Cellphones; Social Media, and Vicious School Brawls
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An Epidemic of Vicious School Brawls, Fueled by Student Cellphones
Cafeteria melees. Students kicked in the head. Injured educators. Technology is stoking cycles of violence in schools across the United States.
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“Cellphones and technology are the No. 1 source of soliciting fights, advertising fights, documenting — and almost glorifying — fights by students,” ...
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Students have used social networks to plan and incite school violence since the 2000s. Over the past decade, higher quality phone cameras and new social features, like Instagram Live and Reels, helped spur teenagers to mass produce, stream and share videos — including school fight clips.By 2020, dedicated fight video accounts — set up using the names or initials of middle and high schools — had popped up on Instagram and TikTok. Sometimes students staged fights among themselves and invited friends to film. Others attacked unsuspecting peers.
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Brave New World indeed.
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@ShiroKuro When parents know that something is bad for their children, it's the parent's responsibility. Everyone knows social media needs to be approached with care when it comes to children. Everyone knows cellphones have no place in schools. Do parents give their children as much candy as they desire every day? No, because they know it's bad for them.
This doesn't even take into account my primary argument: that these parents' children are using social media to bully and harm others. The parents are responsible for that. Aren't they teaching their children that violence is wrong, no matter what they witness on social media and the playground? And aren't they teaching them to be kind and empathetic human beings?
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@Bernard said in Cellphones; Social Media, and Vicious School Brawls:
When parents know that something is bad for their children,
This is my big question. Do they know? Do they understand?
I think our understanding of the harms is evolving in real time. I don't think we should excuse anyone, but I think it's not as simple as "blame the parents," when all of society cannot put their phones down.
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@ShiroKuro so true.
A couple weeks ago we went to a holiday champagne tasting at my favorite wine merchant. A nice event, date-worthy. There was a couple at the next table. The woman looked very alone. The guy with her was looking at this phone the whole time. i don't think he said three words to her in three hours. I damn near asked her to join us, but I figured that would start a fight and ruin our outing.
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer”
― Douglas Adams
