Navigating social media use in students

As a secondary school counsellor in today’s world, the most significant recurring issue I deal with is the erosion of student attention spans caused by social media and other digital distractions. 

Not only does it impact academic performance, but it also erodes students’ ability to pursue authentic and fulfilling hobbies, passions and interpersonal connections. New counsellors entering the profession need to grasp how online life competes with real life if they are to help students make healthier and more balanced decisions.

Observations from the field

I talk to students thrice a week in daily mentoring sessions and often hear about screen time. What I am observing is shocking but common: students are unable to sleep because of night-time scrolling, they are anxious from social media comparison, and they cannot sit still with their thoughts or pursue a single task. 

This reflects what experts such as Jonathan Haidt outline in The Anxious Generation. 

I increasingly struggle to engage with students whose central relations are virtual. Focus is scattered, communication is superficial, and students struggle to define and commit to personal interests outside the screen. In reply, I have developed several approaches that are simple to incorporate into practice:

Offline SMART goals and journaling: I introduce students to SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals and have them journal by hand, look inward at their values, and own their routines. This rewires their sense of progress toward long-term, screenless objectives.

Connecting tech to creativity: I do not attempt to eliminate tech from their lives. Instead, I redirect it: coding, music editing, and making videos are active ways to connect to tech and avoid passivity. Students are less apt to unplug from social media if they use tech to make something personal and valuable.

Understanding the relationship between sleep and academic performance: I consciously try to demonstrate how sleep and late-night cell phone usage are linked to academic decline. Students are usually unaware of how lack of sleep from excessive screen time affects their ability to focus. 

Realising the larger picture: The future of education is changing with AI, hybrid learning, and employer demands. Perhaps the way to addressing this challenge is the emphasis on mental well-being and wellness as a core issue of schools preparing for the future. Social media is a prime source of teenage angst and we must rethink digital literacies as more than a technical ability but a matter of wellness.

There should also be a renewed emphasis on creative and analytical thought as essential future competencies. Unfortunately, as any counsellor will tell you, overly stimulated, distractible students have difficulty cultivating such skills. Restoring students to a sense of deep and creative thought is a counselling objective but also a work-of-the-future necessity.

Collaborating with school leadership

While principals and other leaders usually concentrate on macro concerns such as exams or discipline, I try to talk regularly about the daily impact of life online on students. 

Leadership has to hear specifics: a kid who lies awake at night because of TikTok, a student who gave up painting because scrolling took its place. These are not stories; they are patterns. 

You can inspire your leadership to support student wellness programmes focused on screen time, sleep hygiene, and appreciating hobbies and offline clubs. Counsellors promote change by fostering a shared vocabulary around these priorities.

As a counsellor, one of the most potent things you can do is model presence. Engage with students in person, sans screen. Ask them what they are passionate about. Challenge them to create something offline. 

Suggest Cal Newport’s book on Digital Minimalism, or introduce journaling with a simple prompt: “If your phone were to vanish for a day, what would you do with your time?” 

In the era of endless scrolling, being the grown-up who exemplifies attention, curiosity, and reflection is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Let’s bring the students back to themselves, a small moment of attention at a time.