Do you have middle school children? Are they on social media? The Today Parenting Team has 10 reasons why they don’t need social media.
1. Social media was not designed for children. A tween’s underdeveloped frontal cortex can’t manage the distraction nor the temptations that come with social media use.
2. You can not teach the maturity that social media requires. Some parents say they want to teach their child to use social media appropriately, but their midbrains are not developed yet.
3. Social media is an entertainment technology. It does not make your child smarter or more prepared for real life or a future job.
4. It is not necessary for healthy social development. It is entertainment.
5. A tween’s “more is better” mentality is a dangerous match for social media. Social media encourages them to overdo their friend connections like they tend to overdo other things in their lives.
6. Social media is an addictive form of screen entertainment. Like video game addiction, early use can set up future addiction patterns and habits.
7. Social media replaces learning the hard social “work” necessary for success.
8. Social media can cause teens to lose connection with family.
9. Social media use represents lost potential for teens. Teens waste too much time and too much of their brain in a digital world.
10. Do any of us wish we had started earlier?