1. How do you think social media influence children today?

• I think what’s interesting is that until really just recently, I don’t think it had been very prevalent. You know… I just think there weren’t as many apps available to young children that had to do with social media. I kind of never appreciated that. Now I have seen social media being used by younger children in a way that was not prevalent even two years, ago right? And so, my own child, one of my own children that I just told you about a couple of minutes ago. She has shown an interest in social media. Not so much about posting things or pictures or anything like that but more about being able to video chat with her friends in the evening. So out of my three children, she is probably the most set on communicating specifically with these two friends. My other two children are just not as interested. Even the older one who just turned fourteen today, she is not as interested like I have to say “Hey, did you text your friend about this and she didn’t do it. You know, because she’s just not as interested. I think it depends on how early the children are kind of tied in and how it’s normalized within the home. If it’s considered something everybody does they will feel like it’s something that they need to do too right? So yeah. That’s what I think”.

• 2.) Do you think social media has a good effect on students or a bad effect?

• I will say this, it is very hard… it can be really hard to move a child away from screen time like you know having programs or games or whatever are very short length can influence than how children anticipate their entertainment right? It’s less about persistence sometimes and there can be a decrease in attention when it comes to doing something that is not like constant entertainment for them. I’ve seen that even in my own children, but we don’t do screen time at all on weekdays. So, my son has recently started… he’s in 2nd grade and he has recently started saying things like “My friends watch TV in the evening” and I was like well I’m not their mom you know. So, I’m sorry were not gonna… if you do something on a screen in the evening it has to be related to your education you know specifically to a program that their allowed to do because they're encouraged by their teachers so, one is for reading one is for math. And so yeah, I think that that’s a big deal and interesting that you… I almost feel like you are cutting edge because like I said, I don’t think that this happens as much with social media, but it’s become an issue you know. As it becomes more prevalent”

• 3.)How do you feel about young children preferably under the age of 12 having their own social media account?

• I think it needs to be closely monitored. Yeah, like my daughter gets to video chat her friends once or twice per week and it's typically limited to 10 or 15 minutes, and honestly, it’s like the first thing that goes if she had a loss of privileges or if she’s not wanting to do her homework or you know whatever. Sometimes I’m like, “We need you to do your homework if you want to continue to chat with your friends, you have to do your homework”. So, that’s how it works in my house. My oldest does not have Instagram, she’s not on tik tok. She didn’t even have a phone until last year. So, she has no social media accounts and seems fine with it. She doesn’t even seem all that interested and my son is interested in having maybe a Facebook messenger kids account, but he’s only mentioned it once. I’m just kind of like if you want to do this then we have to work towards getting there”.

• 4.) How has social media or electronic devices help your children in general?

• My son is not one who enjoys... he really doesn’t like to write… like actual physical writing and some of that is he is left-handed but he doesn’t enjoy that and so it’s helpful for him to work on like a kindle. On the kindle, he’s sharpening certain skills because it’s set up in like a gaming kind of way but there’s a lot of positives to it. It’s about problem-solving, creative thinking as well as generally keeping up with math or practicing phonics or what have you. So, I think that dealing with reading comprehension is a big deal that he works on with that. That is really helpful because, I think when you try to teach in just one way always and one mode like it’s not very effective that of course, multimodal types of instruction is the best to go about education. And so that includes using things like a kindle, I pad, phone, or computer but what’s important is that it’s not the only way that children interact with certain types of information because they can become very limited in and as I mentioned before it can influence attention, persistence, and self-regulation. So, that’s generally how I feel about it”.

• 5.)As a teacher, how do you feel about the increasing use of social media or technology in the past few years?

• think it has some positives but as with everything moderation is troubling because everything can be toxic you know if it exceeds a certain level. It’s important that it’s done in moderation and mixed with other things kind of like multimodal instruction or making sure that time with technology does not take precedence over time outside you know that kind of thing”.

• 6.)What impacts do you think technology will have in the future?

• think that it depends on the child. So, not necessarily just thinking about children as this massive monolith but like as with everything their interactions with it should be looked at as individuals in mind. I think that allows the parent, adult, or caregiver to be able to kind of establish how best technology can work within the lives of family and in the most positive way. Now, for certain children like those who are in the spectrum, it can be really useful for them to have something to help them in those times of high anxiety right? Sometimes that is an iPad, screen or another type of technology. I think some companies have been paying attention to this and have tried to you know, especially children who are on the spectrum really try to tailor some apps to them. They are recognizing that they could potentially offer some assistance to those children. I think it’s also interesting that so many companies are marketing towards being able to assist children with learning to read or write. Sometimes I think it could be helpful, but I think it allows something to be said for allowing a child to develop a love of language on their own, and not drives a parent to just push that down and teaching a 3-year-old to read. You have to wonder are they actually understanding? Do they know what the words mean or are they simply mimicking you because they see that your excited about the fact that they are following you? That’s a potentially slippery slope”.

• 7.)How much have your children grown regarding technology in the classroom?

• right now in county schools, the state superintendent has put together an online assessment system. The I station? Am I making that up, I don’t know? Anyway, it’s interesting because there’s not a lot of knowledge about this new system. I’m curious about the psychometrics about the system knowing a little but how the assessments are put together and so on. I’m curious as a researcher who's interested in child development and cognition as well as a parent wondering about what this means. Right now, there’s not a lot of knowledge in this school system on how to interpret the results from these assessments. I think the whole thing was not thought through it would seem. You know it would be interesting for you to check out newspaper articles. I’m sure that there are people who have written things about that. With all of that being said, the assessment itself right now reports in a very strong way, like the way it reports is a deficit model than a strength model. I think it is difficult to kind of consider you know? I don’t know how much longer it’s going to be used. And when I say strengths and deficit you know what I mean right? I think what’s difficult about that is that you know kindergarteners who never used a mouse before and they're being asked to do this assessment as if all of them know what it does and how to do it. The idea behind the assessment originally that be done on a touch screen but that’s not realistic when every classroom and every school doesn’t have a touch screen right? So, I think it’s interesting to consider how that impacts children when they’re in kindergarten and for the first time they're interacting with a screen and mouse through this assessment process. You have to wonder how that influences what they think of the whole thing right?”

• 8.)Are parents concerned more about children being electronic devices more?

• my child who is on social media, she’s not going to be getting a phone until she’s definitely in middle school. Out of my three children, I can see her using it more because her interest is there. Were going to have some serious talks maybe not right now because she’s only interested in talking to two people, but very soon because the concern is of course that she’s going to have interactions with somebody… you know a potential predator or prey relation and that’s scary. We know were going to have to have those kinds of discussions and I’ll have them with the other two as well, but she right now was the only one who’s super interested. My husband and I have talked about it already that we would see how this would go first because it’s only like three weeks old. We are keeping a close watch on it. It’s funny too because she sees these two friends all the time at school so some of our thought is what do you need to talk about when you’re at home? But you know we both also recognized that there was a time when we would talk on our home phones a lot and that was what we did because that was the thing we were in school. So, yeah have to keep an eye on her. She’s a bit precocious”.

• 9.)What do you fear most about the use of social media among children?

• my gosh bullying. Yeah, I mean part of the issue is that even if you don’t have a phone and if you’re on social media or if you’re not on social media and you don’t have a phone you're almost bullied because you don’t know what’s going. Do you know what I mean? It’s almost like people kind of get into the fact that you're excluded right? You’re not aware of what’s going on at least in middle school is what we found. My oldest daughter two years ago, no a year ago, she was like all my friends are talking about Tik Tok you know and she was like “I don’t know what Tik Tok is, I’m not really into Tik Tok but I don’t like not knowing what it’s about you know like missing out on things.” It seems like that fear of missing out that goes along with the technology that I think can be nerve-racking and anxiety-inducing for children. And then there’s because they’re not at the age yet where they don’t care like what everybody’s doing you know and then there’s also you’re not on social media and you’re getting bullied you know? So, that’s what, oh my gosh I live in fear of that”.

• 10.)How do you think social media affects children emotionally?

• you know it’s this instant gratification thing and I think that’s some of the research this would be interesting for you to look at like the connection between the research for this with adults and then just saying similar research on adults shows… the same kind of thing could potentially be seen in children as well. This instant gratification boost and your serotonin levels it’s kind of like this high almost… like oh, look at how many people are interested in what I’m saying you know. I have so many followers, right? So, I think that can be potentially worrisome right. That you are so busy on your phone that you’re not experiencing life. Something that is meant to connect people causes inattention in the real world and a lack of connection in the real world. Setting limits for yourself about how much you're online. Yeah, I mean adults have that issue as well. I have friends that feel like if they don’t post about something then it didn’t really happen it’s just like really? If adults are having trouble controlling themselves with social media… then how is it going to be with a child. The exclusion factor is almost like a type of bullying to like I’m not there so apparently, I’m not important enough to be a part of that. I think that’s difficult it makes it a little bit paralysis".

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