Digital Communication: A Breifing Paper on Social Media in the Classroom

Leigh Scordato
University of St. Joseph

Over the past few years, technology has made such great advances and this is shown in
schools around the world. Technology can be used to enhance the classroom, but it can also be an
outlet which students use negatively. Social media has increased drastically over the past few
years and has become a major issue here John F. Kennedy Middle School. Even at the middle
school level, almost all kids have some form of social media whether it be Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook, or any other form. Although our school does not encourage the use of social media,
the use is tremendously increasing in trend for personal use, and therefore penetrating to the
educational setting (Kahveci, 2015). There are several issues that arise from students using
social media at our school such as the fact that it is a huge distraction, can be used for
cyberbullying, and can impact student self-esteem.
Distraction
There are many different opinions about if social media should be allowed in schools or
not. One major issue is the distraction factor that social media can have on the daily atmosphere
of the school, although some believe it can be a way to develop a more current and relevant
classroom. Many advances in the Internet have allowed for educators to find new ways of
teaching and learning with the development of social media tools. (Wright, 2014). This is very
true and there are many benefits for incorporating social media into a classroom, but in our
school, many policies would need to be put into place before this could occur. One example
would be for people to take advantage of the popularity of Facebook so families could share
information and build community with the school (Feeney, 2015). This is a popular use of social
media in schools but needs to be regulated and monitored daily to ensure what is being said is
not threatening or severely negative. Students also constantly feel the need to check their phones
or wireless devices to add or post to social media. The temptation to look or respond immediately

to different things going on in the cyber social media world can be extremely distracting and
therefore a large issue in a school.
Cyberbullying
Social media opens up a new world to bullying because it is the willful and repeated
harm inflicted [on another] through the use of computers, cell phones, or other electronic
devices (Rice, 2015). Students can post pictures or comments about other students that are
negative or harmful. At JFK there are many issues that occur daily because of cyberbullying,
and social media is an outlet in which cyberbullying can happen. Cyberbullying can lead to
health consequences and have a severe impact on the level of depression a student experiences,
even more so than non-social media bullying (Rice, 2015). When an issue of cyberbullying
comes to be, it then impacts the school day, even if the comment or post was made outside of
school. Administration has to deal with cyberbullying almost daily, which can then affect a
students academic performance. Through social media, students are interacting with posts
made by other students, and can create new content from what is already on the internet (Rice,
2015). This then allows for students to interact in a new way which can lead to them not thinking
of the short or long-term consequences of their actions on social media.
Self-Esteem
Students today do not just have to worry about who they are going to sit with at lunch.
They now worry about how many likes or followers they have on social media. The way
students communicate today, compared to older generations, is much different. They
communicate through cyberspace often by tweeting, posting, or hashtagging. These interactions
are rarely face-to-face and the advancements in social media are constantly changing (Baruth,
2014). Students are in constant contact with people they see as friends but who they may

actually rarely see in person, which can have some positives such as: increased feeling of
security in relationships or positive communications with people they do not physically have
access to often. (Baruth, 2014). The constant need to be self-affirmed may harm a students selfesteem if they do not feel they are truly accepted by people on social media. This can cause
anxiety and other health concerns that may impact how they perform on a daily basis at school.
Action
At JFK Middle School, action should be taken to educate the students on social media
and what appropriate digital communication is. If students are aware of the possible
consequences of using social media negatively, they may then be more responsible in how they
use it. This could then lead to teachers being able to use social media in a variety of ways in their
classrooms, and school wide. Many educators think social media cannot be used positively in
the classroom, however, if we educate our students properly it can become a part of the culture
of our school (Mourlam, 2014). This would result in fewer distractions for students, a decrease in
cyberbullying, and a more positive sense of self-esteem with our students, which would then lead
to students performing better academically. We could do this by incorporating more digital
communication lessons into our curriculum and making students aware of the issues that go
along with using social media and how they can affect their lives. If we start teaching students
this now, then they will grow up to be responsible digital citizens of the world.

Reference List

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