Teens are hooked on social media, where they stay connected with friends — but it comes at a cost.
• Mental health: Research shows that heavy social media use negatively affects teens’ mental health and contributes to depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.
• Self-harm content: Studies show that teens are more likely than adults to see self-harm content online — and they’re more likely to attempt risky online dares.
Artificial intelligence chatbots are also facing increasing scrutiny for output that harms young people.
• New guardrails: OpenAI has added parental controls to ChatGPT after the company was sued by parents who hold the chatbot responsible for their son’s death by suicide — although some say the controls are not enough.
💬 Discuss:
• What are some examples of social media harms that you’ve experienced, seen or heard about?
• What determines what you see in your social media feeds?
💡Idea:
• Share the headline of this USA Today article with your students along with a K-W-L chart.
• Ask students to write their thoughts out in the K(now) and W(ant to know) columns of the chart before reading the article, then summarize what they L(earned) in the last column .
• Call on students to share their K-W-L charts at the end of class and compile class findings on how social media affects teens’ mental health.
💡Another idea: Use the “AI ethics” slide in Week 1 of the Daily Do Now resource to further explore this topic.
⭐ NLP Resources:
• Infographic: “6 things to know about AI”
• “Introduction to Algorithms” (Checkology)
🔗 Related:
• “How Chatbots and AI Are Already Transforming Kids’ Classrooms” (Bloomberg News).
• [Link warning: This article discusses suicide.] “‘Everything I Learned About Suicide, I Learned On Instagram.’” (Time).
