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Dear HKMS Families,

I am increasingly concerned about the mental health crisis of which we appear to be on the precipice, or have already tumbled into.  Earlier this month, the Pew Research Center updated report on Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023 (see the graph below) showing continued dramatic increases since 2014.  As you may remember from the Social Dilemma, the CEO of Netflix proudly reported, "When you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night. We’re competing with sleep on the margin" (emphasis added).  Social media platforms are not competing with each other, they are competing with your child's need for SLEEP! They know, if they can hook them now, they'll be hooked for life.   When the ubiquitous access to cell phones and the addictive nature of social media are combined, the physical and emotional consequences are being felt by our children.  Our mental health crisis, exemplified by the spikes in anxiety and depression.  Jonathan Haight, an NYU Social Psychologist who is studying this phenomenon has concluded: 

"As the CDC’s recent report showed, most girls are suffering, and nearly a third have seriously considered suicide. Why is this happening, and why did it start so suddenly around 2012? There is one giant, obvious, international, and gendered cause: Social media. Instagram was founded in 2010. The iPhone 4 was released then too—the first smartphone with a front-facing camera. In 2012 Facebook bought Instagram, and that’s the year that its user base exploded. By 2015, it was becoming normal for 12-year-old girls to spend hours each day taking selfies, editing selfies, and posting them for friends, enemies, and strangers to comment on, while also spending hours each day scrolling through photos of other girls and fabulously wealthy female celebrities with (seemingly) vastly superior bodies and lives. The hours girls spent each day on Instagram were taken from sleep, exercise, and time with friends and family. What did we think would happen to them?" (Haight, 2013, link here).

The trends are similar among boys, but it is not social media that is impacting them, it is video games. "The prevalence of video game addiction [among boys is] 62.1%. Independent risk factors of video game addiction included being young in age, playing video games every day, playing more than three hours per day, and playing multiplayer games. Furthermore, our findings suggest that a higher video game addiction score is correlated with higher scores in inattention, anxiety, and depression" (Alkhonain, et al., 2023, link here). Even more frightening is the trend in self harm, "Since 2010, suicide rates have risen by 34% for younger men" (Reeves & Secker, 2023, link here).

Among the physical concerns most have focused around increases in obesity among teens, but in October the World Health Organization reported that myopia (nearsightedness) is at a critical level among teens, with over 30% of children under 18 now being diagnosed as being nearsighted (see article here). They predict that over half the world's population will be nearsighted by 2050.  What could be causing such a sharp increase in such a short period of time? Experts believe its caused by the close viewing of screens like cell phones and tablets.  Optometrists are now "prescribing" a 20-20-20 strategy to combat the effects of  all the phone screen time to which we are exposed.  For every 20 minutes of cell phone use, you should spend 20 seconds (preferably outside) focusing your gaze at least 20 feet in the distance (Fry, 2023, see more here).  This is how we can fight the physical changes caused by overuse of our small screens.  The problem for teens is they are also being targeted and hooked into addictive social media platforms like tic-tok, snapchat, and YouTube.

What can we do? I refuse to throw up my hands and give into these huge outside forces.  We can fight this one small act at a time. At HKMS we have a school wide ban on the use of cell phones, social media, and video games.  We confiscate phones, block social media and games, and teach students the dangers of overindulging in these addictive forms of "entertainment."   One of our teachers said to me, "Someday we will look back on cell phones and social media as the cigarettes of this generation."  It took a lot longer than we may remember to ban smoking in public places. I hope we can do better with these additive forms of media. I want the precious seven hours at school to be sacred and protected with as much human-to-human interaction, play, and care that we can incorporate.  I want to explore how we can minimize the use of chromebooks, while still giving students the exposure and practice they need to thrive in our digital world.  It is not just a school problem, we also have to fight the convenience, comfort, and distraction these devices and media offer. At my home, my 11 year old has to deal with strict screen limits, not having phone until she's about 37, and no social media.  She claims she is missing out, and I am a bad father for limiting her access to friends ("you're the worst dad ever," has come out more than once...sigh). But if it means I can extend her childhood for a few more years, then so be it. I wear the badge proudly and encourage you to do the same.  

Stepping off my soapbox now and encouraging you to check out the rest of this newsletter which is chock full of (mostly) screen-free learning and tons of middle school joy, generosity, and even a tiger! 

Hoping you all have a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Steven Clapp, Ed.D.

Mrs. Burke's ILA Classes were using our beautiful library to tell speed stories to get to know each other and get the ideas flowing for their personal narratives.  This is a double circle formation.  Every few minutes a chime sounded and students in the center circle rotated one seat to the right.  

Grade 7

Grade 8

For the next few weeks students in grade 8 math will focus on simplifying expressions and solving one, two, and multi-step equations.  To start this unit, students will be taking notes independently from a textbook.  Note taking is a valuable skill that encourages students to organize and understand information.  Some of the concepts students are learning about this week include:  combining like terms, coefficients, constants, and deductive reasoning.   

FPAs

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