Do we have it all wrong when it comes to teaching kids about social media?

Thursday, last week, I attended a ‘career speed dating’ event at our local high school St John’s. The event was part of a two-day careers program for year ten students.

I can honestly say that I enjoyed it!

It was a great opportunity to chat with teens about their social media habits and I found out something I was not expecting (more about that later).

There were about 12 professionals from around the Sunshine Coast who were asked to share with students their professional experiences and discuss the opportunities their industries present for young people into the future. It was also important for us to share advice on how to get started in that particular profession or industry.

The multipurpose hall was the venue and a variety of industry categories featured 8–10 students at each. We sat in a circle and were given 10 minutes to chat, then a bell would ring, the group would move on and a new group would grab the chairs. You know the drill, just like speed dating but way more fun.

As you can expect there were the few who joined my circle with a certain arrogance that only a teen can exude. But after a “hello” and “how is your morning going?” they relaxed, and we got talking, or I got talking, and they looked bored. This scenario is something I don’t get exposed to very often so I channeled my favourite high school teacher to help guide me through the next couple of hours. I ignored the bored faces and moved on with my job, I suppose that is why they call me a professional.

To be honest, to start with I was unsure as to what these teens would want to hear from an oldie. Were they even thinking of their career at this point of their schooling life? Had they thought of social media management as a career? Or did they even know they could start making money using social media? I shared with them my journey, and we made a joke about how I did not go to uni until seven years after I finished school. I told them “because I didn’t know what I wanted to do I decided to have a gap year that lasted seven years” (bored faces turned to reserved giggles). “That sounds like a great gap year” one boy exclaimed.

I would say the majority of students had no idea what their future career focus would be nor had they even started considering it. So the thought of social media as a career option did come across intriguing to some of them particularly when they were told about the opportunities to make money on social media. One student said, “so what kind of job is there to do with social media anyway?” I asked them “do they follow celebrities online?” and names like Harry Styles and Kylie Jenner came up. I told them “more than likely those profiles, although an official account, are managed by social media managers. That is just one example of new careers in social media.” Jaws dropped, and remarks were made such as “what, really”, “I am devastated”, and “why would they do that?”. They were more interested in being fooled by the celebrity rather than the career option, but still, at least I got them thinking.

Even though the majority were naive to the opportunities, I was very excited to learn there were a couple of boys already making money from their youtube videos. One student had been asked, by her mother to manage social media for her business, and a couple more knew of people working in the industry.

This was the unexpected part, I found a commonality amongst the students, they knew potential employers would ‘Google’ them before being approached for a job interview. Which is great but they had no idea of the potential benefits and how they could establish a social media presence for their advantage, such as researching industries, potential employers or growing a following which would be an asset to an organisation giving them the upper hand when applying for a job.

I propose to you that it is now time to start teaching our kids how to establish and maintain a productive and positive digital legacy. It is clear that all the scare campaigns have worked and the students are aware of the consequences of their digital footprint. Let’s empower them to create a future, where they are proactive in the community of digital citizenship.

Last week I wrote about how Bernard Salt suggested we should be teaching online personal branding from the age of 12.

Share with me your ideas on how and what year 10 students should be learning about social media.