There are many ways that video content on cellphones, laptops or interactive whiteboards (including movies on streaming services, video clips on social media, and more) can both harm and help teens, according to a report from the American Psychological Association and detailed in an Education Week article.
Teaching students the skills to use video content and other digital media when it’s helpful—and recognize when it’s not—is crucial, says Richard Culatta, the CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, or ISTE+ASCD.
It’s hard to find any skill, other than reading, more important to post-graduate success than having a grounded understanding of how to thrive in a digital world, he says.
Current research on the effects of viewing videos — whether traditional formats or new social media new platforms – indicates it is the content that can harm or benefit, not so much how the video reaches the viewer.
Here are three takeaways from the research:
Use caution when teaching with videos
Adolescents must be savvy consumers of all digital media, the report says. This includes discerning positive from negative social media influencers (individuals with large online followings). Influencers can be helpful for schools when used in an anti-bullying campaign, but harmful if spreading conspiracy theories, expressing hateful rhetoric, or promoting unrealistic beauty and lifestyle standards.
Teens are also more likely to view paid product placements as influential personal recommendations, the APA report says, rather than the advertisements that they are.
Create policies that recognize students respond differently to video messages
Teens respond differently to video media based on personal factors such as their personality, age, experiences, and neurodiversity. Adolescents mature at different rates, and the APA report doesn’t outline specific ages for viewing certain types of video content.
Schools should create policies and guidelines for digital media use in the classroom that are nuanced, says Culatta. It’s not just a matter of blocking students and teachers from certain platforms. Policies should focus on the quality of the content, not the platform, he says.
“A lot of educators are really quite good at this, but they’re trying to do this in almost opposition to policies in schools that make these big, sweeping categorizations” about what platforms students and teachers have access to, he says. “We need to be creating healthy learning experiences in schools to help [students] recognize when media is useful and when it’s not. That’s the responsibility of schools and parents.”
AI introduces new challenges to video viewing for parents and their children
Artificial intelligence-generated videos are fast changing the digital ecosystem. Research on the effects of AI-generated content on adolescents is only just emerging, according to the report.
AI-generated or altered content can worsen adolescents’ negative body images, and AI can create “deepfake” videos targeting other students and school staff—two potential issues discussed in the report. This reinforces the need to teach students AI literacy, the report says.
Beyond AI, many of the video absorption challenges outlined in the APA report are unique to the times and parents often don’t know how to navigate this new normal, says Culatta. Schools along with parents are responsible for teaching students healthy technology habits, and schools also play an important role as a source of evidence-based information for families, he says.
“If you look where parents go to get trusted information about how to create healthy tech-use conditions at home, they turn to their schools,” he says. “If you help parents create real, good healthy tech use at home, your job at school is going to be a lot easier.”
Education Week
