Last week, guest speaker Jessie Miller gave a fascinating talk to our Tech Ed. class on social media use in the modern-day, and the implications for Teachers. It was one of the most interesting lectures I have experienced at university. One of the issues he addressed that sparked a lot of interesting conversation was about screen addiction. Many of us were concerned about too much screen time in children’s lives, specifically regarding impulsivity and addiction. It has become very custom to hear screen and social media addiction presented as fact without any dispute, but Jessie Miller challenged this notion, stating there is no scientific evidence. In fact, the scientific community is not as clear on this matter as you might think. Yet, some of my classmates expressed having concerns over their own potentially addicted screen habits or witnessing impulsive behaviour amongst the children in their lives. This seems to fit well with a fair amount of social media addiction research, which relies on self-report measures. Whether or not screen addiction is a real thing, people are self-reporting as addicted. It seems to be a behaviour that they have identified as a concern for themselves. This raises some interesting questions. Does it matter if people are not technically addicted to media, or is the feeling or belief that one is addiction really what matters? Certainly, habits can a negative or undesirable effect on someone’s life with being addictive regardless. Jessie Miller does a good job of explaining how technologies like social media can have a positive effect as well, bringing people together or recognizing their skills. It just depends on how you use them.

 

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