This week, I have been thinking much about the role of social media in the formation of social identity.

Research indicates that adolescents are deeply concerned about how they appear in the eyes of their peers. “[A]dolescence is an intensely social time when the hunger for belonging, community, social status, and emotional closeness provide the context within which teens discover their identity.” So too their moral reasoning is based on both personal and external factors and they are developing relationships which are independent of their family relationships. (Armstrong, 2006 in Adolescent Literacy Guide).

This is not a new phenomena: we all went through the angst of being a teen (for many of us, though, in an analogue world). We spoke on the phone for hours, fretted about friendships, over-analysed comments made by peers, were heart-broken when we weren’t invited to a party, worried about wearing the right thing, saying the right thing. We tested friendships, lost friendships, gained friendships. We felt betrayed and buoyed by our peers, felt the pressure to do drugs, smoke, skip school. And still, we shared our secrets with them and kept our lives guarded from the prying eyes of our parents.

So it was no surprise to me when I read these details from the CNN Special Report, Being 13: Perils of lurking online, last week:

When we asked 13-year olds “What is the worst thing that happened to you on media, their responses included these:

Being excluded to some parties.
My best friends hung out without me, and posted it on instagram.
My friends went out without me and posted pictures on instagram then denied they were out together.
Not anything specific, but I don’t like when people post pictures or tweet about a party that I wasn’t invited to.
Seeing pictures posted by my friends doing things where I wasn’t included.

Even before the dawn of social media, adolescents cared deeply about fitting in and were hurt when they felt excluded from face-to-face interactions or by seeing the popular kids hang around together. What is different now is that social media affords frequent opportunities for all teens to see pictures of parties they were not invited to and friends having fun without them, images they would be spared if social media did not exist. (CNN, 2015)

The problem with this statement is that social media does exist. Technology provides a means for teens to connect with their peers, to figure out where they stand in their communities. Their status updates and the way they are communicating provide one means for them to develop and express a personal and social identity.

I didn’t watch the whole series, so I’m not sure to what extent they dealt with the fear narrative that often accompanies teen use of social media, but this segment in particular, speaks to issues surrounding social identity including self-confidence, acceptance, and belonging; age-old issues.

Thus, as educators we can’t only focus on their social media personas in a “don’t do this” kind of way. We need to teach students to love and respect themselves and each other being explicit about acknowledging the role social media plays. Just as there has always been a need to address magazine cover models and their artificiality, today, kids need to understand that many of the posts they see are “highly groomed” and “seemingly glamorous” views of the social lives of their peers.

A few Ideas for supporting students to create positive identities

#YouMatter

The hashtag. The website Choose2Matter The philosophy via Angela Maiers:

You are enough.
You have influence.
You are a genius.
You have a contribution to make.
You have a gift others need.
Your actions define your impact.
You are the change.
You matter.

Students need to love themselves and know that they are loved. They need to respect themselves and others. Having caring adults support them and their aspirations will help them feel less vulnerable. We need to raise kids who put people up, not people who thrive on putting others down.

The Power of Words

One of my classmates, Kerri Langer, created a very powerful lesson around the Power of Words. She had her kindergarten & grade 1 students create posters about their ideas about how words can be powerful. They created a video called, Kids making a difference one word at a time.

Giving students the opportunity, at every grade, to talk to kids about how the words we choose are significant may go a long way to developing empathy and to explore their sense of “self” in relation to “other”.

I love this video, Color Your World with Kindness. It shows how small actions can have a powerful impact.

I love this message for younger students. For older students, could they create their own versions of the video answering the question, “What would this video look like if we included social media interactions”?

In his post, Teaching Empathy: Are we teaching content or students, Terry Heick speaks to the importance of teaching empathy. He says,

More than anything else though, empathy is a tone. Broken into parts, it is about self, audience, and purpose. It helps students consider:

Who am I?
Who is “other”? And how? In what functions and degrees?
How do we relate? What do we share?
What do they need from me, and I from them?

Tribes and Community Circle

I have participated in Tribes training and I love the Tribes Agreements as they can be applied in any classroom at any grade level.

Attentive listening
Appreciation/no put-downs
Mutual respect
Participation/right to pass.

Check out this article, by Wendy Ryan: Tribes: A Way to Create Positive Climate in the School and Reduce Bullying? shared by Christy Cate

One of the activities within the Tribes training is the Community Circle, whereby kids sit or stand in a circle and engage in an activity that is risk-free and invites participation from everyone. The topic may or may not be related to the learning of the day, but is more designed so that kids look each other in the eye, and listen to what each person has to say. It is designed to build positive rapport in the classroom.

Tap into Interests and Passions

Since adolescence is also a time of uncertainty when it comes to personal strengths and abilities (Adolescent Literacy Guide, pg 10), then tapping into student interests and passions will help them to develop confidence. This might include using Popular Culture in the classroom, using Inquiry-based learning or an “innovation week” model as a pedagogical approach, and allowing students to select their own reading material.

THINK

I adapted this poster from an unknown online source. I think that it’s a great frame for students (and adults) to use before they communicate face to face or online.

Allow Social Media

Can we talk about compassion, empathy, and/or the power of words today without talking about what this looks like face to face AND online? If we don’t, do we run the risk of our students thinking that these two worlds, are their identities in these worlds are not the same?

While reading the article, “Using Facebook to Explore Adolescent Identities,” by J Hughes and L. Morrison, based on research study done exploring issues such as cyberbullying, depression, and body image in two grade 9 classes in Toronto, this stood out for me:

“…This highlights the the need for educators to incorporate a critical analysis of [social media] and its role in identity development, and to start incorporating [social media] as a tool for raising awareness about critical issues facing adolescents. This would reshape how students think about the potential of social networking sites at such a formative age” (Hughes & Morrison, 2013, pg 13).

So often students comment on each other’s statuses via social media. Could we have them comment on blogs, Youtube videos, Twitter posts, Pintrest boards, etc… that are based in our subject area so that students know what good comments look like? So conversations around critical issues in that realm can arise?

If we don’t show them alternative ways to use social media, will they ever learn about its potential for good? Its powerful connections?

Eric Pickersgill, a visiting lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is the photographer behind the series titled Removed. In this series the technology is literally removed. The effect is haunting. It begs the question, are we mindful of how technology is affecting our relationships? What are the implications of not including conversations about technology and identity at the dinner table and in classrooms when the world is so clearly connected?

It is easy to be pedantic when we talk about teens and their cell phones, but do we go beyond what we see? Do we remember what it is like to be a teenager? Do we listen or lecture? Do we consider that though the medium has changed, at the heart of the matter is relationships?

Would love to hear your additional comments and ideas.

References

Hughes, J. & Morrison, L. (2013). Using Facebook to explore adolescent identities. International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, Special Issue, 1(4), 370-386.

Ontario., Curriculum and Assessment Policy Branch. (n.d.). Adolescent literacy guide: A professional learning resource for literacy, grades 7-12. Literacy Gains.