Should Social Media Be Allowed In Schools?

TL;DR Yes!

Not having social media in schools is not preparing our students for life beyond the school walls, and believing that educations lives in a vacuum.

Today, many people are using social media as their primary news source. Students need to be able to use social media in schools so they can learn how to use social media. How do you determine what is true? How do you fact check what other people post? What is community journalism? What is bias? How does social media actually work? What is a filter bubble?

These are all questions that have a massive impact on the information we process, but students are left on their own to figure it out.

For something that has such a profound impact on our day to day lives, all the way up to being accused of winning a presidential election, it seems completely backwards to ignore or block it in school. It is something that is too big to be ignores and needs to be addressed.

Social media companies are being asked to testify in front of congress right now over their influence on the opinion of people. Anything that is that powerful in our society needs to be discusses and learned about in schools.

It would be better for a students to learn about social media in a classroom, then by trial and error in their free time.