routines, consistent bedtimes and wake times, limited naps, sufficient physical activity)
Research explains that screen time should not be the only parameter of healthy screen use, but it can be a helpful metric in creating healthy tech habits. Too much time spent using devices can crowd out other important activities, including exercise, hobbies and play, in-person social interactions, family time, homework/studying, and sleep.12
• As a family, estimate individual screen time use and in what ways devices are used most often. Compare your estimates with your devices’ actual screen time reports • Consider how you feel after spending a long time on a device—do you feel energized or depleted? Connected, or isolated? Consider this question as a family, sharing your own responses with your children • Designate intentional periods of time for tech use and shift to other activities when that time is over
How much time do we spend on devices, and what is our screen time breakdown?
EVALUATING ONLINE SOURCES Each time children open an app, ask a digital agent a question, or watch an online video, they are consuming information. Rather than being a passive consumer of digital information13,14, LCRG encourages families to teach “nuanced skepticism”—deliberately pausing to evaluate the value and utility of information being presented before jumping to conclusions or sharing information. Similar to “checking your work” before turning in a homework assignment, this should discourage quick action based on the initial pass at the information. While this nuanced skepticism is increasingly difficult with the prominence of algorithms, it is not impossible. Algorithms, simply put, are sets of rules that an app or computer program uses to determine how to behave, such as which news story to present at the top of a feed or whether you are more apt to enjoy cat or dog videos. Helping children understand that algorithms can dictate the information stream is an important step in the evaluation of digital information because it showcases that other perspectives outside the feed may—and likely do—exist. The strategies below support algorithmic literacy and critical thinking about digital media consumption.
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• Take advantage of children’s curiosity: Children ask an average of one question per minute!15 Disrupt the algorithm by encouraging children to search and uncover content that is not delivered to them in a feed. Show them how to appropriately search for information and inspire out-of-the-box thinking that comes from trial-and-error discovery. • Strategize for proactive information seeking: Encourage children to use these strategies to review websites, images, and videos for educational and entertainment purposes: • TRAAP: Timeliness. Relevance. Authority. Accuracy. Purpose. • SIFT: Stop. Investigate the source. Find the context. Trace information back to its original source. • Start with the extreme: Show children fun, silly filters that turn them into panting dogs or their favorite television characters to prime conversations about fantasy vs. reality. As children establish an understanding that technology can transform their own likeness, they can begin to understand, in more nuance, how technology can blur the lines between fiction and reality more generally.16
Laurel School One Lyman Circle Shaker Heights, Ohio 44122 216.455.3061 LaurelSchool.org Copyright © 2023 Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls, LaurelSchool.org/LCRG. Please do not duplicate. If you wish to adapt for your own purposes, Laurel’s Center for Research on Girls must be credited and include the website link.
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS Books GROWING UP IN PUBLIC17 This insightful book provides adults with information and strategies on how to support children as they navigate an increasingly digital world.
Websites THE SOCIAL INSTITUTE18 With an abundance of resources for educators, students, and families, this online learning platform supports healthy and positive use of technology. https://thesocialinstitute.com
COMMON SENSE MEDIA19 This trusted resource provides parents and educators with reviews and age-specific ratings of digital media, advice, and resources. https://www.commonsensemedia.org
Report SOCIAL MEDIA AND MENTAL HEALTH: THE U.S. SURGEON GENERAL’S ADVISORY This 2023 report from Dr. Vivek Murthy, available online as a PDF, summarizes current research on social media and youth mental health and provides actionable strategies for policymakers, technology companies, researchers, parents and caregivers, and children.20
GUIDING GIRLS THROUGH A HIGH-TECH WORLD [endnotes]
Barr, R. (2019). Growing up in the digital age: Early learning and family media ecology. Current directions in psychological science, 28(4), 341-346. Twenge, J. M., & Martin, G. N. (2020). Gender differences in associations between digital media use and psychological well-being: Evidence from three large datasets. Journal of adolescence, 79, 91-102. 3 United States. Public Health Service. Office of the Surgeon General. (2023). Social Media and Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 4 Sampasa Kanyinga, H., Goldfield, G. S., Kingsbury, M., Clayborne, Z., & Colman, I. (2020). Social media use and parent–child relationship: A cross sectional study of adolescents. Journal of Community Psychology, 48(3), 793–803. 5 Wong, S.-L., King, N., Gariépy, G., Michaelson, V., Canie, O., King, M., Craig, W., & Pickett, W. (2022). Adolescent social media use and its association with relationships and connections: Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, 2017/2018. Health Reports, 33(12), 14–23. 6 Savci, M., Akat, M., Ercengiz, M., Griffiths, M. D., & Aysan, F. (2022). Problematic Social Media Use and Social Connectedness in Adolescence: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Family Life Satisfaction. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 20(4), 2086–2102. 7 Leijse, M. M. L., Koning, I. M., & van den Eijnden, R. J. J. M. (2023). The influence of parents and peers on adolescents’ problematic social media use revealed. Computers in Human Behavior, 143. 8 De Vries, D. A., Vossen, H. G. M., Van Der Kolk – Van Der Boom, P., Development and Treatment of Psychosocial Problems, & Leerstoel Dekovic. (2019). Social Media and Body Dissatisfaction: Investigating the Attenuating Role of Positive Parent–Adolescent Relationships. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(3), 527–536. 9 Gentile, D. A., Berch, O. N., Choo, H., Khoo, A., & Walsh, D. A. (2017). Bedroom media: One risk factor for development. Developmental Psychology, 53(12), 2340. 10 Pagano, M., Bacaro, V., & Crocetti, E. (2023). “Using digital media or sleeping… that is the question”. A meta-analysis on digital media use and unhealthy sleep in adolescence. Computers in Human Behavior, 107813. 11 Hale, L., Li, X., Hartstein, L. E., & LeBourgeois, M. K. (2019). Media use and sleep in teenagers: what do we know?. Current Sleep Medicine Reports, 5, 128-134. 12 Camerini, A. L., Albanese, E., Marciano, L., & Corona Immunitas Research Group. (2022). The impact of screen time and green time on mental health in children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. Computers in human behavior reports, 7, 100204. 13 Barr, N., Pennycook, G., Stolz, J. A., & Fugelsang, J. A. (2015). The brain in your pocket: Evidence that Smartphones are used to supplant thinking. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, 473-480. 14 Sparrow, B., Liu, J., & Wegner, D. M. (2011). Google effects on memory: Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips. science, 333(6043), 776-778. 15 Chouinard, M. M., Harris, P. L., & Maratsos, M. P. (2007). Children’s questions: A mechanism for cognitive development. Monographs of the society for research in child development, i-129. 16 Maza, M. T., Fox, K. A., Kwon, S. J., Flannery, J. E., Lindquist, K. A., Prinstein, M. J., & Telzer, E. H. (2023). Association of habitual checking behaviors on social media with longitudinal functional brain development. JAMA pediatrics, 177(2), 160-167. 17 Heitner, D. (2023). Growing up in public: Coming of age in a digital world. Penguin Random House. 18 https://thesocialinstitute.com 19 https://www.commonsense.org 20 United States. Public Health Service. Office of the Surgeon General. (2023). Social Media and Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1
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