S4 E7: Connection in the Digital Age
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“Geriatric Millenials” are considered those born between 1981-1985. They are digital natives who experienced life with minimal digital technology and extensive digital technology within their lifetime, compared to older generations who were immersed in digital technology at a young age. Those within this age group is considered capable of bridging the ‘digital divide’ between generations as they can see from multiple perspectives.
Social media is always going, leading people to wonder what is happening in ‘another reality’ that is not within the immediate reality in which we are living in the present moment. This can contribute to distraction, lack of being present, and even anxiety. There can be a fear of missing out, as well as a worry that there will be some significant or impactful news event that will occur without our knowledge.
According to the book, The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt, there is a slew of research (largely by Jean Twenge, Ph.D.) showing the way in which higher usage of smartphones corresponded with increases in mental health issues among youth. Dr. Haidt points to other research (e.g., American College Health Association; U.S. National Survey of Drug Use and Health) shows that there was not this spike in mental health issues during other catastrophic societal events like 9/11 and the economic crisis of 2008 in comparison to when social media became used by the majority of use.
Knowing more and more through the internet and social media has pros and cons. It can provide a sense of comfort of knowing and it can also create a sense of anxiety by knowing ‘too much’ and not having the ability to process all the information. For instance, processing so much information can lead a person to lack nuance in how they interpret the information. The person can struggle to put details and information into a larger context to see the bigger picture. The person may react through their emotions because so much on the internet and social media is designed to elicit an emotional reaction, which can lead to bias in thought.
When parents and kids (or anyone for that matter) argue about who is right and wrong, such as how much screen time the child should use, it can help to start with finding common ground to see what both sides believe in as true as a starting point. Otherwise, both sides can put their guard up and fall into their biases and emotionally-driven perceptions rather than working together collaboratively and productively.
People may be different in how they experience the use of social media. For instance, if you value deeper connections with others and more genuine relationships/interactions, the more surface level aspect of interaction (e.g., clicking a like, brief comments) may not be fulfilling. It can help if you check in with yourself to reflect on how you experience social media and also what it feels like when you are not using social media.
Social media can be a creative outlet. It can be a great platform for showcasing creative ideas and content in a genuine way. It allows many people to have a voice and even to have opportunities for those who may have lacked opportunity. However, it can lead you to not being present if you’re always thinking about how to make the immediate reality and future social media post. Wondering about what is happening with your posts and others’ reactions to it can pull you away from being present and content with life as it is.
Additionally, posting content can make you feel like others are always looking at you. It is akin to being famous, whereby being famous, while having its privileges, has many downsides such as a lack of authenticity and depth in relationships and connections and the anxiety of always being watched.
It can help to check your phone to see how often you are using your social media apps.
The number of youth ‘almost constantly’ using the internet continues to grow beyond 50% (e.g., Pew Research) per Dr. Haidt’s book.
The rates of mental health issues have shown to be worse for youth females compared to males (e.g., CDC; National Center for Injury Prevention and Control) per Dr. Haidt’s book.
Youth, who’s frontal lobes are not fully developed, could lack the executive function skills to make critical decisions, like prioritization and contextualizing, about information they are exposed to on the internet and social media. There may also be a lack of clarity over where the information is coming from exactly or to know if the information is based upon a company trying to sell a product.
People tend to not like ambiguity and so when someone is exposed to information on the internet/social media, it may viewed as complete truth, always and forever; rather than viewing and interpreting the information in a more nuanced and contextualized way. Information is not always black/white all/nothing, even though it can be interpreted that way as a way to relieve ambiguity. This can prevent people from finding common ground and having an effective and productive conversation.
There are algorithms, which lead to which content goes ‘viral’, that can be based on what content is getting the biggest emotional reaction. Just because a post gets a strong emotional reaction does not mean it’s helpful, accurate, or important/prioritized information for a particular person at a particular time.
The benefits of a digital platform are huge for those with disabilities or lack access in an educational setting. It can help the reception of information, as well as the way in which the individual can communicate in a more effective way. This is essentially Universal Design for Learning, helping to learn and engage in learning through multiple modalities.
Communicating in real life can be useful compared to digital communication because you can pick up on nuances that are helpful for the interaction. For instance, nonverbal cues can be noticed. You can have synchronicity with the other person in real life, giving feedback and adjusting to the feedback from others. There can be a back and forth in the interaction.
By comparison, writing and communicating via digital technology has the downside of leaving a digital footprint. The messages can be taken out of context or not interpreted as it was intended to be communicated. There can be a lot of ambiguity about the intentions and feelings of others, which can create even more anxiety.
The downside of overly-relying on digital technology to communicate may be that the individual who could otherwise communicate in real life loses the confidence to communicate in real life. Anxiety can also happen because of not doing it enough, like anything in life that you avoid, you can simply become anxious because of not doing it. This is why exposure therapy can be very useful for social anxiety.
The benefit of in person communication is that we can have one of the best feelings of life in which we have the comfort of being in the presence of someone who truly cares about, understands, and supports you. This may not be experienced in the same way via digital interactions. Physical contact in a trusting and positive relationship can also be very positive for people.
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Gerald Reid, Alexis Reid
Alexis Reid 00:17
Welcome back to the Reid Connect-EF podcast. This season is all about connection, connection with others connection with something outside of yourself, and the connections we make within ourselves. So today we're going to be discussing the topic of connection with others in the context of the digital age in social media.
Gerald Reid 00:36
So my sister, Alexis and I, we are within the age bracket of what's called geriatric millennial (Alexis: oh my goodness), which basically means that we are the older we are the older group of millennials, who experienced life with minimal digital technology growing up as a kid in the 80s in the 90s. And then with an immense amount of digital technology as we experienced it today.
Alexis Reid 00:59
So wait, is that that BDT in ADT before digital technology, and after digital technology.
Gerald Reid 01:06
There's a joke somewhere, I just can't get it.
Alexis Reid 01:09
There’s something in there. We'll find it later.
Gerald Reid 01:12
So what's the difference between our generation and generation Z and all the generations after them, whatever names they come up with?
Alexis Reid 01:19
Yeah, there's a lot of names. There's a lot of letters. I get confused sometimes these days, and thinking about where the cut offs are. But back in the day, we had flip phones, whether we were just dialing in texting even if we texted sometimes people had beepers, right. Just to get somebody's attention to say, Hey, call me I don't know why young people outside of medical profession need those. But nowadays, they have smartphones, which are basically mini laptops that every child and human that you see walking down the road typically will have in their hands. We had huge camcorders and clunky cameras. They have pocket sized recording devices in their smartphones. We had large computers and televisions with huge backsides. I think it was just the projector in the back. But that always seemed like empty space. Useless, (Jerry: What was it so big in the back?) They have sleek smartphones and papers and televisions. We had tape cassettes, compact discs, mini disc, Walkmans, discmans. That's a word I forgot in a previous episode. And even iPods. They have Spotify and Apple Music streaming services. We had disposable cameras that got developed at the local pharmacy or Photoshop. And we have where we had to wait a few days until we could see the photos that we took. Now kids have probably 1000s, or even millions of photos right on their phone accumulated over any given day, week or year.
Gerald Reid 02:48
So we had a landline phone in our homes to call our friends to come over and hang out. We even had to risk the possibility of our friend's parents picking up the phone, right? We would call the landline and say Mr. T is Mark, can we play, can we come over? Now because our phones, but they're not actually phones, like we said they're actually laptops, because nobody actually uses them as a real phone to pick up the phone and call somebody and vice versa, as much as much as we used to. Back in the day. We used to have maps or MapQuest, which is basically a printout into directions to go. To figure out where we're going on the road trip, I used to deliver pizzas in high school. And I had a map. And I would even like call…
Alexis Reid 03:33
You had to pull over to a payphone and call mom and ask
Gerald Reid 03:37
I did have a cell phone. But I didn't have obviously no GPS, there was nobody in my ear telling me like what turned to go. Nowadays there is a GPS and literally, the voice just tells you where to go, what you don't think you don't have to pay attention at all really just kind of listen and go. So very interesting. And when it comes to the internet and social media, we had dial up modem to sign into America Online, which is basically a way to get messaging with friends or a web browser chatroom, you have to log in. So for those who aren't aware what that means the dial up modem basically means that we were not always connected to the internet, we had to actually log into the internet. Whereas nowadays, when you have a smartphone, you're literally always connected to the internet. And it's really interesting around 2000/ 1999 I believe the movie The Matrix came out right around the time when we became more and more and more integrated in the internet being part of our lives. We were in high school at that time. And just funny how society just gradually crept into being constantly connected with the internet with broadband internet service and cell phone, internet service as well. And funny how the premise of that movie is about the natural consequences that may or may not occur. If we continue to live within the virtual reality which you know many ways we are. Hopefully that doesn't become reality ourselves.
Alexis Reid 04:59
Justin, can we get the dial up noise ? (sound of a dial up modem and laughter) So it's really interesting because now we have social media that's so prevalent that kids just have grown up with, right? And it's, it's begs the question is social media virtual reality, it's not literally a virtual reality, but it's pretty close to it. And for us, social media is another reality that exists outside of the present moment. It's the first medium that we as a society have lived within which we're not passive consumers of just the technology, we're active participants. So Furthermore, it's always on. So think about, you know, even just kids going out and hanging out with friends, and missing an opportunity because they weren't invited or they weren't available. You know, this is the same thing with social media, it's always going, there's always this fear of missing out on something that's happening, or that you should know about where you should be exposed to.
Gerald Reid 06:14
Right. It's always running, it's always moving. It's always going on in the background, right. And you got to imagine what that does to our brains. When we feel like there's something else. There's another reality happening that's not right in front of us that we feel like we need to be a part of, or we need to access all the time, because we do have access to it all the time. So it's quite a conundrum. So I remember in 2015, which was around the time when the majority of youth began using social media, it was kind of this cut off when it's over 50% of youth and teens begin having a smartphone, and that has absolutely increased, like I said before, now it's about 95% of teens have a smartphone right? And that's never happened before in human society. So what actually happened at this time? Well, it turns out the research that in you can say is is correlational is a causal. You know, that's up for debate. But you can see that the mental health issues of teens has gotten much, much worse, since that cut off right And interesting enough, and there's a book called The Anxious Generation. Dr. Jonathan Haidt, Jonathan Haidt, who is a psychologist talks a lot about this, and he looks at the research. So So Jonathan Haidt, in the book talks about how, you know, the mental health of youth, in teens in particular, did not, did not deteriorate the way we're seeing now, when we were going through things like 9/11, the economic crisis of 2008. So if you look back on the research, you would think, well, if it is these catastrophic events that happen in our country, that you would think that they that would be the cause of the deterioration of youth mental health. And in fact, there wasn't this spike in mental health issues for teens at that time. But when smartphones became extremely prominent in people's lives and youth lives, that's actually when we began to see the mental health concerns rise significantly. So you got to look at that as a comparison, right? Because sometimes it's hard to do research to truly know what is causing what. And sometimes it's more than just one thing, right? It's hard to say it's one thing that's causing mental health concerns for anybody. But certainly, that is an interesting fact.
Alexis Reid 08:15
Yeah, it's so interesting. And I know we'll talk about this some more later in the episode. But there's this idea of, if you know about something, are you going to identify as a part of it. And there's this idea that, you know, on social media, there's a lot of people who are talking about mental health and being more proactive to help people to better understand themselves. So were kids talking about their mental health? Or were they using different forms of coping mechanisms, maybe outside of themselves outside of just the technology to be able to, you know, build resilient tendencies to get through these really difficult moments that we experienced in our lives?
Gerald Reid 08:52
Definitely. Right. And so I remember, you know, working with someone long, long time ago, who I was, like, you know, I think your smartphone has become a bit of a distraction and our session, can you leave it out, and this is like, right when, smartphones just became a thing of kind of experimenting with different ways of, of dealing with it. And it was funny, the reaction the person had, she's like, well, like, what if there's an earthquake, and I wouldn't know about it, right? It's like, like, neither of us grew up in an area where there's no earthquakes. Like, kind of, you know, obviously, it’s biased, a biased sample, you know, working with anxious youth,
Alexis Reid 09:24
Actually, as of 2024, we've now experienced earthquakes here in Massachusetts and New Jersey, right? Those are the places where we both lived.
Gerald Reid 09:31
You can kind of see that, like, you know, the way that the internet feels, it's almost like a sense of comfort and anxiety at the same time that you can know everything. But you know, knowing everything as we'll get into in this episode is not always an antidote for anxiety. Sometimes it can help and hurt at the same time. So, you know, just a window into you know, we're gonna try to open up a conversation about, you know, what is the experience of a teen using technology through you know, the work we have with our clients and patients and through the research and so forth and just trends. You might be wondering like, are we anti technology? Absolutely not, you know, technology has done some remarkable things for the evolution of how society functions and what we're capable of. In terms of there's been a lot of it's been, it's been a force for good. And it's also been, you know, a lot of downsides. There's pros and cons to everything. I think, as a psychologist, my job is to help people to look at things from multiple perspectives. And to say that both things can be true, at the same time, right doesn't mean that everything is all good or all bad, and to be able to see the in between the gray area and the common ground that we can also have, and when they when there's kind of opposing views on things. So we're gonna have a nuanced conversation about this, as we do with all topics. We believe it is contextual, it's nuanced, and we're going to try to get into that. You know, funny thing, I just asked the producer, before we started this, can you make my voice sound like Perry, the owner of the studio, and it turns out that AI can actually do that, which is quite, quite interesting. I'm not gonna we're not gonna get into that today, necessarily, but you can imagine how significant things will become as technology even gets more further down the road?
Alexis Reid 11:11
Well, I think one of the things that's been a prevalent theme in my work these past few weeks actually comes from Macbeth, a student I work with was looking at a scene to analyze it. And part of it was thinking about the difference between wisdom and fear. And I think as we go through this episode, I want us to hold on to this idea of, are we using wisdom to guide our actions and behaviors? Are we using fear and sometimes digital technology and access to so much information puts us in that conundrum of thinking about what what's guiding our actions, our emotions and behaviors? And you know, it all comes down, as I always say, to executive functions, right, building the skills to be able to make these decisions, and young people don't necessarily have that capacity yet. So how do digital technologies smartphones in particular, shape the way young people are developing their brains to make decisions about what is helpful and not helpful across different contexts to navigate through different situations. So we've got a lot of really interesting things to talk about today, all about how we connect with each other in this digital age.
So here we go.
Gerald: Let's do it.
Alexis: So for those of you who follow us on social media, you probably know that a very long process has recently concluded, myself and my co author, Dr. Lisa Carey, have completed and published a book called supporting student executive functions, insights and strategies for educators. Now, we started this book a while ago. And I was fortunate enough to integrate in a lot of quotes from the students I work with over the years, and there was one in particular on page 124. I'm going to quote it, that came from a sixth grade student that I was working with who out of nowhere, started to recognize how digital technology was impacting him. And just give me a second, because I think this is a good place for us to start today. And it starts around this whole idea, the category in the section of this book is talking about how do we teach learners how to use technology, instead of just giving it to them? Right, because I think we miss a really important opportunity to teach learners how to use technology to be a good and helpful tool versus just letting them kind of go off to the races and see what they figure out because sometimes that's where we get in trouble. So here we go.
So we were talking a little bit about the brain and sixth grade student, learning about habit formation asked me, “so if I do something consistently, it strengthens my brain, right? So if I play games online, it's strengthening my brain? He was right, it does, right. But those neural connections will get strengthened, the more he plays a game online and fills those dopamine receptors. This moment opened up an opportunity to talk about how his video gaming habit is changing his brain. We talked about the positive impacts of gaming as well as how too much screentime or engaging in video games only as a form of entertainment can impact his brain, and a not so helpful way. Some studies have shown that too much gaming and screen time can impact sleep, mental health and expectations. Outside of the digital environment. opportunities can be missed to practice in the real world, some of the skills that are getting reinforced in the digital world. So after watching a short video discussing what we were talking about, and some of his reflections from the video, the student said “so I think I want to only play games online for maybe 20 minutes each day. What about educational videos and apps?” this was another great curiosity that led to a discussion about how screens can be impactful no matter what you're doing. But that, you know, educational videos, typing practice and other tools can be helpful to practice in moderation, while being mindful of having too much screen time.” And I swear, this is exactly the conversation we had and the things that he said, were he without me saying you shouldn't be on the screen so much. Recognize, like, oh, maybe this isn't actually so good for my brain as it's developing, which was amazing. So I captured that and put it in the book. Because people like to blame digital technology for us losing attention, not being able to focus not being able to engage in things outside of digital technology. And from the introduction, we said, you know, we're not against technology. We just want people to use it. Well,
Gerald Reid 15:55
intentionally,
Alexis Reid 15:57
Intentionally. Yeah, exactly.
Gerald Reid 15:58
Yeah, totally. That's a great, a great anecdote, you always have these great stories of like, things that the kids you work with, say, and some of it's just brilliant. I couldn't make it up.
Alexis Reid 16:08
I just, it was amazing.
Gerald Reid 16:09
That's great. Thank you. Well, no kidding about the screentime. I mean, you can think about sleep. What percentage of high schoolers Do you think report poor sleep?
Alexis Reid 16:17
Oh, my gosh, I want to say like 95%.
Gerald Reid 16:22
Close about 77%? (Alexis: Yeah, at least 95% of those that I work with.) And if you go back to the sleep episode we had with Dr. Jade Wu and season three, I mean, like, that's, it's not good for your brain or your health, like, there's a lot of negative consequences of sleep, and maybe, you know, at the very least, we can all find common ground that screentime does impact sleep and sleep Poor sleep is poor for your mental and physical well being. So I think people who really want or maybe even addicted to using technology that we can at least find common ground. I think sometimes when there's differences and you know, parents and kids are arguing about, you know, how much screen time what should I be allowed to do, right? Sometimes, you know, my opinion working with families is you got to start with common ground. Because if you don't start with that you're kind of starting at, you're kind of opposing each other as then you're trying to convince the other person about who's right, who's wrong. And that usually is not the best way to resolve a conflict. So for me, you know, if you're a parent, you might want to think about, you know, start with common ground to see what you both believe in is true. At the starting point,
Alexis Reid 17:23
yeah, and understanding the motivations for using it, there's a lot of kids that feel very isolated from others, and they feel like, you know, whether they're gaming or connecting digitally and virtually with other people that it feels like there's a social connection that's being met through those interactions, and we, you know, we can't monitor or police screentime use until we really understand the motivation behind it, because we might actually be missing some really important pieces of what the young person is actually experiencing. And I would argue that it's the same for adults, right? Like, when I feel the most disconnected, sometimes I go to social media to see what my friends and family are doing. Right. And sometimes it's because my schedule doesn't always match up with theirs to have a conversation. So it's one way to make those connections. And, you know, we want to do some self reflection for ourselves to assess like, Okay, what actually is the goal that this is serving for me, and, and help to young people to be able to do the same?
Gerald Reid 18:22
Definitely, yeah, and you know, people are different for some people, you know, that that quick connection you have with someone through social media, it might be fulfilling and might be positive, but you know, someone who really values deeper connection with people, you know, I'm certainly one of them. And I'd never used social media until, like, last summer. And it's been, I don't know, like six months. And I finally decided, like, you know, it's been productive with getting some creativity out there and having an outlet to, to, you know, showcase music and kind of have creative ways to do some stuff online, which I think creativity is definitely part of technology, you can use it as a platform. But certainly, I think that, you know, for me, at least in certain people out there when you feel like real connection and genuine connection and having organic interactions with people that feels authentic, and it's in the moment, right, like, I value that a lot. It's probably why I'm a psychologist, right, because I do it every day in terms of working with patients in therapy. But, you know, for me, I reflected on what it felt like and I was like a walking experiment, right? I literally have not used it until now. And I just checked in with how I'm feeling and I'm like, you know, a couple things happen. One is it wasn't as fulfilling, right? I got to reach out to people maybe I didn't reach it that wasn't able to connect with otherwise, you know, somewhat some people say like, it's the only way I can connect with anyone, like you said, but for me, it just didn't feel fulfilling enough. Like, you know, it's like nobody has time to really engage in a more authentic full way. So it didn't it didn't really do that for me. Another part that I will say real quick, and I'll give you the floor is that. I think it just pulled me away from being more present. I think This is to me is one of the main things about social media, when you're always imagining, like how the reality or in reality that you're in could relate to a virtual reality, like, well, how can we make this experience into a post? Or how can we present this on social media, even if it's like a creative outlet, and it's fun, it's like, you know, I did a lot of photography at the beach, I was like, Oh, this will be a beautiful, beautiful thing, that showcase and for people to maybe get some positive feelings out of seeing something beautiful. Like, that was great. But it just, you know, there's a time it becomes almost like, too consuming, where you lose touch with just being present and just absorbing yourself in the moment, because you're relating the present to the future, you're thinking, okay, how can I relate this in the future to something else on the virtual reality? I really, you know, I started to really just not like that, you know, as much as like I said, it's nice to showcase creativity and, and positive things out there. It just kind of pulled me away. And then you kind of wondering like, do people are people appreciating it? Is it something positive, because I was hoping it was positive people would benefit from like seeing something nice or beautiful or something like that. And then you’re just wondering about it, and it's like, you know, just pulls you away from being present. And just experiencing the moment which I feel like I've been a well adjusted, you know, relatively happy person, like without it. And I think it certainly just kind of pulls you away from being present. I think the more present you are, the more content you are in life.
Alexis Reid 21:23
I think it's really tricky. There's a couple things that came up as you were sharing your sociological experiment that you've been doing yourself. Because I think it's really interesting. Number one is there's a constant notification feed that happens, and a lot of people don't turn those off on their phone. I don't have notifications that really pop up on my phone, on purpose, because there's already like this thought it's almost like this elusive wondering of like, well, what is happening? How are people interacting with the thing that I shared, which is, it feels so foreign to me, because I'm not very like other oriented, like when I do and create things is because it feels like something I'm inspired or called to do, right versus like, how is somebody going to respond to this, how many likes will say, it's more of like, this is something I'm inspired to create and do, and I'm going to share it with the world if I choose to, or it's something that's going to be helpful for the people I work with. And I think when you pull it into a digital realm, you're literally like on stage. And you have this audience that may or may not have bought tickets to your performance, but they're showing up where they might be like, you know, passively seeing something and, you know, maybe noticing maybe understanding the intention, and you and I especially we're all about the nuance, we're not just about things on face value. So I think for both of us, I think we're saying the same thing that your social media has kind of an inauthentic component to it. And unfortunately, what you said before, a lot of people are thinking in a future orientation. And from my work, sometimes I wish people would think about their future selves more often, more often, but not in terms of what are their people are going to think because that is something actually we can't control at all right? We can't control how somebody else is going to react or behave in the presence of something we do or say Totally, yeah. But that tends to be the thought, like the example you gave.
Gerald Reid 23:26
Yeah. And like, there's just so much content, so much content, you can't blame people for being you know, in authentic experience, because like, like, you can't expect anything from anyone. And like, you know, for me, it's again, like I like genuine connection I like really get, you know, diving in deep with people and then connecting and conversing and talking and nuance. And there's just so much more stuff, we can talk about that. But you know, one of the things I remember when we were talking to Marisa about social media and how, you know, she does a lot of stuff on there, I brought this up that you kind of alluded to this, it's kind of like you're you're becoming a famous person,
Alexis Reid 24:04
or you think you are even if you're not.
Gerald Reid 24:08
and not even not even that you think you're just like the context of like when you're famous, everybody's watching you. That's all I mean by that. Not even if you want to be famous, but like you're literally just like people can see you all the time, or whatever you're doing. And to me like, this is this is my biased opinion. But if you survey most famous a lot of famous people, and you ask them, Do you like being famous, if they were to be honest with themselves, they're gonna say that there's a lot of downsides to being famous.
Alexis Reid 24:38
There's a lot of privilege for sure. But there's most definitely a lot of downsides.
Gerald Reid 24:42
Right, things that don't get discussed things that we don't hear about because, you know, they may talk about until they kind of have a breakdown or something right? You see a lot of like these famous artists who, you know, they can't take it because of the stuff that they're going through and now they're starting to talk more openly about that.
Alexis Reid 24:56
On social media, it's like all eyes are watch Seeing you all the time. And you know, there's great benefit to that there's a lot of people who have been able to share and express themselves in ways that they probably couldn't have otherwise. Which is really the benefit. (Gerald: Yeah, right.) It gives even us a reason to share information so far for free in this different platform. Yeah, whether it's a podcast or you know, on social media site. But there's also a lot of judgment that potentially comes up to it. And I don't want to like paint it as positive or negative. I just want us to think about this in terms of caution. So I'm going to press pause for one second, because I want us to get into some of the data in the research and and Jerry is going to talk a lot about that.
But before we do, I want everybody to press pause and actually check your phones, and see how much time you have spent on social media this week. Right? Everybody who has access to your phone, If you have a digital smartphone, you'll be able to check in and see. Okay, how much time have I been spending on these different social media apps across your week?
Now, I want you to think about other things that you would love to be doing. Rather than just being on social media. I do this weekly, for myself. I do this with my students oftentimes, and without me saying how much time needs to be spent or should be spent or shouldn't be spent on social media. Immediately, every time like the anecdote I shared at the beginning, from the book, the students recognize, Whoa, that's a lot of time. What did I actually gain from that?
So I want us to think about that. Because in our work in in the podcast, we're constantly talking about how can we make minor adjustments in our lives, to free up space and time, mental, physical, spiritual ability to be more present, and to experience the purpose and joy of our lives. And I, you know, I want to just share that that is a point of focus that I think we need to pay better attention to. So we don't lose track of hours, days, months, every single year, every single week. And you know, believe me, I do this check for myself every week. Because part of our work, part of our sharing the work that we do is through social media, and it's consuming and it takes a lot of effort and time for us. And we're grateful and feel privileged to be able to do that. But at the same time, we have to keep ourselves in check and create those small boundaries for ourselves. But Jer, you know, talk a little bit about you mentioned, Dr. Haidt from NYU, his work in his book that's really caused a lot of waves in the past few weeks. Just to bring again, to bring attention, how much we are actively engaged in digital media.
Gerald Reid 27:52
Yeah. And to your point, too, right. Like, there's benefits and it's created access. There's so much learning, like it's open learning, it's open helping each other right, people can help each other more than they can ever have people can people can share information more than they ever have. People could even make money, right? Look at athletes, college athletes, now they can make money through social media, by advertising themselves. And it's like people need that right? Especially coming from under underprivileged communities, right. So there's definitely benefits, but there's gonna be some downs, there's gonna be downsides that we're gonna talk about as well. So to answer your question, Pew Research shows that in 2022, the amount of teens who report almost constantly are using the internet, right? So that's like the majority of your day, that’s almost constantly, it's 46% of teens. Okay. And that was 24%. A decade ago, roughly a decade ago. So it's just higher and higher, can't get any higher. I mean, how much higher can get right it's gonna keep going on. It's actually worse for black and black and Hispanic youth as well. The other thing you want to notice and Dr. Haidt points this out and a lot of people point this out is that teen girls have been affected the most, you know, if this if there is a causal relationship between social media and mental health problems that you can see that the girl the rates of teen girls has gotten worse than for boys.
Alexis Reid 29:20
So yeah, for for girls, depression has significantly increased over the past decade in 10 years, from 2010 to 2020. There was an increase of 188% of ER visits for non suicidal self injury ER visits. That's an incredible increase over 10 years. Right. And that's according to the CDC,
Gerald Reid 29:46
and also by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, according to Dr. Haidt’s book.
Alexis Reid 29:52
So, we want to really pay attention to what's happening. We don't want to just keep, like, putting band aids on the problem and saying, oh, This stuff is showing up, we just need to treat the behaviors that are coming up. If you listen to the podcasts, you know that Jerry and I are very much proactive process oriented to be able to get at the core of what's happening, instead of just saying, oh, we'll just keep responding to the behaviors that keep presenting themselves. So we need to take like a deep dive and really think about well, what is happening and causing these young people to be struggling so so much. And when you look at the differences in what was happening in their lives, like we've been saying, social media activity, digital technology, access has increased over this time period.
Gerald Reid 30:38
So, let's get back into the kind of pros and cons of social media and the internet and so forth. So Pro, let's talk about learning, right? If you're listening to podcasts, maybe you're trying to learn something, right? How amazing is that you can just like learn so much. And you know, the kids that you work with the kids I work with, they talk about, like, you know, it's great to have the internet, you can ask your friend for help much, much more easily. And in terms of learning something that you don't understand, you can look up videos, and they really kind of very helpful right? Now, there's also like, different social media platforms out there, or social media personalities out there that are providing a ton of information about health, like, here's everything you can possibly know about, like, you know, nutrition, about the way your body works. And for me, like so cool. Like, if you want to learn that great. And if you have the capacity to learn at that deep level, great. I'm a little concerned, though, that it could become obsessive, like it's almost too much information for the brain to process or I'll get into more detail about that. But I feel like it's just it might be too much information like if you know too much. Sometimes it's overwhelming, because you're like, where do I start? How do I put this into context? How do I apply this to me as an individual, right? Because the people consuming this aren't like talking to their doctor, while they're consuming it. They're really just consuming it on their own, or talking to other people who are in the same boat. So again, pros and cons. I think it's great that information out there. But I wonder, sometimes Is it too much information, I've always had this idea and Lex, this probably is inspired by you that people need like graphic organizers, on their computer, or their phone to be able to say like, oh, this information fits into this category of how I'm learning something like Oh, and I'm going to put the video link here. Because otherwise, it's just all random information that you're trying to wrap your head around all this random information like, well, what's the context? How does it apply to me? How do I apply it effectively? What's important, what's not important, like?
Alexis Reid 32:38
Prioritizing information is really, really difficult. And there are apps for that, right? Where you can pull in different things into different categories if you choose to. But you know, what you were saying reminded me of a quote that I've shared many times, since this weekend already, that mom said, she goes, “how are kids actually navigating this world where they're just constantly bombarded by so much information? And then they're asked to do other things, they need to shift? And they don't actually”… because she's learned a lot about executive functions over the years, as you can imagine. She said “they don't actually have the capacity and the skills to do that yet.” And I said, yeah, that's, that's a huge issue. And it's a big deal, not only for adults in the kids lives, especially for the kids whose frontal lobes aren't developed enough to be able to prioritize and say, This is important. This applies to me, this doesn't this is for right now. This is for later. And then to make those decisions and, and to your point, it's really kind of challenging, because a lot of the information that's going out there might seem like it makes sense. And it might click with you, because it might be something you're experiencing, or a part of your experience that a lot of people gravitate to and say, Oh, that's me, that must be me. Or that's definitely true. And you know, very few people will. And I'm guilty of this, sometimes I try my best to always quote and cite where information comes from. But you know, it's it's difficult when you're putting out a lot of content to be able to like, cite the exact study, there's a lot of really great people out there and influencers who do a good job of that, especially the neuroscientists that I follow. But it's a lot of these influencers, who call themselves experts don't necessarily have the background and training, they might have just heard from somebody that this might be helpful, or they're working for a company that trying to sell a product that might be related to something that may or may not be helpful. And for kids to just hear this and think that that's always the truth or for adults to hear this and think, because they saw it online, it must be true, is really difficult to be able to differentiate. So from a learning perspective, especially from, you know, an executive function, perspective and a neuropsychological perspective, it's very difficult to differentiate between what what is true and what is not true, especially in this environment.
Gerald Reid 34:56
Well, let me let me rephrase what you said. Maybe not differentiate what's true or not. Sure, but to what extent why and how, in what context is something accurate or helpful or helpful, right? Because I think I think as human beings, we want certainty, we want to know is this right? Wrong? True or False? Especially if you have anxiety, if you're a perfectionist, like all, you're more vulnerable to these things, right? So when you look at something, and it's telling you, oh, this is what you need to know, and you're gonna say, oh, that's always right. Because it reassures you people don't like ambiguity. And like, here's an example, right? Why does psychotherapy work? The best researchers in our field will admit, we don't know exactly why psychotherapy works. But we have some pretty good ideas about how it could be helpful for a particular individual. Right. And there's a whole, you know, slew of research and conversations and dialogue, to try to parse that out into say, here's some common factors that relate to all psychotherapies that you might be an enacting, but also, here's some specific facts, specific factors that relate to specific types of therapy might be using for a specific type of person who may need this specific type of therapy, right. So
Alexis Reid 36:04
I think the same is true for the medical field and also for teaching and learning. Like we can approximate what might be helpful or needed. But it's really difficult to say every single time this is gonna work.
Gerald Reid 36:14
Right. So here's the kicker, right? If someone hears me say this right now, and please don't misinterpret what he just said, and be like, Oh, psychotherapy doesn't work. Right?
Alexis Reid 36:23
No, it absolutely does. But it's the answer that nobody likes. Like, everything's nuanced.
Gerald Reid 36:27
Exactly my point, right, so someone can literally just misinterpret what I just said, and I hope they don't I hope they understand that there's nuance to it and psychotherapy across the board. Yes. There's, there's proof that it is helpful for people, right? The question is, why how, when, in what context and that there's nuance to it. And so, so be careful about social media, because as a human being, we have bias to want certainty, to want conclusions, right to get to a conclusion, just, that's why we were having conversation with our friend the other day, he's like, you know, the people who work for me, they just want me to tell them what to do. Just tell me what to do this, tell me what to do. And to some degree, that's good. They're self advocating for what they need. But on the other hand, is kind of a reflection of what we're saying, people want answers. And a lot of times in life, it's more complicated than just black and white or nothing, right? Wrong, that there is nuance to it. And so social media, I think, could prevent us. And this is kind of segwaying into, you know, what I think is helpful for people to disengage from social media and to have real conversations that are organic, back and forth. Hey, let me hear your point. Let me make my point, let's find common ground, let's find differences. Let's figure out why we have these differences. Let's figure out the context in which we came to these conclusions. And let's work together to you know, have an effective, productive conversation about something that may not be so simple.
Alexis Reid 37:55
I think there's a lot of caution around just sticking in a silo. And that's the trouble with social media is that the algorithm will pick up on what you're paying attention to and give you more of it, which might reconfirm your original or initial thought, whether it's right or wrong, right? Whether it's accurate or not, whether it's helpful or not. And it's tricky. You know, even in real life, if you're only hanging out with people who reinforce your opinions or beliefs, you know, there's really great positive aspects of that. But there's also some caution, because when you're not exposed to diversity, it makes it difficult to see different perspectives. And you know, my co author, Lisa and I were interviewed on a podcast and we were asked a question about, you know, why should schools and administrators care about executive function as an initiative to teach teachers about and I said, you know, this is not even about just academics. This is about building a set of skills that allows for individuals to think critically about information that they're given, right? How can they look at different perspectives, zoom in and zoom out, be able to, to understand and parse apart different types of information, different people, different backgrounds, different experiences, to be able to arrive at their own decisions, instead of just being passive consumers of information.
Gerald Reid 39:12
Which is hard to do, it takes time. We all need help to do that,
Alexis Reid 39:16
it takes cognitive capacity and energy
Gerald Reid 39:19
And support other people and patience and compassion and understanding, right, all that stuff. And maybe, you know, maybe that's being lost in some ways. And by the way, like, the stuff that we're consuming, like you said, with the algorithm, the algorithm is basically like, you know, what's getting the biggest emotional reaction from people. And so what's getting the biggest emotional reaction from somebody is not necessarily gonna give you, there's bias in that, right. Everybody's emotional reaction has some sort of bias to it. So we're being basically being said, algorithms that are, you know, getting our emotional reaction and those are the things that you're going to see more often because that's how the social media platform works. Things get that catch fire, things that go viral, like maybe it's just because you know, people like it genuinely. But a lot of times it's there's the emotional reaction that people are looking at it more often, and then it kind of spirals from there.
Alexis Reid 40:10
Well, I know not many people watch the news anymore. But if you were to watch the news, it's the same kind of effect, right? They'll they'll, they'll put a lot of emphasis to prioritize one event or experience, as it's like, as if it's the thing that we need to pay attention to right now, as if it's the most important thing. They are literally captivating, and saying this is the priority to pay attention to. Right. And they have lots of different ways and techniques to be able to capture your attention, right, whether it's visual or auditory, or you hear people's tones of voice that this is the most important thing pay attention to. Right. But, you know, is that always the most important thing? And when most of the information that you're interacting with seems like it's the most important thing? How do you actually prioritize in your mind, What's important for me, what's going to be helpful for me? And for young people, or vulnerable populations that can be really challenging, difficult and scary?
Gerald Reid 41:13
Well it can also be crushing with anxiety, I imagine that like, you're learning about something like, (Alexis: like, climate change) climate change is a great example. Right? Because like, like, yes, like, people care about something that's important. And so if you can't contextualize what that means to you, as a teenager, like in this role, it's not just the climate change, it relates to a lot of things where you can feel an immense responsibility for something as one individual, and feel such guilt, anxiety and suffering. And I've seen this with my patients, because you can't put it into a larger context of you know, how this relates to you in the broad scope of your entire life. And like everything right now that you're doing every moment is going to make or break something right, or you're not doing enough. And the truth is, one person literally is not doing, nobody's doing enough, because it's impossible for one person to fix the problem by themselves. Right. And that's that that is a truth. It's a sad truth, right? (Alexis: Wisdom or fear?) Because we want here, we want to fix big problems. But the thing is one person, right is not going to fix the entirety of the problem. And then so if you can't, you can't shift your wrap your head around that, right? Because kids are kids, right? And even adults have a hard time with this. You can feel soul crushing guilt and pain that you can't fix it yourself. And like there's something you're not doing enough. And that could you know, especially if you have anxiety, perfectionism, especially if you have other traumas and stuff that make you feel even more sense of guilt, they're going to be more vulnerable to something like that, right? Well,
Alexis Reid 42:54
I would say that, you know, social media has been very helpful, especially for young people who feel very passionate about a cause. So climate change is a good example where they can connect with others who are, you know, researching and learning and trying to be active for that cause. And it's brought a lot of people together. Because sometimes, you know, in a classroom, there's different goals, there's not always a lot of opportunity to talk to your peers, and to hear what their interests are. So you might feel isolated in this experience. So social media has been great to be able to connect people in that way, you know, people who have an interest in health or wellness or psychology, you know, even just listening to a podcast, and then being able to talk to somebody else about it can can help to bring people together. And I think there's these really beautiful things that happen... And I've talked before, on the podcast about a study that I was a part of back in my graduate work, where we were using a digital technology to see how much more communicative will students with disabilities be if they have a digital platform to be able to organize their thoughts and plan what they're gonna say before they share in comparison to students who are just in class. And the premise was, you know, if you're reading a piece of literature, how are you going to engage in a discussion about it? And we found that those students with disabilities especially, were able to better communicate their ideas and engage in a discussion through this digital technology versus outside of it where they might have felt nerves or stress or anxiety, which impacts their executive functions to organize their thoughts to plan, prepare and share. So there are some really beautiful benefits to be able to create access and create these connections that might feel stifling or inaccessible in other venues.
Gerald Reid 44:48
Definitely. I love that and it's so true right access to communicate in there. I mean, that's pretty much the goal of what Universal Design for Learning, they advocate for right is giving give people different ways of expressing themselves, and also different ways of engaging with learning which social media is doing both of those things in pretty in a pretty effective way that, you know, but there are downsides too. So I really want to get into, like the relationship people have with each other. Because communication, you know, virtually is different than communication in person.
And so I just want to go through some of these differences just to kind of like spark, you know, spark our awareness of, or just reminding ourselves that this is maybe happening. So, when it comes to, you know, in person, right, let's say that, you know, we're kind of getting together and we're interacting with each other. In some contexts, there's kind of like a chance to warm up to each other. We're kind of like most people experiences, you're like, in a new setting, you kind of like feel each other out, you kind of like, see what kind of mood they're in, you kind of like see what what's kind of clicking with the conversation, what's not good, there's like feedback, you can kind of pick up on each other and, and figure it out, right? Social media, you send it or any message you send someone, you can send them like the nicest, most happiest message, that they could be having the worst time of their life in that moment that they receive it, and you would literally have no idea that was happening. And so you know, for someone who cares about connection, right, and you know, both of us do. It's definitely a downside, right? There's no synchronicity in with each other, because you can't synchronize with each other, you can't link up with each other in a way that's organic. And, and, and also, like, sometimes in person, you can kind of, you know, troubleshoot, you can say, Oh, maybe I can find a different way of saying what I meant to say, maybe I didn't want to come across that way. And I'll make some adjustments. Social media, it's like, first of all, if they're in text, it's always gonna be there.
Alexis Reid 46:47
That's the other thing that I don't think people really realize. If you write it, if you share it, if you post it, it's there in the cloud somewhere, whether you delete it or not, there's always going to be that digital footprint.
Gerald Reid 46:59
Yeah, and so like, you know, to my point is like, if there's think about the opportunities that can happen in real life, where you can, you can troubleshoot, you can say, Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean I didn't mean that, put it that way. That's not what I meant, let's work this out. You can repair ruptures and relationships more organically, and you can actually feel that the person means it, right? Like, if someone says, Sorry, on the text messages, you literally have no idea. Do they mean it? Do they not? Like? What like? Did they just say it to get it over with like, nobody knows. Okay, so let's say that you have anxiety about communicating in person, right? Where, as I'm saying, like, you know, if you didn't have technology in, you're able to converse in person, there's kind of more there's nuance in the dialogue, right, that could be very useful and helpful with the relationship and the communication. And let's say you're anxious to do that. And you kind of, you know, you're using digital technology to communicate right? Hold, the less that you actually engage in person, in real real time in with the person, the more anxious, you're going to be about doing it. Because you haven't done it. Right. It's kind of like the skill erodes, the less you do something, the more that skill would erode, which is what exposure therapy is right? I'm not saying exposure therapy is the right thing for everybody. Right? There's that would be too broad of a statement too much of a generalization. But certainly there are times when you help people to do things are afraid of which is exposure therapy, they learn that they can do it, it's not as bad as they hadn't imagined or catastrophized in their mind, that the conclusions that they were jumping to are not as accurate as they thought because they actually did the thing that we're afraid of which, you know, it's there's a lot of effectiveness without seeing, you know, tons of progress with patients who do that. And it's not the only answer, I want to be clear about that. But what I'm what I'm saying is that we have we have become so consumed with conversing digitally. And to all the points we made earlier, some a lot of the nuances can get lost that could actually be helpful for the communication and the quality of the relationship. Sometimes when you have a repair with somebody, the relationships actually stronger than it was before.
Alexis Reid 49:04
Yeah, I think it goes back to things that we've talked about in previous episodes about being willing to make mistakes, and then being able to backtrack and figure out how to gracefully accept that I made a mistake and share that with somebody else. Because just having that humility and showing respect for the other person like, Hey, I might have misrepresented or said something that might have hurt your feelings. And I want to make sure I address that. I know it does definitely strengthen the connection and relationship. And I think you know, going back to the pandemic that shall not be named, I think we all can think about the time where we had no choice but to live in a virtual reality. And I will speak from my own experience and I know that there's some research that's starting to come out come up now talking about the reintegration into school, the reintegration into life and how difficult that transition is for a lot of people, especially those from my work with learning disabilities or those who have mental health challenges or especially higher levels of anxiety, that the reintegration into the physical reality being able to converse, like you're saying, face to face, whether it is through a digital technology or assistive technology that helps you to have that, that there are different cues that we get from being in the same space as somebody else. And we also want to recognize that we realize that that's not always possible (Jerry: for sure.) And the beautiful the beauty of digital technology is something that we benefit from, you know, we have friends and family and colleagues all over the United States and all over the world that we're able to connect with, through digital technology. But all we're saying is that we need to keep practicing these skills across contexts, right to be able to integrate and really solidify these skills versus only being in one context. And I think if it wasn't just the digital environment, we'd probably be talking about something else. Because I think there's been a shift to being focused on one way of communicating and connecting, rather than looking at the broader scope and landscape of what's possible. And from an executive function perspective, especially and a social emotional perspective, during the pandemic, that shall not be named, sorry to bring it up again. But you know, there was a lot lost. And I've said this many times that we lost, understanding nonverbal cues where young people didn't have those interactions, they didn't have these natural consequences in an environment where they're butting up against things that don't work, and then figuring out how to do things differently. We've lost a little bit of a cognitive flexibility, because there is this heightened level of anxiety, where we're worried about making a mistake or doing something wrong, or what could possibly happen in the future, versus where do I have agency to make change for the future, and be able to progress, develop, and learn, based on what our strengths are, and the things that are not as strong. And this is, I think, essentially, the message we're trying to convey here is that we can't get all consumed by one thing, because it builds a lot of questions or what ifs.
Gerald Reid 52:09
So So I think, you know, to think of this more integratively, he would say, let's not just say virtual reality, virtual communication is all bad, like, let's but let's also not completely run away from real in person, communication and relationships. They're both important, you know, let's not kind of put this one against each other, that the movement, and by the way, isn't a hug nice sometimes. So we all need to hug something physical, like physical contact is important for relationships.
Alexis Reid 52:41
Well, it's also important for mental health and physical health, there's, I can't, I will find the study. But there's a study that shows I think, an eight or 10, or 12, second hug, actually helps to increase what, at a certain level and amount of time, a hug will increase your dopamine response. And we'll help you to feel better, right? It increases the sense of like, joy and safety.
Gerald Reid 53:06
Well look, this is the broader point that I think we all seek comfort in life, right. And I'fm afraid that the more immerse we get with virtual reality, the less comfort, we're going to feel genuine comfort. And to me, the best comfort you can ever feel is when you're with someone who really understand to who's really present with you, who really you feel comfortable with. Like, to me, that is like the pinnacle of feeling comfort in life. And in like someone who's we're right there with you. And you know, I don't know if that can be recreated. When you're messaging someone, or when you're looking at someone's post,
Alexis Reid 53:43
I'm gonna reframe that a little bit. There is great benefit to being in the presence of a supportive, positive, genuine person in your life, who cares about the connection they have with you. And the digital interactions are often intentionally beneficial and might be helpful. But being in the physical presence of somebody who cares about you, who is genuinely there to connect, is probably one of the most powerful things that we have as human beings.
Gerald Reid 54:19
Yeah, and the question is that we're going to lose that more and more. And I hope that's not the case, I really do.
Alexis Reid 54:25
So I think you know, there are a lot of people in the AI field and are probably going to push back on everything we say. And there's benefits to that. And we're going to explore that in future episodes too. Because I think there are pros and cons benefits and things that can be hindrances with any new technological innovation and we talked about this with Will Dailey on the episode about that, you know, innovation and evolution is natural and it's, it's to be expected. Like it's always going to evolve and change, but how do we continue to, you know, recalibrate ourselves within these new worlds with In these new technologies, to pay attention to what serves us well, what is going to be most beneficial for us across contexts and time to, to really value relationships and connection, to really value the authenticity of being present in the physical space with another who's going to genuinely be curious and interact and challenging in a way that's going to continue to grow ourselves as individuals in the collective humanity. I think it's really important in from a neuro psychological and cognitive perspective, I think it's really important for us to build these skills across contexts, not just in one environment alone.
Every single interaction is an opportunity to potentially learn something. Right and It might not be learning information from the next best influencer, it might just be learning about pressing pause and understanding how information plays a role in your life. And how that relates to what you care about what you value, and how that helps you to curl your soul for yourself and for your connection with others. And to not always look at every image as Oh, maybe I should be like this, maybe I need to do that maybe I need to go there. A good friend of mine said, a really wise piece of information that, you know, we might have heard before I have, but I hadn't heard in a while. She said the grass is greener where you water it and where you strengthen it, where you choose to work on it, where you choose to pay attention. So I want us to just notice where our attention is going. And we're going to talk more about this on future episodes, but where our attention goes, can often allow for where our neural connections grow. So as my students said, as we started the episode, maybe I should pay attention to how I'm using my time, the people and the connections that we're making, how they help us to develop as individuals who can figure out what our purposes here on this earth because I think that is essentially the message the exploration and the journey that we're on here together.
Gerald Reid 56:53
Definitely love it.Oh, great conversation, geriatric millennial, Alexis, geriatric millennial, Jerry,
Alexis Reid 57:00
I'm gonna own it, right? I am a geriatric millennial, I have wisdom. And I'm very mindful of any fear that comes from messaging that I get from external sources, digital or otherwise.
Gerald Reid 57:15
Do you remember the technical real quick, quick story remember that the technological advances of using the camcorder for first school project where I fake cereal called Little Penny O's, and Lil’ Penny Oh’s…Penny Hardaway my favorite basketball player back in the 90s and the camcorder videotape me eating the box of cereal and then what happened next,
Alexis Reid
and then all of a sudden, you grew into somebody bigger and you're stronger because you ate the little Penny-Os?
Gerald Reid
Yeah and the way it worked you just stopped recorded, someone else came in and we started recording again. Nowadays you can literally just superimpose Shaquile O’Neil and put your body into it… Good times. Thanks, Lex. Great conversation.
Alexis Reid: Thanks, Jer.
Gerald Reid
Thanks for tuning in to the Reid Connect-ED podcast. Please remember that this is a podcast intended to educate and share ideas, but it is not a substitute for professional care that may be beneficial to you at different points of your life. If you are needed support, please contact your primary care physician, local hospital, educational institution, or support staff at your place of employment to seek out referrals for what may be most helpful for you. ideas shared here have been shaped by many years of training, incredible mentors research theory, evidence based practices and our work with individuals over the years, but it's not intended to represent the opinions of those we work with or who we are affiliated with. The reconnected podcast is hosted by siblings Alexis Reid and Dr. Gerald Reid. Original music is written and recorded by Gerald Reid (www.Jerapy.com) recording was done by Cyber Sound Studios. If you want to follow along on this journey with us the Reid Connect-ED podcast. we'll be releasing new episodes every two weeks each season so please subscribe for updates and notifications. Feel free to also follow us on Instagram @ReidConnectEdPodcast that's @ReidconnectEdPodcast and Twitter @ReidconnectEd. We are grateful for you joining us and we look forward to future episodes. In the meanwhile be curious, be open, and be well.
In our digital world, there are complex new systems that young people (and adults!) need to navigate. As digital technologies become more sophisticated, the way we connect with one another can either become overly simplistic or an intricate web of possibilities. How we interact with digital technology can shape growth and development: how will it support or deplete you and the young people in your life?
In this episode Alexis & Jerry discuss some of the intricacies of living both in a digital and physical world. Learn more about how social media, digital technologies are impacting our youth and interactions, and what is possible.
Be curious. Be Open. Be well.
The ReidConnect-Ed Podcast is hosted by Siblings Alexis Reid and Dr. Gerald Reid, produced by and original music is written and recorded by www.Jerapy.com
*Please note that different practitioners may have different opinions- this is our perspective and is intended to educate you on what may be possible.
