Stephen Bigelow, PhD - Education Leadership

I read “ Will Your Classroom Get Enough ‘Likes’? Teachers Feel the Social Media Pressure ” by Sarah Sparks in  Education Week  this morning. Like many, I’ve been overwhelmed by the constant barrage of curated images and messages on platforms like Facebook and have found it beneficial to take breaks from misrepresentations of real life. Social media posts often skew reality and sometimes bring out the worst in people. Consequently, I’ve limited myself from several platforms, only checking in occasionally to maintain connections without being consumed by the negativity. The classroom comparison component for teachers described in Spark’s article is not something I had to ensure in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and for new teachers, it must be just another exhausting hurdle. The Science Behind the Overwhelm Research has shown that excessive use of social media can contribute to mental health issues. Social media usage can significantly decrease feelings of loneliness and depres...