Lesson video

Hi there everyone, nice to see you.

My name is Ms. Shaw, and today we'll be focusing on positives of social media.

So in this lesson, we're going to focus on identifying the positive effects of social media interactions, and thinking about how online contacts and friendships that we have can be useful and valuable.

Now this lesson covers sensitive topics and therefore we recommend checking with a trusted adult before starting or doing the lesson with a trusted adult nearby.

Before this lesson, you are going to need an exercise book or some paper, and a pen and of course our brains for thinking.

Now hopefully, you've already completed your intro quiz.

Firstly, we're going to be looking at what social media actually is.

Then we're going to look at some positives of social media.

And we'll look at how social media can be useful to us.

And finally, we'll cover the key learning points and you will complete your exit quiz.

So the key words for today's lesson are online, which refers to being connected to or controlled by a computer.

Social media, which is computer-based sharing of information via a range of networks.

Networking, which means interacting with others to share information either professionally or socially.

And digital footprint, which is the trail of data that's created when we use the internet.

So in this first section, we're going to look at what is meant by the term social media.

What do you think is meant by the term social media? I'd like you just to pause here for a few seconds and just consider that statement.

So social media is the use computer-based technology to share our thoughts or information, or other social interactions with other users.

Now technology has boomed massively over the last couple of decades.

And as human beings are quite socially inclined anyway, we've embraced this technology and really it's allowed us to connect with a lot more people in virtual ways.

Now, if you'd have said to me when I was your age, "Oh, you can just go on the internet and download an app on your smartphone," I'd have been like, "What, what is download? What is app? What is a smartphone?" And if you'd have said you could FaceTime people or have interactions like we are now, I'd have been like, "Whoa, sounds like something out from a sci-fi movie." And I know I might look it, but I'm not actually that old.

So if you think about your generation and the access to technology that you have now, all of the great things that that brings along with it, you're actually in a really good place.

Now what I'd like you to think about is any examples of social media platforms that you can think of.

So I'd like you to just to pause here, and try and list as many as you can.

See if you can beat me, I'm sure you will be able to.

So how did your list compare with mine? Well, I came up with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Google, TikTok.

I'm sure you've come up with far more than me, because you probably use the internet for social media far more than I do, I'm old.

Now Facebook is currently the largest social media site in the world, with around 2.

6 million monthly active users as of 2020.

And that's massive.

And if you think about how we're engaging with technology now, because of the current climate, it actually means that by the end of this year, which is probably going to be more like 3 billion users, which is really big.

So in this next section, we're going to look at the positive points of social media.

I'd like you to pause the video here, to complete the following task.

Make a list of all the positives that you can think of that relate to engaging with social media.

So what are the positives of social media? Pause here and then come back when you've completed the activity.

So how did your list compare with mine? Well, I have that some of the positives are that social media allows us to show creativity, and our tech savvy.

So we can broadcast to people all of the great things that we can do.

It also strengthens our empathy and social awareness because we can see what's going on in the rest of the world and we can understand and maybe empathise with some of the other current situations.

So we put ourselves in the same place and think about how that impacts upon other people's lives and on our own.

It also helps us boost self-confidence.

So, some people that are quite shy, normally, in social interactions might have more confidence to be able to express their ideas more freely.

Also increases the ability to create lifelong friends.

So you could be chatting to someone across the other side of the world who normally you wouldn't have the opportunity to be able to do.

Also, it creates virtual communities and positive digital footprints.

So if we're thinking about virtual communities, we're talking about networking with other people who maybe have similar interests or similar hobbies to ourselves.

And it helps us create a positive digital footprint where, whereby people that are looking back, maybe future employees for example, looking back at what social media you've been accessing, what you've been using, the views that you've shared, et cetera, and create a positive digital footprint.

Now next activity, I'd like you to think about what do you think are the positives of social media? I'd like you to pick out what, which ones of these are correct and which ones are not correct.

I'd like you to pause, pause here while you complete the activity.

And as an extra challenge, try and think of any other positives that I haven't included on the slide.

So how did you do? Did you get them all correct? Well, I'm hoping that you picked out that boosting self-confidence and sharing good ideas, having more social interaction, being able to demonstrate creativity.

Also creating a positive digital footprint and having more of an awareness of worldwide events.

And also the ability to make new friends, are all positives of social media.

The others, so dependence on technology and anxiety, the potential for cyber bullying, fear of missing out and potential isolation, are all negatives of social media that we'll go on to look at in future lessons.

But in this final section we're going to look at how online relationships can be useful and valuable to us.

So how can they be? I'd like you to pause here, to make a list of all the ways that you can think that online contacts and relationships can be useful and valuable.

Pause now to complete the activity and then come back when you've finished.

So how did your list compare with mine? Well, online contact is useful because it creates networking opportunities whereby we can increase the number of people that we can access for different reasons.

It provides a safe bubble to be able to make new relationships.

So we're not meeting people face to face, we're in the comfort of our own home, for example.

And like I said before, you can meet people from all over the world that normally we wouldn't be able to access.

You can also communicate professionally and socially.

And the formal barriers that we kind of have in place socially, normally, don't exist in the online virtual world.

I'd now like you to consider this scenario.

Mohammed is a shy, studious and ambitious pupil.

He often worries about school and has to look after his siblings quite often as his dad works away.

He spends a lot of time at home in his bedroom going online, speaking to new people, sharing his ideas and asking for help with issues he has, and learning more about what's going on in the world.

He's created good relationships with people who are interested in the same hobbies and career prospects as him and it makes him feel less anxious as he can speak to people without being face-to-face.

For your task, I'd like you can identify at least three signs that Mohammed's online communication is positive.

And I'd like you to pause the slide here to complete your activity and then return when you've done.

So how did you get on? Well, I put that Mohammed is able to meet new friends, he's creating a positive digital footprint, he's getting and asking for help when needed, it's making him more self-confident, it's helping him to feel connected with other people.

But he also need to consider that too much time spent online can also have a negative impact.

And not everybody who he's meeting online might be who they appear to be.

And these are issues that we're going to be looking at in future lessons also.

I'd now like you to pause the video to complete the following task.

I'd like you to create a poster aimed at highlighting to young people, all of the positive aspects of engaging with social media.

Pause the video here to complete your task and then return when you've done.

So the key learning points from this lesson are that social media, is the use of computer based technology to interact with other people.

And that there are many positives associated with using social media.

Online relationships can be really useful and very valuable to you.

And using social media really can improve your life.

I'd now like you to complete the exit quiz to check your understanding of the content of this lesson.

Very well done on completing the first lesson in this unit, and I look forward to seeing you again.

Bye for now.