Let’s face it: even though we know that spending too much time online can affect us negatively, from affecting our sleep to worsening existing symptoms of depression, cutting down the amount of time we spend on our screens, and especially our phones, is easier said than done. Your child may need to use their phone for multiple reasons, like scheduled FaceTimes with their best friend who lives across the country, or checking e-mails for school or work. And even though these are done for fun, there’s nothing wrong with relaxing with catching up on Instagram stories and spending a bit of time on TikTok. Continue reading Helping Your Child Reduce Their Screen Time
Category: SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDE
How to Help Someone Through Social Media
With more and more people opening up about their mental health online, you may find yourself thinking about a few things. You may feel proud of them for opening up about their struggles on a large platform, or you might feel comforted and feel less alone that someone you know also has struggles with their mental health. You might think about how social media is helping reduce the stigma about mental illness by giving many the opportunity to write about what they’re going through too! Continue reading How to Help Someone Through Social Media
The Art and Harm of Subtweeting
The art of subtweeting isn’t a particularly difficult one. It involves posting something on any social media platform (even if the name originates from twitter) that’s most likely negative, most likely about someone you know, but always indirect. No names are mentioned, no handles are included, and the post is passive-aggressive, rarely specific, but hints that someone has offended the original poster. Continue reading The Art and Harm of Subtweeting
Undiagnosed and Anxious
The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
We are living in an era of instant information. Anything you want to know about is at your fingertips. Not to mention how many diverse voices are present online. Continue reading Undiagnosed and Anxious
Self-Care and Influencers
Most people think of self-care as an ongoing process of maintaining one’s living space, hygiene, and ensuring that basic needs are being met. It’s not always easy or fun, but it’s an essential component to being well. While these activities can seem easy to manage for most, for those dealing with mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, or other conditions, these tasks require a greater deal of time and effort and may not be as often maintained. Social media has also contributed to the idea that buying all the right beauty/wellness products can maximize the outcomes and the products may feel like a necessity in the minds of consumers. Continue reading Self-Care and Influencers
How to Tell When a Website is Trustworthy
Sometimes it can be hard to figure out what information on social media sites comes from reliable and credible sources. Just because something sounds true does not mean it is. Here are some tips on how to decide whether a site is trustworthy before you share/retweet it on your news feed! Continue reading How to Tell When a Website is Trustworthy
Using Social Media to Cope with Trauma
Trauma is debilitating. It can make you feel hopeless, alone, and at the very least, it hurts. Everyone has different sources for their trauma (and all of them painful in their own way), and everyone has their own ways of talking, or choosing not to, talk about their trauma. Continue reading Using Social Media to Cope with Trauma
What do Social Media Statistics Mean to Your Child?
Chances are, you’ve probably been guilty of caring about how well your posts are doing if you’re on social media. There’s just something so satisfying about seeing the number of views, likes, and comments build up, especially in the first few minutes of a post going live. Continue reading What do Social Media Statistics Mean to Your Child?
How Does Social Media Affect the Adolescent Brain?
The short answer? There are a lot of ways that using technology and specifically social media affects your brain. After all, the brain is always working and responding to everything, with social media being no exception. Continue reading How Does Social Media Affect the Adolescent Brain?
Mental Health Experts on Social Media
When people talk about social media and its effect on people, it’s almost always negative. Many have mentioned and researched about the effect of social media on mental health: feeling unproductive, worrying about what we said or did online, and experiencing FOMO are just a few of the things that affect us from using social media. Continue reading Mental Health Experts on Social Media