The upside of selfies: Social media not all bad for kids
Olivia, 12, said she sometimes feels that way, too. “If there’s an event that maybe I’m not at or my friends are hanging out with each other … sometimes I kind of feel, I guess, kind of left out.”
The quest for the ‘100 club’
The teens and tweens also agreed there is a constant — and at times anxiety-inducing — fixation with likes.
“People will be like, ‘Oh, are you in the 100 club?’ ” Sadie said of getting 100 or more likes for a post.
The 15-year-old told the story of a friend who changed her profile picture and didn’t get the 200 likes she normally gets on the first night whenever she makes such a change.
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How to cut your child’s cell phone addiction
“I always say to parents: It’s not one conversation. It’s a thousand small conversations, and it is really starting young,” she said. Take an interest in what your children are doing online and have them show you why they like it, she said.
“And then you are in the circle,” she added. “It’s pretty easy to get there but you have to start when they are young.”
Graber, who starts teaching students in the sixth grade, said it often takes her students until the eighth grade to figure out all the social media angst “ain’t worth it.”
“It’s a huge trajectory to get there … when they start saying, ‘Gosh that’s a waste of my time.’ “
Do you get anxious if you don’t get a certain number of likes on social media posts? Tell Kelly Wallace on Twitter or CNN Living on Facebook.
