Navigating Social Media: How To Guide Your Teen To A Health Balance: Tips From a Teen Therapist in Salt Lake City, UT
Whether to log into the internet, check their phone, do their homework, do a chore meet a friend, or check social media accounts, your teen is making this choice every day. This is a choice they will consider nearly every moment of every day–even once they’ve seemingly gone to bed. Because technology is so ubiquitous and addictive, I will bet money that their snazzy phone will win out over homework, chores, or a conversation with you every time. If you're struggling to help your teen find balance, consider seeking teen counseling to provide the guidance and support they need at Shade Tree Family Counseling.
Interviews of students talking about how technology has impacted their school life.
The Challenge of Ignoring Technology as a Teen
Most teens find it difficult to ignore an incoming text or not check a social media app’s notice. Even if they say they can tune out technology, the odds are they can not. But let’s be honest: most adults have a hard time managing internet use even though we apparently have better-developed impulse control. With summer here you may find that the balance you worked so hard to attain (or never attained) while school was in session is becoming even harder.
As a teen therapist, I have listed some suggestions below but none of them will work if you don’t have a relationship with your teen of mutual respect. So if you decide to use one or two of these suggestions. Focus first on your relationship with them before throwing down a new rule.
What does a relationship of mutual respect with a teen look like? Well, that could be a yearlong blog series…. But in a nutshell… Does your teen feel like you listen to them and understand who they are even if you hold limits that they do not agree on? The suggestions below should be offered in conversation. Not a rule thrown down with a tone that implies they can “love it or leave it.” Such an approach will encourage lying very quickly. Then you have a bigger problem on your hands.
Your job right now is to support them in understanding themselves so that they can navigate these limits when they are on their own within a few short years. A teen who understand why they are limiting themselves from a harmful activity and knows their personal limits will be much more prepared when they launch out on their own than the teen who had to follow rules but has no personal understanding to guide them on their limits without an externally enforced rule.
How to Have a Summer Social Media Balance.
1. As much as possible, follow the same guidelines you set for your children’s technology habits. You must model restraint for your teen, they are watching and will use your behavior as an excuse for their own.
2. Assign limited hours of the day during which technology can be used. This can be any time just agree on it. It’s also helpful to have phone dead zones, like at the dinner table or once they are in bed.
3. Summer School? -Know that multitasking–for example, doing homework while instant messaging–actually decreases productivity and comprehension, despite your teen’s insistence that it does not. This has been study. It is a fact you can hand them this research if they want to push you on it.
4. Make a turn-phone-off rule for any activity in which a phone would be distracting. While your teen may not be texting or calling someone, someone might text them with an urgent social update, or something similar, which will seem much more important than a dinner conversation. If you get a lot of pushback on this, compromise and suggest they block all incoming notices from their social apps until they are done with the activity.
5. Make a nighttime phone or mobile device docking station outside of your teen’s room so that they can’t text or talk during hours designated for sleeping. It is very common for teens to stay awake until all hours of the night texting each other back and forth. Yep, that’s probably why your teen looks so tired.
6. Have an all-technology-off curfew to help them curb their compulsion. Many teens have a hard time turning off Social media or video games and going to bed even though they need at least eight hours of sleep a night to perform well in school. In fact, more sleep is better when it comes to teens and sleep: getting twelve hours of sleep a night has been shown to create observable improvements in their moods and also in their performance at school and in sports.
The Impact of Technology
Researchers are currently investigating why the internet is so addictive and what impact its use has on our minds. What is already clear from the research is that our minds love to be constantly stimulated. The round-the-clock visual, auditory, and emotional stimuli that the internet offers are hard to resist. However, recent studies have found that constant use of the internet leads to lowered productivity and lowered comprehension. This is likely because our brains require downtime from the screen in order to process new information. Perhaps even more concerning, is that high internet or video game use has been shown to impact sleep patterns and, in teenagers, can lead to depressive and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Follow this link here to read more.
Setting Limitations With Love
Remember, even though your teen will resist your guidance, technology can easily become addictive. Let them know that you are setting limitations on their technology use because you love them and want them to be successful, not because they are bad or in trouble.
Help Your Teen Find Balance With Social Media With The Help of Teen Counseling in Salt Lake City, UT
Struggling to help your teen find a healthy balance with technology? Reach out to a professional teen therapist at Shade Tree Family Counseling to provide the guidance and support they need in teen counseling. Together, you can foster healthier habits and ensure your teen's well-being and success. Follow these three simple steps to get started:
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to see if Teen Counseling is right for your child
Begin meeting with a skilled and caring teen therapist
Start seeing positive changes in your teen’s behavior with social media!
Other Services Offered at Shade Tree Family Counseling
At Shade Tree Family Counseling, we want to provide support for the whole family. So in addition to helping your teen find balance with social media in teen counseling, our team offers EMDR-Trauma Therapy for those struggling to overcome past trauma and want to begin healing, and Teen Group Therapy for teens looking for extra support from those their own age. For more about teen counseling check out our blog!