Is social media dumbing our children down?
I’m a subscriber to Michael Easter’s substack . Most of his topics center around fitness and health, but in his latest post, he presents some new social media research that is relevant to educating our children.
Last Friday he pointed out that social media use among children has been linked to mental health issues, depression in particular. Most of you were probably already aware of this.
He followed up with a second finding, one that I was made aware of by another blogger just a few weeks back. The new research was recently published in JAMA, a peer-reviewed medical journal. The researcher, Jason M. Nagata, makes the case for a link between social media use and poorer academic performance and cognitive development. Click JAMA above to read the study.
The bottom line: less damage (decline in academic performance) for children who are on their screens 1-2 hours a day. Double the drop in performance for students who are on their devices 4 hours + a day.
Michael’s common-sense recommendation to parents of private and public school children is less screen time and more parental involvement in their education. As home schoolers, I would add more time regularly engaging in play and outdoor education. Take advantage of the beautiful fall weather!
Thanks for reading!
Curt Bumcrot, MRE
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