Episode 214: Statewide Campaign Focuses on the Impact of Social Media on Students

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. Governor Spencer Cox has launched a statewide campaign to address the impact of social media on students. On this episode of the Supercast, we sit down with one of the Governor's senior advisors, Aimee Winder Newton, who also serves as the Director of the Governor's new Office of Families. She tells us how the Public Awareness Campaign hopes to empower parents and provide them with the tools they need to educate their kids about the potential harms from using social media.

We're honored today to have Aimee Winder Newton in the studio. Aimee is a member of the Salt Lake County Council, as well as a senior advisor and director of the new Office of Families in the Governor's Office. So thank you very much for joining us today.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me a little bit about your work in the Office of Families. That's a new position that we're all excited about.

Aimee Winder Newton:
It is. Well, about a year and a half ago, the governor, when he did his State of the State address, talked about how we need to be looking proactively at how to better strengthen families. We want the best outcomes for kids and we know that that happens through strong families. So he developed this position and I was hired a year ago. We've got some initiatives that we've set out to accomplish and some policy objectives and it's been a great ride.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, we're really grateful to have you in that position. I know part of that has been helping the Governor and pushing this campaign to help raise awareness with families regarding the dangers of social media. And when you look through the materials, which I've done,  I appreciated the chance to be there when the campaign was announced. What's staggering really is the statistics that you see. It's difficult to see the numbers. We know the impact that it has, but when you see the hard numbers that show just how frequently students are involved, how deeply they're involved with social media, and the obvious negative impacts, it's really harrowing to see that.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and you as school administrators and our school teachers and others in the classroom, they see the impact, right? You see how it's impacting kids. So just a few data points. In Utah, only 37% of our Utah youth got at least eight hours of sleep on an average school night. You know how important it is for kids to be to school well rested and ready to learn. And these kids are not getting enough sleep. Now, this is all according to the SHARP survey, which has been a great help for us as we look at data for our Utah youth.

Some other data points- 32% of Utah youth felt sad or hopeless for two weeks or more in a row during the past year. And 18%, that's one in six, of our Utah youth seriously considered suicide in the past year. So it's very concerning. We do have some other interesting data points too, because social media seems to affect young women at a higher rate than it does young men. So 53% of female high school students had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, which is a 61% increase since 2009 when social media was invented. So some of these numbers are startling. We see this correlation and causation between social media and how it's impacting our kids, and we need our parents to get engaged on this.

Anthony Godfrey:
The correlation, it was 2009, right? When social media really took off and where the statistics got really bad for teens. It's really difficult to ignore that timing.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, and I mean, if you look at the graphs that show like emergency room visits for self-harm from 2009-2010 till now. I mean, it's like a hockey stick. It's so extreme. And so, you know, we're very concerned. In fact, we did a survey of Utah parents before we started this campaign to just kind of gauge where everyone was. And we at least know 88% of our parents believe there's some sort of detrimental effect on the mental health of their children using social media. So we know that parents believe that there's a detrimental effect and what we need to do now is give them some help.

Part of what the state's trying to do, besides this campaign and educating parents of the harmful effects of social media, we're doing things like legislation to help rein in social media companies. We also have lawsuits that we're looking at for harm that's been caused to our Utah youth. So there's things there, but the Governor's incredibly concerned about the mental health of our youth. We're just grateful that Jordan School District understands this and your great leadership to help us figure out how we can get this message out.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, the Governor's been a strong voice, a strong advocate for mental health issues for students for a long time. He's told his own story about how he struggled as a teen.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I think that's powerful. I really appreciate your focus and his focus on this issue. Tell us, first it's that you want to make sure that parents are aware of the harm that can be done of the dangers of social media, so that we're not dismissive of that. But then you're also giving tips for parents on how they can engage and help manage that with their teen.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about some of those suggestions for parents.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, so let me share five tips that we've been talking about. The first one is creating a family media plan. So this is everything from having open discussions and setting expectations to deciding ahead of time what the rules will be. So for instance, when I had kids, my kids are all now young adults, but when they were at home and they were teens, we had a rule that they had to check their cell phones in our bedrooms at night. And so they'd plug in their phone - I did have one kid one time try to be sneaky and put just the phone case with the little plug going into it, but we caught on and that was the end of that.

Anthony Godfrey:
You know, that's a good trick for me to be aware of.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, yeah. Be aware.

Anthony Godfrey:
Kids listening, don't try this at home.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Don't try this at home.

Anthony Godfrey:
'Cause it won't work.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's right. Parents are smarter than that. But we liked having it in our bedroom 'cause we said, you know what, at nine o'clock, phones checked in so that it wasn't distracting them. It wasn't keeping them up late at night. And so-- -

Anthony Godfrey:
My 14-year-old plugs his phone in the kitchen in a particular spot and we even don't have to ask much anymore because it just kind of happens. It's become a habit that the phone doesn't go downstairs at night.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's awesome. Well, and I feel like if you set the standard with the first child, the rest know, Oh, it's not worth the battle 'cause mom and dad aren't in a cave, so.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I do like that you said you set the standard in advance because if in the midst of an important interaction, suddenly there's a rule, then that doesn't work.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Right, right. And as part of that family media plan, I mean, that can go to TV, to gaming, to anything else. But having those expectations ahead of time, and you know, we even have some parents who have a little contract with their kids that you can only use it for this amount of time and during these hours and everything, And then they agree as parents that if you come to us and tell us about something inappropriate you've seen, we agree to not overreact and get angry, that we will always be supportive of your endeavors. And anyway, they kind of have this mutual contract. So there's a few ways you can create the family media plan. But talking about it in advance and setting those expectations and having your kids even be involved in that is a really good way to do it. So that's the first one.

Anthony Godfrey:
OK.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Second one, create tech-free zones and encourage children to foster in-person relationships. So one of the biggest issues that we see right now is a lack of human connection and how it's affecting kids and adults. Going through COVID and all of that, there was an impact there with that human connection piece. So right now we've got kids walking through the halls at school glued to their phones. They're not saying hi, they're not connecting, and they're missing that in-person connection. They're missing that. They can't just be friends over a device. You have to have that in-person connection for you to really feel that and have it positively impact your mental health.

Anthony Godfrey:
And a device is a really easy way to extricate yourself from an awkward social situation. Even adults do that. While I'm standing around for a second, okay, I'm gonna look at my phone and now I feel comfortable because I don't feel like I'm obviously standing here alone not talking to someone.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Right.

Anthony Godfrey:
And as a result, the disengagement just kind of perpetuates itself.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's right. Well, and as parents, when we set those tech-free zones, I mean, it's easy to say, okay, everybody, we're checking our phones in during dinnertime, or when we have family activities, or whether we're reading or watching a movie together, bedtime, setting that bedtime time that we talked about is really important as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, you're right. I need to be better at dinnertime. I don't know how you knew that, but I do need to be better at dinnertime.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's why I'm here, Dr. Godfrey.

Anthony Godfrey:
I know. You're here to help. You're here to help.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back more tips on what parents can do to prevent some of the potential negative impacts from student use of social media.

Break:
Hello, I'm Stacee Worthen, Secondary Counseling Specialist for Jordan School District. Do you know all the ways Jordan School District counselors can help you and your student? School counselors play such an important role in our schools. They provide parents with resources to help guide their children in academics. They provide support with the mental and social well-being of students in our schools. And if you are in the process of preparing a student for college, or just beginning the conversation of higher education, now is the perfect time to reach out to your child's counselor. We can assist with college applications and college readiness. I encourage parents and guardians to schedule an appointment and get to know your student's counselor. Together, counselors and parents can help develop plans and strategies for students to succeed long after they leave Jordan School District. Reach out! We're always here to help. You can find us and learn more at counseling.jordandistrict.org.

Aimee Winder Newton:
So the third one is, and this one goes along with what we were just saying, model responsible social media behavior.

Anthony Godfrey;
Yes.

Aimee Winder Newton:
You know, there's a study that came out of the Wheatley Institute that showed that what affects a kid's mental health even more than them being on social media was how much their parents are on social media. So when a kid has to compete with Instagram or TikTok for their parents' attention, it's sending a pretty strong message to that child. We need parents to model good behavior with their devices.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's a really important point. And I'm getting emails day and night, and it's really easy for me to just remain engaged with that unless I'm very intentional about, as you described, thinking about the idea that I'm setting an example and I need to have these zones that are tech-free.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah. Well, and I think-- I mean, what message is it sending to our spouses and others in our life when we're choosing our phones over that human interaction? The fourth one is work with other parents to establish shared norms and practices. So this is working with your kid’s friend’s parents to say, “Okay, our kids are all friends. Let's agree on which apps or which means of communication we're going to allow our kids to have.” And if you have this coalition with other parents to say, we're not gonna do Snapchat or we're not gonna do, we're not gonna have these apps. We want our kids to be texting each other instead or whatever it is. So much easier to convince your kids that they're not the only ones that have to do this.

Now, I will add a caveat. Sometimes the other parents aren't willing to do it or they don't stick to it. And you know what? You just have to be brave and you have to be courageous as parents and say, this is my kid, I'm going to do what I think is right for them no matter what their friends' parents do. But that does help. If you can get a group and rally together, it helps our kids.

Then the fifth one is to reconsider allowing your child to use social media, period. Our governor has a 16-year-old daughter. They do not allow her to use social media yet. I had a neighbor who they didn't allow their daughter to use social media. And it's interesting, she's 20 now. And I remember there were battles, it was hard. She's 20 now and she will tell you she's so grateful. She saw what that did to the other girls that she was in school with. And she was so grateful her parents stuck to their guns and that she didn't have it. Now they found creative ways to do it. So for instance, she had an Instagram account but she could only use it on her mom's iPad. So she'd get permission from her mom to upload her dance pictures or things like that so that she wasn't totally out. But it was limited. It wasn't on her phone. It was on her mom's iPad and she'd get a few minutes to do that and then it stops the continual scrolling or checking back to see what kind of feedback they're getting from likes and comments and that type of thing. So there's a way that you can do it.

I think parents are gonna find it's going to become more popular to just say, we're not gonna let you have social media yet. And even our surgeon general came out and said, 13 is too young. Consider 16, 17, or 18, and figure out when your child is mature enough. But he, the US Surgeon General has said 13 is too young.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, one of the statistics that I found on your website is in a national survey of girls 11 to 15, one-third or more say they feel addicted to a social media platform. So a third of girls who are not even at the age where we would recommend that they even start with social media, they're already addicted.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Yeah, it's very addicting. I mean, they're creating algorithms to try to keep people on. That's part of it. So this is an issue, and it's an issue for adults too, but our kids' brains aren't fully developed and so that's why we're seeing such major impacts to their mental health.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think it's also impactful when, as part of the campaign, I've heard discussions about how social media is created to be addictive. And I think especially as a teen and even as an adult, once you understand that they are deliberately trying to addict you to your interactions on social media, you're much more cautious about how you approach it.

Aimee Winder Newton:
That's right, that's right. Well, and even in our TV ads that we're doing with this, you know, we show a child with a mask on and it looks like they're smiling and they're scrolling on their phones and everything's A-OK. Then you start seeing the negative messages they're getting about their body or that they have no friends or whatever and then the mask comes off, and you see them crying, and a parent's there to put their arm around and take the phone away.

That's kind of what we're trying to help parents understand is your kids are hurting inside. If you ask high schoolers, if everybody had to get rid of social media, is that better? Or if some can have it and some don't? And they'll say, if everybody got rid of it, that would be better for us. It would be better for our mental health. But they're worried about the social piece and the level playing field because it is such an integrated part.

One of the things that we've even said for our schools is, “Hey, figure out a different platform to advertise your activities.” I mean, there's some apps out there that are not social media based that can still advertise and show fun games and sports events and the things that are happening at the school, but it's not now kids having to go to Twitter or Facebook or Instagram to find out what's going on at the school. It's in an app format. So, I mean, there's ways our schools can even be involved to help.

Anthony Godfrey:
No, I think those are great suggestions. ‘Unmask the Dangers of Social Media’ that's the name of the campaign. I do think those ads are very impactful. And, you know, when you, again, I go back to the statistics. Teens who spend more than three hours per day on social media face double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes. According to a survey of 8th and 10th graders, the average time spent on social media is 3.5 hours per day. So when you couple those together, social media is difficult to manage, especially for younger kids.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Well, and get this, this statistic is startling to me. Almost 60% of teen girls say they've been contacted on social media by a stranger in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. So we're dealing with lots of issues with social media. You've got the potential predator issues. We hear of the sextortion cases and even other issues there. Exposure to inappropriate material that is not appropriate for their age. But then there's other things that are getting feedback on body image. I mean, the body image issue is huge for girls especially. Depending on your worth being based on likes and comments and all of that. Like there's the filters now where nobody knows what's real anymore and how that's distorting their body image. I mean, there's just so many issues that we're concerned about.

Anthony Godfrey:
And some of the issues, as you described, are just obviously problematic, obviously harmful, that many are insidious. They're not obviously on their face- they don't appear to be as damaging as they really are.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Right, exactly. Thus the mask analogy, right? Parents may think that everything's just fine with their kids as they're sitting there scrolling and inside they're hurting. We want to engage, educate, and empower those parents. We need their help. We need them to be brave. We need them to be courageous and to stand up and figure out what is right for their children and we highly recommend that you think twice about your child using social media.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the reaction you've received to the campaign.

Aimee Winder Newton:
You know, we've had so many positive comments about the campaign even from people who have kind of been naysayers in the past on some of this, they've loved it because what we want to do is help give parents a reality check really on what's happening with their children. And so we've had great comments from parents, even from other teens and those who are on social media.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it is a complex issue for families because there are different levels of involvement that parents are accustomed to and children are accustomed to. But the bottom line is that really an intentional approach that's informed with an understanding of how these social media sites work, the statistics on the potential harm, and really keeping in mind the ideas for managing it in a way that makes sense for your family. It's all very important information and I'm really grateful for the campaign and for the work you and the Governor are doing to get the word out.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Well, thank you and we appreciate the leadership with Jordan School District. The Governor is so grateful for all the hard work that you guys do to educate our kids and to be involved. You know, it's interesting how our schools now are expected not just to help with learning and education, but so many other facets of a child's life. And so we know that you see the impacts as well. So thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, thanks for all your efforts. Thanks for taking time with us today. And it's great to be working together with you on this important issue.

Aimee Winder Newton:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for everything.

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.