We all know the routine. You open, you scroll, yet you don’t quite know what’s really going on in your world but, you’re not alone. In a world of 7.6 billion people you are probably one of the 3 billion social media users.  

 Sydney Harris, a student, a gymnast, and maybe like you, an active social media user from PLHS seems to have a slightly different school social media perspective, opinion and hopes from the well-known PLHS coach, teacher, friend and social media user Matt (Mr.)Overmiller. 

“I use a total of four social media handles. I’d say I’m quite active on a normal day to day basis, I ’Il spend about two or so hours going through along with talking with my friends on social media,” Sophomore Sydney Harris said.   

Teens, students, adults, and teachers all seem to be finding more time to be on social media, whether it be in the classroom, the lunchroom or for some even the bathroom. On an average, teenagers and adults both, spend up to nine hours, scrolling through the day to day social media handles.  

“During school I may send a snap chat or two, but otherwise I go through my social media on my free time. Outside of school is a different story, I often use social media outside of school or on my down time,” Mr. Overmiller said.   

People are beginning to lose normal face to face communication skills, whether it be from classroom talk, to one on one friend conversations.  The decrease in social skills are becoming more and more obvious but is it truly due to social media?  

“I’d say students, kids, or even myself have not lost the sense of face to face communication. People still talk to people; social media is there to communicate when you and maybe another friend aren’t in the same classes, lunch or generally in the same area,” Sydney Harris said.  

Each generation has had different experience with social media in school, whether it be from the first ever social media creations such as my space or the snap chats that many seem to be acquainted with.  

“Before even Facebook was created, the first “social media” I ever used was MSN it was my first ever way to go through and be up to date, being able to send message to my friends that I went to school with, having the ability to use a username and send messages to my friends throughout the day. It’s different to see how social media has evolved and become something so easy to get onto,” Overmiller said.  

Many studies show there’s a new depression going around, this is known as the school social media depression. An idea that students, teachers, sons and daughters get from seeing the number of followers had, from the way friend groups grow from the click of a button. This leads to the question, is it effecting the students that walk the halls with heads down and faces attached to screens. 

“I don’t think social media is bad, I think it’s always used for good for the ability to take a look into others’ lives I don’t necessarily think everyone walks around school looking to see if their friend groups are growing just because of the like of one photo,”Harris said.  

Students are always up for fun, whether it be new games, team challenges and or new ways to bring life into the classroom so, would bringing social media into the classroom along with encouraging the use of social media in the classroom help students get more involved. There’s always pros and cons   

“ I think bringing social media into the classroom could go both ways, one way could be them getting excited and working harder due to using something they enjoy and use in their day to day lives, the only issue is bring social media or ways to use social media could go wrong, students could get off task and that’s where the cons come in,”Overmiller said.  

Many students go to school to get an education, a lot of times there are many things learned and talked about, that meaning anything can be said and learned so, are teachers teaching and discussing social media.  

“I think some teachers talk about social media during school, maybe not their very own social media usage but it is talked about not so much all the time but, it not a non-talked about topic, not every teacher in our school speaks freely on social media,” Sydney Harris said.  

Not every teacher feels the need to address their very own usage of social media, not always is it a topic that is needed to be discusses during classroom time.  

“I cannot speak on behalf of other teachers in our school but, as for myself yes, I am open with speaking on the topics of social media and I am honest when I do speak about it but, I do think that there is a time and place,”Overmiller said. 

Many schools use social media and for many schools they use them for the sole purpose of keeping people in the loop along with keeping parents and students involved.  

“I think the fact that our school uses social media is a good thing, I think that it always reminds students especially me, on what’s going, it is also a way to show our school spirt,” Harris said.  

Social media has been around for years, it has only grown and changed over time it. It has and will continue to affect many for year to come. As heard from teachers and students, there will always be pros and cons to this changing social media. Many can only hope that there will be more positive outcomes form this social media, and as for the schools, one can only wait to see the evolution.