The focus of my response paper this week was how gaming is a neutral use of the internet. Meanwhile social media leads to mental health problems. I think gaming is fine for kids to play and to then be used in the classroom or library because of its controlled environment. Games come with ratings, so parents and teachers can rest assured that the content will be appropriate for the age group of the students. Gaming done at school also involves supervision, adding another layer of safety for students.
Social media is really hard to curate. It can be impossible for parents to ensure that their children will not be exposed to anything inappropriate or possibly even traumatizing. And then of course there's the problem of children not being able to quit scrolling.
I didn't put it in my paper, but there is educational content on social media. We found some last week with our annotations! However, we're adults. I can recognize when I am endlessly scrolling for "one last video" to entertain me because I *know* there will be one more interesting thing any second now. But I'm an adult with self-control and can force myself to put down my phone. Teenagers' brains are not developed in that way yet.
After this week's readings, I will not have a social media account for students to interact with the library. I do not want to personally contribute to the amount of content students' are consuming.
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