Social Media's Ripple Effect: Supporting Students in a Connected World

Description

o RECOGNIZE how students are being influenced. This workshop aims to help participants identify and decode hateful elements in trending content, including algostrategies, false and misleading information, punchlines, and microaggressions.

o REPORT and/or take appropriate (in)action. Because cognitive skills related to perception, awareness, and empathy are still developing, teens frequently dismiss hate and extremism as an inevitable part of viral participation. This workshop emphasizes teaching students to become active, as opposed to passive, consumers of social media.

o REDUCE exposure to hate and extremism. With the influence and intention of social media algorithms, the concern is that viral trends may be an entry point into a meandering rabbit hole that leads toward more extremist views. This workshop helps participants assist students in reducing this exposure.

Background | We are a multidisciplinary and multiorganizational research team, funded by the Collaboratory Against Hate Research and Action Center in Pittsburgh, PA, studying viral extremism on TikTok to create an educational intervention to raise awareness, mitigate harm, and prevent radicalization especially among young digital native people.

What to Bring | Laptop or tablet, if possible

Who Should Attend | Teachers, Administrators, School Counselors, Library Media Specialists

Lunch will be provided.

Host or Publisher transformED