We've mentioned on some of our previous NewsDepth episodes that we've joined twitter... and we're not the only ones. Some of you and probably many of your older brothers or sisters have at least one social media account.
A new study released by CNN looks at what's going on in a young person's mind when they're engrossed in their screens by recording everything 216 thirteen-year-old students did in a secure online archive.
176 students of the original group completed the archiving of their social media activity and in six months; they commented or posted 87,263 times on Instagram, nearly 26,000 times on Twitter, and 12,000 times on Facebook. And more than posting, they're tracking others. One third of the teens said they check social media more than 25 times a day on a typical weekend.
So why do they do it?
80% report they're bored.
71% say they want to connect with friends.
61% want to see if their posts are getting liked and to see the comments.
21% say they want to make sure no one is saying mean things about them.
And that leads to a critical finding about those teens' parents. Almost all, 94%, say they underestimated the amount of fighting happening over social media.
So we've got a question for you. How should social media accounts be monitored? Should parents keep an eye on the accounts of kids and teens who use the various social media platforms? Let us know what you think.
And that also brings us to this week's survey question. We're curious, do you have a social media account? Let us know if you're on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram - maybe you're on all three. Or let us know if you don't have any social media accounts. We'll show results on the next episode.
Instructional Links
Article: Points of View Reference Center, social Networking Sites: Guide to Critical Analysis.
May Need Password
Presentation Images: What Your Teen is Doing on Social Media
Video: NetSmartz, Social Networking
http://www.netsmartz.org/TeensTalkBack/SocialNetworking
Website Article: Kids Health, For Kids, Your Online Identity
http://kidshealth.org/kid/watch/house/online_id.html?tracking=K_RelatedArticle
Lesson Plan: MediaSmarts, Privacy and Internet Life, Lesson Plan for Intermediate Classrooms
http://mediasmarts.ca/sites/mediasmarts/files/pdfs/lesson-plan/Lesson_Privacy_Internet_Life.pdf