Recent data indicates that students are severely over-consumed by social media, as research shows that 70% of students use these sites longer than two hours per day (Nesi et al., 2019). Overall, aggregate screen-time has gotten worse for adolescents as youths now access technology for more extended periods (over five hours of use per day), at least 10% more than in 2019 (Boak et al., 2021). As adolescents navigate the digital age, they must focus on limiting their overall screen-time, even when screens are being used for education.  It is recommended that adolescents create a screen-time schedule detailing how and when they will use social media. 

When adolescents build their own screen-time schedule, or with the help of their parents, they will ensure they are taking into account only their recreational screen-time. When crafting this schedule, youths should be encouraged to break down each social media site through time limits that aggregate to less than two hours per day. For example, this may include limiting Instagram use to ninety minutes per day, TikTok use to thirty minutes per day, Discord use to 45 minutes per day, and YouTube use to 45 minutes per day. Although these numbers may seem high, it is important to remember that each social media site offers youths different benefits. Place individual importance on social media sites that foster communication and connections that are best for you or your child.  

As adolescents work on creating screen-time schedules, it is also crucial for educators to develop schedules for their classes. Understandably, sometimes, technology use in the classroom cannot be avoided. When this is the case, educators should prioritize denoting specific lessons to be screen-free in favour of traditional pencil-and-paper learning. Research shows that combining digital education with standard pencil-and-paper learning still produces incredible results (Deng et al., 2020) as students still interact with their peers and learn. 

Adolescents, educators, and parents can also treat screen-time as a reward that can be achieved by completing specific milestones. As youths accomplish these milestones, they will earn time towards recreational screen-time use. For example, if adolescents have completed their household chores, they may be awarded ten minutes for screen-time. In the classroom setting, encourage the entire class to complete their homework or assignments and reward them with digital quizzes that everyone can play together (e.g., Kahoot! or Menti.com). Encouraging adolescents to bundle their screen-time with valuable activities and awarding youths with screen-time all play an essential part in creating screen-time schedules that limit recreational screen-time use to less than two hours per day. 

Establishing zones at home and at school that are completely screen free can be helpful for adolescents to decrease their overall screen-time and time spent on social media. The ease of pulling a phone out during boredom in class or when attention may be fading can increase as youths constantly have access to their phones. With constant access of phones and other screens there is the possibility that youths will use social media during class time. Helping youths learn how to properly include screen time in their daily routine while encouraging them to practice digital wellness can increase their mental health as they form positive habits surrounding screen time (Toombs et al., 2022). 

Encouraging your children to have screen free zones at home can drastically increase their ability to communicate and form deeper family connections (Toombs et al., 2022).  Examples of how parents can implement screen free zones including turning televisions off and ensuring that everyone does not have their phones out to avoid using them to check social media during family dinner time; the dinner table may be a screen free zone. Another example may include ensuring everyone turns their cellphones off during family time to ensure everyone is present for face-to-face interactions. 

Speaking specifically to class time, teachers should enforce the classroom as a screen free zone and only allow students to use their screens when they are requested to or if students need screens for accommodations. Educators can encourage students to keep the classroom as a completely screen free zone. During this time students can experience increased social interaction that in turn helps them to emphasize learning and socialization rather than social media use (Toombs et al., 2022). The overall goal for teachers with their students should be to encourage their digital wellness through less social media time and enforcing screen free zones within the classroom. 

For educators and policymakers understanding how to incorporate social media in the classroom for the benefit of adolescent education and mental health should be of paramount importance as we all navigate the digital age. This research review has shown that YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Discord can all be used to leverage academic performance outcome for adolescents. Following the data extracted for this literature review, we recommend that educators, policymakers, and other professionals incorporate social media platforms as supplementary to traditional classroom lessons. 

Adopting technology into the classroom is not meant to completely replace traditional pencil and paper learning. Rather, we recommend that combining traditional paper-and-pencil learning with digital learning through social media together to create a barrier-free learning experience for students. Social media sites, when combined with traditional pencil-and-paper learning have the ability to increase positive learning outcomes for adolescents (Deng et al., 2020). Learning to leverage social media to increase education outcomes can be an effective tool for adolescents as they value choice and self-expression during this critical developmental stage (Vaingankar et al., 2022). 

Introducing social media into the classroom can look different depending on the subject matter being taught in the class. An example of how to incorporate social media into English classes can include investigating social media account posts, such as those made on Instagram, to look for grammatical and sentence structure errors in communication. This could be done following a lesson on communication methods. Another example of including social media as a supplementary education tool is to establish private class pages and channels, whether across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or Discord, students can be provided with their in-class learning materials as well as with other channels and pages that provide important lessons for students that may be struggling. For example, educators could link the social media accounts for programs such as Khan Academy, TedEd, and Crash Course which are available across all social media platforms identified in this review. 

The goal of incorporating social media into the modern classroom should be solely to supplement learning and academic achievement by providing adolescents with different ways to express themselves and establish difficulties while learning. This literature review has highlighted the different and specific ways that YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Discord can be used to increase academic performance when used as a supplementary education tool. 

As adolescents grow and experience life, learning, and growth in the digital age it is understandable that screens cannot be completely ignored, nor should they be. The focus for adolescents and their educators or parents should be to learn how to use social media to encourage meaningful screentime while establishing the importance of fostering appropriate connections. Leveraging social media use for increased mental health and academic performance outcomes involves using YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Discord as tools that provide meaning to our interactions. 

By ensuring that social media apps prioritize screen activities that are educational, active, or social rather than experiences that are passive (i.e., mindlessly scrolling for periods of time on social media), adolescents can be taught that to prioritize face-to-face interaction while still using social media (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2022). Encouraging meaningful screentime and appropriate connections online centres around a few key principles which can be adapted depending on the social media site as well as the reason that adolescents are using each social media site. 

The general principles include: 

(1) Only interacting with people you know well and see face-to-face. 

This may include people adolescents do not see every day, though the most important factor is that adolescents know these people. Rather than knowing of these people like how they would for celebrities and other distant people. Encouraging adolescents to only interact with people they know across social media can increase feelings of connectivity (Erarslan, 2019), which are critical for this age-group as they develop their sense of self and are validiated online by the pages and people they interact with (Vaingankar et al., 2019). 

If adolescents feel the need to connect with distant connections and celebrities, they should ensure that these people are posting age-appropriate content that will benefit the adolescent's social media experience. 

(2) Engage in meaningful screen-time activities and set boundaries. 

Creating meaningful screen-time activities includes ensuring that adolescents limit their time to less than two hours per day as recommended by researchers (Nesi et al., 2019). Setting individual app limitations for total time on the app are critical. Adolescents should also be encouraged to create interactions within their social media ecosystems that will benefit their long term goals within education, personal achievements, and mental health. Encouraging positive social interactions on social media apps should be a main priority for adolescents.