When we come across some useful articles, we like to share them with our community.
Parenting adolescents has always been difficult enough, but doing it in 2019 has been made all the more challenging with smart phones and social media. Teens’ constant connection and fear of missing out often adds stress and anxiety for young people.
In an article in Psychology Today from March 2017, Victoria L. Dunckley M.D. contends that social media and middle school aged students are not a good combination.
“Because the midbrain is reorganizing itself and risk-taking is high and impulse control is low, I can’t imagine a worse time in a child’s life to have access to social media than middle school.”
image by Flickr user – Blogtrepreneur
I encourage our MS Parent community to read the article linked above. It’s a good read that shares some of the brain development conflicts between adolescents and social media. Hopefully, it might give you some context for delay or further conversation with your middle school child.