Changing with the Times: How Social Media and Technology Has Changed the Climate of Urban Schools

In this day and age, everything is moving very fast. We are constantly connected to everyone near and far. We are connected to the internet 365 days a year. Every time you pick up your phone and unlock it your geographic location is sent out. We live in the age of oversharing and plenty of people both young and old. People feel because they are on their personal accounts that they are ok to share whatever. Most of the time their close friends aren’t the only ones watching and whenever you share information you should prepare for anyone to be able to see it. Everyone is enjoying social media every day but has anyone thought about the adverse effects? Being constantly connected to everyone all day constantly taking in information should be exhausting. Our brains are already constantly decoding the things around us constantly then we pick up our cellphones and add more information on top of everything else. We know that constantly staring at a screen can cause issues with our eyes calling for the invention of Blue light filter glasses. Constant exposure to anything isn’t great for anyone’s health.

Being connected to each other is not anything new. The telegraph was the first time we were able to get a message to someone rapidly. Social media is interactive computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. It was not until around 1994 that the first social media sites started to show up on the internet. Back then the internet was accessible, but it was not accessible to everyone and expensive to have in your house. There were also many factors that limited your access to things on the world wide web. For the current generation in schools today the first access they had to social media was probably Facebook. They were born into a time when social media was relatively popular. So they don’t and will not notice the ultimate issues that Social Media will have on their overall development. The older generations will have a more complete picture of how this new generation is so much different. We already have had several instances recently on social media where the younger generations were more concerned with watching and recording life-and-death situations instead of calling for help both inside and outside the classroom. It is arguable that their sense of morality and ethics are compromised because they are fishing for validity on social media. With a student from a lower-income background that might already have issues with self-confidence, it opens up a whole new set of issues.

Growing up I was blessed enough to have access to the internet at an early age. Because we had dial-up we didn’t have access to the internet constantly. My parents made us go outside and do things with our friends in our neighborhood. I feel like it was that way for a lot of children growing up in the 90s. We were a lower-middle-class family living in a larger city. My older brother was on social media before I was allowed to be on there. When I got on social media, I started to immediately feel like I wasn’t as popular and pretty as the other girls I was friends with. This was during Myspace days when social media was smaller scale, but people were coming around to the idea of sharing info on the internet. I had to go through a lot of self-acceptance issues personally. I had to figure out why I was feeling this way and self-govern my social media time because I didn’t want to get back down on myself. I realized that not everyone cannot self-govern and dial back to fix their own issues as I did. I feel it is important to conduct this study to bring awareness to the growing issues social media is bringing forth. If I was having this issue and my family did not fall into the low-income category. I witnessed the issue firsthand throughout high school and college from afar and up close with some of my friends. I feel social media sets false standards for life and how you are supposed to be living it. A lot of people struggle with what is real and what is fake already. Social exacerbates the issue dramatically. If it is affecting the average young adult it had to have started when the exposure to social media started.

Students from a low-income background already might have family issues going on at home with their family, or with themselves. Social Media further highlights the severity of their personal situations. In the past, kids might not have been aware of how severe their situations are because they were only exposed to those around, them in their immediate radius of friends in their neighborhood whose situations were similar. With kids using social media as much as they do they are super aware of the things they don’t have and exactly how poor they are now. Constantly being reminded of what you lack will have a detrimental effect on the student’s behavior, moods, and decision-making skills. Social Media is exacerbating the issues urban schools are having currently.

In this study, I set out to explore the experiences of current teaching professionals in urban schools to see how social media has changed the climate of both the schools and the classroom. Has it made them readjust their approach to issues in the schools and classrooms? Has it made the school and classroom more hostile? What was the climate of the classroom and school like before and currently with the popularity of social media constantly on the uprise? The best people to give perspective on this issue is educators because they have been there through the introduction of social media and will have to be there through it, and after social media if it goes away. Recent statistics from a U.S. survey of 33,512 students from 51 institutions showed that in the past 12 months, 60.8% of college students “felt overwhelming anxiety,” and 38.2% of students “felt so depressed that it was difficult to function (Drouin , Reining, Flanagan, Carpenter, & Toscos, 2018, p. 494). If it is affecting older students like this, I’m sure it started much earlier in the classroom. Leaving home is when a lot of people are forced to deal with their feelings. My goal is to prove that these same issues plus more are affecting students a lot earlier. With the early introductions of social media as young as six years old according to a recent study. Is it harmful to development if pre-adolescent children take part in social media across the board?

Literature Review

Social Media Addiction Correlation to Academic Performance

According to a study conducted by Hou, Xiong, and Wang (2019) social media addiction can be viewed as one form of Internet addiction, where individuals exhibit a compulsion to use social media to excess. Individuals with social media addiction are often overly concerned about social media and are driven by an uncontrollable urge to log on to and use social media. Studies have shown that the symptoms of social media addiction can be manifested in mood, cognition, physical and emotional reactions, and interpersonal and psychological problems (Hou, Xiong, Song, & Wang , 2019, p. 2). When a child is exposed to these addictive behaviors early on in their like t can be a real issue. Many studies have shown that social media addiction affects approximately 12% of users across social networking sites (Hou, Xiong, Song, & Wang , 2019). With these facts in mind it is easy to put together the pieces why how social media could play a negative role on behavior in an educational environment. Certain categories of social media use have been shown to be associated with reduced academic performance (Hou, Xiong, Song, & Wang , 2019). For example, Lau (2017) found using social media for nonacademic purposes and social media multitasking negatively predicted academic performance. A large sample survey conducted in the United States also found that the time students spent on Facebook was negatively associated with their total GPAs (Junco, 2012).

Not everyone that uses social media frequently is addicted (Lau, 2017). It is important to understand the negative behaviors that can are associated with social media addictions. It has been shown that addiction to Facebook is positively associated with depression, anxiety, and insomnia and negatively associated with subjective well-being, subjective vigor, and life satisfaction (Hou, Xiong, Song, & Wang , 2019). Research has also suggested the negative impact of social media addiction, and Facebook addiction in particular, on academic performance. When a person with addiction issues has not had what their addiction is calling for it causes them to act negatively toward those around them. These actions are what is considered withdrawal symptoms. Most schools restrict cellphone usage in the classroom. Restriction of what a person is addicted to will cause less than desirable moods and actions on the part of the addicted person.

Comparison on Social Media

The thief of happiness is comparison. When a person is constantly comparing their life to that of the smoke and mirrors portrayed on social media it can cause depressive behaviors (Fardouly, Magson , Johnco, Oar , & Rapee, 2018). Social comparison theory says that people have a urge to determine their progress on different aspects of their lives and that people compare themselves to others in order to do so. This theory also suggests that comparisons to people judged to be better than oneself would lead to negative effects for mental health. On social media, people have been found to present the most desirable version of themselves. As a result, when browsing social media, users primarily perceive other users to be more attractive than themselves, which can negatively influence their body image and mood (Fardouly, Magson , Johnco, Oar , & Rapee, 2018). Teens and Preteens are already dealing with the pressures of growing up. Social media comparison has a positive correlation to body dysmorphia (Fardouly, Magson , Johnco, Oar , & Rapee, 2018). The constant comparison coupled with possible social media addiction can cause depressive behaviors negatively affecting academic performance (Hou, Xiong, Song, & Wang , 2019). Social media comparison also has a correlation to suicidal tendencies because of the deep depressive state it can cause them to slip into.

Social Media as an addiction

According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (2019), addiction is defined as a chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. Those with addictions use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences. The constant need to update and overshare is the compulsive element of social media (Cain, 2018). When a person is addicted to a substance or thing when they give in to that addiction a substance in their brain is released called dopamine (Hou, Xiong, Song, & Wang , 2019). Social media is a psychological addiction rather than one that involves actual tangible substances (Cain, 2018). Those that are social media addicted show degradation of white matter in their brains very similar to those who have substance addiction issues (Hou, Xiong, Song, & Wang , 2019). Social media addiction affects the part of the brain that is responsible for attention, emotion, and decision-making (AsapScience, 2014). Heavy social media users have increased issues focusing

on tasks that are outside their phone screens (Hou, Xiong, Song, & Wang , 2019). Heavy social media use has rewired our brains to the point that we are experiencing what is called phantom vibration syndrome (AsapScience, 2014). According to a video by AsapSicence (2014) phantom vibration syndrome happens when our body has been so rewired by cellphone usage that your brain associates a normal itch as your phone vibrating or ringing when it has not rung.

Methodology

In this study, I felt it would be most beneficial to interview education professionals to study the phenomenology of how social media addiction affect children in the classroom. The overwhelming evidence proves that social media causes depressive moods and behavior, and has unfavorable effects on academic performance. I felt they would be able to give the best information on how it has affected the climate of the classroom and individual student behaviors. I would like to know if they have had a tougher time with in-class and school behaviors. I will be interviewing educators and educational professionals who have been in practice for at least ten years. I feel that is a long enough time to have a true scope of the shift that social media has had on student behavior and classroom climate.

I will be soliciting participants from a local urban high school. I will also be using social media to connect me with other educators to get a broader sample. I want to include results from those who are teachers in other urban schools from other places. to observe if this was a local issue or not. There will be a total of four participants that will give their observations and experiences for this study. I will be using a video camera to interview the participants. I will also have just an audio recording available to those who do not wish to be on video. I will also be using a poll to collect information. Participants in the poll will not be the same as those who participated in the interviews. The Interview will be conversation style I will be gently throwing out topics and asking questions on some specific things that I may want to know. I feel that by just letting the participants share experiences I will get a better insight into their experiences.

I will be using a preselected set of questions to collect the educator’s and education professional’s opinions on the subject matter in the poll. They will not be allowed to preview the questions before the interview to ensure optimal transparency. No student’s identities will be disclosed if specific examples are given. The identity of each participant will be withheld in order to protect the participants. Each participant will be given a non-identifying name specifically for this study (i.e.: participant A) to maintain confidentiality. All participants from both samples taken for both the interviews and the poll were asked to sign a consent form allowing me to use the information they provided for research purposes only.

The participants are teachers from all over the united states. They teach grades 6–12. I felt it was important to focus on these grades because this is the time students start to make decisions for themselves. They start to explore who they are and use social media in other ways besides entertainment.

During the poll, I provided a space where educators could explain their answers or provide more information if they’d like to. There will be 10 participants in the poll portion of this study. The questions I will be asking in the poll are based on some specific themes I found to be interesting during the interview phase of the study.

Findings

I choose to do this study in two phases. Phase one was the interviews from which it helped me develop my questioning for phase two the poll. In the first phase, we talked freely about the different things that they have observed in their classroom as far as student behaviors. We first talked in a group setting. All Three participants in the interview process just had casual conversation about their experiences with students over the years. All three of the teachers agreed that they had a hard time in the classroom ten years ago. More recently things have escalated. The students have changed over the years as the generations have changed. They all noticed that ten years ago not all students had a phone, so it was a lot easier for students to focus. As the number of students with cell phones increased the ability for students to focus and multitask has diminished. Participant C brought up that they feel as cell phone technology and social media has increased, they noticed that they have gotten more students with learning issues. They felt that before students constantly had a phone in their hand scrolling, they were able to focus on more in general. All of the participants in the interview agreed. Participant B felt that once the student brought out their phone and they had to correct them; they no longer were a part of the learning process. Participant B says that once the student is corrected, they notice a complete shift in their body language, and they begin to start to fidget or mess with other things. Participant D added that they have experienced students they have corrected get very angry and disruptive when told to get off their phones. All participants agreed that it's like the students are consumed at all times with the need to be connected. When they are forced not to be connected all they think about is the next time they can have their phone in their hand. Participant C says that they can tell a difference in the generation that they had were not even available to the public and this generation. They felt that the way students interact with each other and the content being taught is very different. They said that thirty years ago he may have had one maybe two students with learning disabilities that they had to accommodate within the lesson. Now they have all but two students in a class that have accommodations that need to be met. They all agreed with participant C. Participant C continued that they think that its not just the students that are affected by social media. It’s a household issue. The students aren’t concerned with

achievement in the classroom because its not a priority at home. Parents are not concerned with achievement because they are consumed with their own lives and social media accounts. Participant B felt differently about the parents. They felt that the parents were concerned but just didn’t know what to do or how to support their children in the ways they need. Either the parents are still in the process of growing up, so they don’t know how to help their child or they didn’t have that kind of support. When I asked if they felt that the issues that they are observing in the classroom are evidence of a social media addiction problem in our youth. They all agreed that they felt like it was. They all felt like the behaviors they experience are very similar to dealing with someone with an addiction issue. Students get anxious to look at their phones, so they act out. They agreed that students are constantly looking for an opportunity to bring out their phones when they aren’t looking.

When we started to talk about classroom climate. All participants agreed that now that students have their phones on them constantly and a lot of schools don’t have rules against them it makes the classroom environment more hostile. Participant A stated that as an administrator when they have to discipline students for cellphone-related issues parents look at them as the bad guy. The parents make a big deal about them getting disciplined about cell phones. They stated that a lot of parents feel make a big deal about the cell phone, rather than disciplining their children about not listening to adults at school. Participant A stated that they have to deal with cellphone-related classroom disruptions a great number of times a week. They also stated that social media contributes to a hostile school environment. They stated that 90% of the fights that happen at school are ones that are started because of something that happened on social media.

In phase two I sampled a diverse group of educators and Administrators that have all been in education for over 10 years. I created a poll on a google application so it would be easily accessible to participants from anywhere. The first question I asked was if they consider themselves an avid social media user. 60% of the participants do not consider themselves heavy social media users because of time constraints. The other 40% of participants use social media quite a bit. They find themselves on social media when they get bored, have downtime, need to pass time, or want to socialize with friends or family.

The next question I asked the participants in the poll was if they feel that since they started their career in education, do they feel students have changed dramatically since social media has emerged? The educators all felt like the students have changed dramatically. I allowed the teachers to write out their feelings on this question. One of the participants felt that the new generation has developed a lot more emotional issues. They noticed that it seems like this generation deals with a lot more anxiety and depression. They felt as though is was a common thing in the past but now it seems like it has gotten out of control. They feel like the constant information overload coupled highs and lows of posting things for likes and not getting the attention they want is causing more depression, anxiety, attention deficit, and suicide issues. They feel that social media is responsible for the fragile mental state of this generation. One of the participants was once a counselor that chose to make the move back to the classroom. In their experience the majority of the students who were having emotional issues spent a great amount of time on social media.

The next thing that I found to be interesting was the amount of times the participants had issues with cell phone/social media disruptions in the classroom. I asked participants for an average number of times they have to stop class and handle students who specifically have their cellphone out scrolling or watching things on social media during instruction time. The graph below shows the numbers the educators provided me with.

In the next question, I asked participants to describe the behavior of the students once they have to be corrected after they pull out their phone at an inappropriate time. A great deal of the participants felt that once the students pull out their phone they are done. Their attention has been shifted to something else and they are almost impossible to get back on task. This observation is much like the same thing those who participated in the interview observed. I asked if they observed more students who were fidgeting when they couldn’t pull their phone out or causing a disruption because they couldn’t have their phone out? 7 out of 10 participants noticed these behaviors. Several of the participants mentioned in their comments that it is a constant struggle to discipline students who are on their phone. Student’s parents often see nothing wrong with students having their phones as well. This observation is also similar to what the educators experienced in the interviews.

Conclusion

Social media has changed so much in our daily lives. It has changed the way we interact with our surroundings and our peers. Social media has its positive sides like bringing people together that otherwise would not have interacted and helping locate lost friends and family. I feel the bad outweighs the bad when it comes to those who are still developing their sense of self. A great deal of adolescents are dealing with depression and anxiety because of a variety of different reasons but I feel one of the biggest is how social media affects them. They are constantly trying to live a false version of their best life because social media sets the unreal standards of living. Social media also sets an unreal standard of how everyone is supposed to look. Being unique is frowned upon. Beauty standards are set by social media influencers and what they post online. Social media has even changed the way children play. It is uncommon to

see a child using their imagination and playing with toys anymore. Kids have their tablets and have their heads buried in them constantly. The early exposure to social media is changing brain development and pre-exposing the children to addictive behaviors. Scientific evidence all points to social media as the reason we see such a dramatic change in this generation.

In the classroom, both sets of educational professionals involved both observed the same types of behaviors in students. They both felt as tough students showed evidence of being addicted to social media. The fidgeting and anger when restricted from social media both are evidence that social media is a real addiction and a real problem that affects both the classroom and the school overall. Social media is causing disruption in and out of the classroom. A large number of student conflicts in the school stem from social media. It has such power because people seek validation from social media. Both young and old. People post good and bad things on social media looking for some type of validation. When they get that validation, hormones are released in the brain that makes them excited and feel better until they need that validation again. This is similar behavior to that of an alcoholic or drug addict. This is the reason students are constantly acting out in the classroom and otherwise. They are experiencing small withdrawal symptoms and therefore acting out because they don’t know what to do with those emotions.

I feel that in order to combat the affects of social media addiction there needs to be a class of some sort that teaches kids coping skills. There needs to be a time throughout there day that students don’t have their phones and are forced to learn how to communicate with each other. There is not a time throughout the day that they don’t have screen time. Students in this day and time are on their phones from the time they wake up to the time they go to sleep. It is having an affect on health in general because they are constantly interacting and constantly staring at a blue light. I feel that there should be a mandatory time that students have to give up their phones and interact like before cell phones were a factor.