N.S. educator discusses pitfalls of social media addiction for students

Experts warn social media addiction is a mental health emergency.

A Nova Scotia educator says the banning of cellphones in classrooms across Canada is a good start, but there’s a bigger problem to address.

“We are restricting the wrong things and until we address the social media addiction and the way it has a grip on the smartphone generation, we are not going to beat it. I have also recommended that the schools need help, they are not going to succeed, they are going to be worn down through imposing restrictions,” says Paul Bennett, Schoolhouse Institute director and Saint Mary’s University adjunct professor.

Bennett is drawing attention to a common problem facing youth and children today: social media addiction.

“The root of the issue, which is cellphone or social media addiction, which is a form of addictive behaviour, until we deal with that we are not going to have much success,” says Bennett.

Aiden Fathergill, a Halifax university student, has tried to delete certain applications multiple times but continues to come back to them.

“I try to delete all of them but then I can’t communicate with my friends other than through Insta or Snapchat,” says Fathergill.

Bennett says smartphone bans alone won’t fix this problem with teenagers, but they are an important step in breaking the cycle of addiction.

“We need a broader strategy, a cross-sector strategy. Three sectors – health, education and social services – to provide the supports that those that are truly addicted need to get off their devices,” says Bennett

Bennett compares the strategies needed to combat social media addiction to those used to target smoking between 1999 and 2012, which dropped the rate of smoking among teens from 48 per cent to 12 percent.

“I’m recommending an approach that’s calibrated by age and is designed to situate and match against the children’s development. For example, up to age five, I recommend a total abandonment of cellphones and parents are to enforce that. I suggest that in the elementary grades, it makes perfect sense to have them restricted severely in schools,” says Bennett.

Mental health expert Julie Cass has found that children don’t even realize they’re addicted.

“One of the biggest problems is the notifications with social media. There is a way that they lure you in. If I am working on something else or having a conversation with a friend of mine and a notification comes up. How many times are people distracted in conversation because that notification pulls on the addiction because you need to just see what that notification is,” says Cass.

High school student Zuhayr Ahmed understands the addiction behind social media but feels there is a place for it.

“I think it can be a little addictive and ruin your education a bit but if you have time management and stuff, it can be really good,” says Ahmed.

Cass says it must be used in moderation.

“Social media, the problem with it is that it’s constant and the information that comes to you is sometimes unsolicited, it’s not even by your choice. So it’s over processing our brain constantly. So social media is an issue without regulation, without boundaries and moderating, but so are other things that the smartphone provides service on such as games as well,” says Cass.

Parent Leotra Downey tries to have social media off the table at her house and doesn’t agree with them being permitted at all in schools.

“It should be banned, every which way, schools, teachers, because the kids ain’t learning anything,” says Downey.

Others like Matthew Sentes feel there are pros and cons to social media. He has a young daughter so social media hasn’t played a huge part yet in her life yet and they hope to keep it that way.

“Right now we will show her videos of horses and she loves horses but that’s probably going to be it for a while and keep her from seeing all the downsides that don’t have a lot of benefits moving forward,” says Sentes.

Cass says it comes down to the parenting and kids copy what is modelled.

“Turning off notifications for adults will really help because if we are showing our children distracted conversation, they are learning from our behaviour. If we aren’t self regulating or anchoring ourselves in the current moment, our children are learning that as well,” says Cass.

“We need to learn with it. Being able to self regulate, I think it is the biggest key. Moving forward is learning where the pitfalls are and where you find your own traps are, being able to educate your kids and I think it’s really important to keep open dialogue with your children as to what platforms, what goes through their head, just opening their head about what’s appropriate to post and what’s not.”

Bennett says most educators are focused almost entirely on the device’s effect on academics and on student attention in class and academic progress.

“That really turns out to be beside the point because that’s of course an issue. It really is about the social media addictive effects, the mental health challenges. The fact is that 15 percent of youth are totally addicted to these devices. They sleep with them, they can’t turn them off, they are looking at them constantly,” says Benett.

He will be sharing his findings and views on social media addiction and the effectiveness of school smartphone bans at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Toronto from May 30 to June 6.

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