Global social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have been blamed for creating a plethora of problems in young people’s lives. From helping foster insular and narrow socio-political outlooks to a fixation on celebrity culture, materialism, and consumption to increasing concerns about…
As a college professor, I have sadly seen these effects play out in front of me to the detriment of open inquiry and student sanity. But I want to share that there has been one appreciable effect of social media that has been quite positive: the improved ability of students to process and integrate huge amounts of information and then communicate their ideas clearly and succinctly to others.
These tasks are not easy. But I have been doing this for almost 15 years with very powerful results. There are two particular reasons behind making this pedagogical decision. First, I am pushing the students to directly and actively engage with ideas and arguments in various works. This allows each student to come away with a nuanced understanding of the key questions posed by the author and how they answered those questions.
When I first started with this approach, as a general phenomenon, students were uncomfortable speaking and making eye contact with their peers and had difficulty pulling their ideas together and then critically evaluating evidence to reach a conclusion. I worked with many students for countless hours over the years, trying to help them become comfortable public speakers and help them to cultivate the skill set of evaluating evidence and competing ideas. This was a huge but rewarding challenge.
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