If your teen regularly uses social media, it’s important to help them to reflect on how social media is contributing to their mental health. Social media has been shown to have negative consequences on teenagers’ brains – from sleep disturbances to lower self esteem – help your teen understand how social media impacts them in this resource.

Key features:

Reflection on emotional responses: The resource prompts individuals to log their emotions before and after using social media, helping build self-awareness on how social media impacts their emotions and whether they need to limit their usage.

Visual representation of emotions: Teens are encouraged to draw an emoji in each phone to represent their emotional state, just as they would use on their phones in the digital world.

Analysis of emotional experiences: The resource guides individuals to analyse their emotional responses, enabling them to identify patterns and triggers related to social media use.

Mindful engagement with social media: By promoting self-awareness, it encourages teenagers to make conscious choices and changes to their social media usage and the content they engage with.
Curating a positive online experience: Through self-reflection, teens can develop strategies to improve their social media feed, prioritising uplifting content, and minimising exposure to negative influences.

Benefits:

Increased self-reflection and awareness: The resource facilitates self-reflection by prompting individuals to analyse their emotional responses, leading to a deeper understanding of their relationship with social media.

Informed decision-making: By gaining insights into their emotional experiences, teenagers can make more conscious choices about when, how and why they engage with social media.

Emotional trigger identification: The resource helps individuals identify specific triggers that may contribute to negative emotions, empowering them to develop coping strategies and establish healthier boundaries.

Improved emotional well-being: By promoting mindful engagement with social media, this can help to enhance your child’s overall wellbeing and change the way they use social media for the benefit of their mental health.

Through this resource and the process of self-reflection and awareness, teenagers can adjust their social media use to improve their mental wellbeing, prioritise positive interactions and safeguard their emotional health.