Author(s): Makena Johansen, Zoie Rasmussen
Mentor(s): Chizu Matsubara
Institution UTech
Social media among adolescents has been growing exponentially throughout its existence. The grasp social media has on adolescents did not start to trend until around 2010-2015. In his book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness”, Haidt exhibits a graph that displays a 145% increase of major depressive episodes in girls and a 161% in boys since 2010 . The impact of social media platforms has been seen as a strong negative, a place used to enable cyberbullying, hurtful speech, and allowing negative online communication. Finding ways to counteract the negative impact of social media platforms on high school students in schools is the focus of this study. In a study by Sadam Fajar Shadiq, (2024) the author indicates that ”If educators were able to integrate a curriculum that covered moral identity, social self-efficacy, and empathy, this would directly impact their prosocial behavior online,” (pg. 462). Furthermore, Singh (2016) indicates that “Social media has increased the quality and rate of collaboration for students.” With this in mind this study will explore literature that argues the positive effects of social media and learning of high school students. Within the classroom students work well through computers and technology, working through various different platforms to stay in touch out of school hours and complete group work and assignments. More Awareness on social media platforms within the classroom can help them internalize the impacts they can have on others whether it be positive or negative. Integrating ethical contracts for students to sign before using the internet in schools causes them to become aware of the dangers and impacts an online presence can cause. Through the analysis of the literature, we want to further the position that positive usage of social media will support high school students’ learning and further our research to teachers and students to explore how positivity can be implemented into reality.