About the Course
We keep asking how much time kids spend on screens. This session asks a different question: what was the young person reaching for when they picked up the phone? Adolescence has always been about figuring out who you are, but that work now happens in front of an audience that never closes. Participants look at how identity and self-worth form in public, why the same amount of use affects two young people differently, and what youth are looking for online, with a focus on two of the American Academy of Pediatrics' 5 C's: Child and Communication.
Learning Objectives
1. Describe how developmental timing and individual differences shape a young person's vulnerability to social media, citing at least two findings from current research.
2. Explain the gap between what teens report about their peers and what they report about themselves, and how that gap should change the way an adult opens the conversation.
3. Identify five common needs that digital spaces meet for young people and evaluate which are hardest to provide offline in their own community.
4. Apply five communication strategies that keep an adult in conversation with a young person about their online life.