JBB’s DRP for 4/19/23: In the NEWs: Utah Law to Limit Teen access to Social Media

The Utah law, set to go into effect next year, would require anyone under 18 to get parental consent to join platform, would give parents access to these accounts and set a curfew of when students could access their accounts. If Nevada had this law, how would it affect your social media behavior? Do you think access should be controlled? (WHY/WHY not?)

pbs newshour - utah's social media law — pbs newshour – utah’s social media law

Students paid a little more attention when they saw this video today, but I don’t think it really registered that this was happening right next door in Utah to their fellow students beginning next year. It’s been a real battle all year long with students constantly staring and interacting with their devices, too often instead of doing classwork. I mentioned in my post last week, that I knew when I began teaching in 1995 that the “competition” was all the media they had access to. But at the time, the access was in their bedrooms and living rooms at home and wasn’t readily available 24/7 literally interfering with my attempts at instruction and their responsibility to do classwork.

I believe that something needs to be done, but top-down banning by state governments is too draconian and without local parental and district support is just theater, and not good theater. As I mentioned last time, one problem is that school culture often bares little resemblance to home culture and technology companies are only too eager to fill the gap with their shiny distractions stuffing teens and adults with empty mental calories. Heck, if it weren’t for the fact that my cell coverage in my school is poor and that FB and twitter are blocked on the school wifi, my time on campus would include checking in, instead of the daily break from social media that it has become.

So, the problem is multi-layered and an outright ban will just disenfranchise those who already feel unheard and misunderstood. Social networking (and social media) could have been used “for good,” but the need to make money has horribly watered that down. At the moment I’m not optimistic, but then in another 21 (school) days I’ll be handing over my keys and all of this glorious work will become the responsibility of someone else. Good luck, y’all and try to remember to have fun along the way.