Media Literacy for Teens

First, let’s start with what media literacy is—media literacy is the ability to identify different types of media and to understand what message is being communicated. Traditionally, we have thought about media literacy in terms of mediums such as newspapers, magazines, television, and movies.

There are ample opportunities for you as a parent to work in conversations about media literacy more generally including:

• After watching a TV program or discussing articles in the daily paper
• When your teen shares something they saw on social media
• When there is a “hot topic” in the media that may be controversial
• After listening to a podcast

Regardless of the type of media your teen consumes, it’s important to foster a mindset in our teens that all media requires critical thinking.

Social media literacy is the ability to identify different types of social media and understand the messages being communicated. Improving media literacy can make your teen become a wiser consumer of media and to be more responsible producers of their own social media content. Teens take in a huge amount of information from a variety of sources on social media including friends, peers, influencers, and advertisers. But all social media share one thing: Someone created it and it was created for a reason.

The digital age has made it easy for anyone to create and share media. We don’t always know who created something, why they made it, and whether it’s credible. This makes social media literacy is an essential skill in the digital age. Understanding the who and why is the basis of media literacy. In order for teens to become engaged and informed social media users, they need to become critical thinkers and active creators of content rather than passive consumers of online content.

Although the tips and strategies we will go into detail about are geared toward social media literacy, many of them can potentially be applied to these other forms of media. We encourage you to practice teaching your teens social media across a variety of platforms so that the concepts have a greater chance of being integrated into your teen’s daily life. The more opportunities your teen has to reinforce these concepts, the more likely they are to use them in everyday life.

Below are several reasons that teaching your teen social media literacy is so important. By focusing on each of the following outcomes, you can help shape how and when social media influences your teen.

Social media literacy helps teens….

• Learn to think critically. As teens evaluate social media, they decide whether the messages make sense, why certain information was included (or not), and what the key ideas are. Teens then can make up their own minds about the information based on knowledge they already have.
• Become a smarter consumer of social media. Social media literacy helps teens learn how to determine whether something is credible. It also helps them determine the “persuasive intent” of social media content and resist the techniques marketers (or their peers) use to sell products, information, or images.
• Recognize point of view. Identifying a social media creator’s point of view can help teens appreciate different perspectives.
• Understand the creator’s goal. What does the creator want you to take away from a piece of social media? Is it informative? Is it trying to change your mind or sway you one way or another? Is it introducing you to new ideas you’ve never heard of? Why might someone want you to learn about this new information? Is it to convince you to change your behavior? When teens can ask these sorts of questions, it better helps them understand what type of influence something has, which in turn allows them to make more informed choices about the social media content they view or engage with.
• Identify the role of social media in our lives. Whether it’s friends sharing certain images and stories or celebrity influencers promoting certain products, social media shapes our understanding of the world and can even lead to us acting or thinking in certain ways that we might not otherwise. Understanding the way that social media shapes our attitudes and beliefs will help your teen better determine how social media plays a role in their own life and the lives of those around them.
• Create social media content responsibly. Finally, by becoming savvier consumers of social media, teens are likely to be more aware of the potential impacts of their own social media behavior. Specifically, being able to recognize your own point of view, say what you want to say how you want to say it, and understanding that your messages have an impact is key to effective communication. These skills are likely to make them not only more critical consumers of social media but also make them more critical sharers of content.

At the core of social media literacy is teaching your teen to ask questions. By teaching them to be critical thinkers, you will give them skills they need when navigating an increasingly digital world. Social media literacy has the potential to teach them how to analyze and evaluate the messages they are receiving, become aware of issues like bias and credibility, and become a more cautious and critical consumer of all forms of media. The more you can encourage them to ask questions and practice doing so with them, the better. These conversations are not about parents telling teens what is “right” or “wrong”, but rather should be about teaching teens to ask questions in a way that will allow them to come to their own conclusions.

So how can a parent introduce the habit of questioning media to your teen? Similar to how we spoke about conversations in Module 1, start simple and positive and find ways to ask questions in normal conversation. Teaching kids media literacy as a sit-down lesson is not very effective; it is better incorporated into everyday activities and conversations. Potential opportunities might include when your teen has shared something funny they saw on social media, or perhaps you can share with them something that you viewed that caught your attention. Or maybe there is a current event that might lend itself naturally to these conversations. Instead of thinking about these media literacy conversations as a one-and-done situation, consider having several smaller conversations during these potential windows of opportunity.

Here are some general questions you can ask to help guide conversations about social media literacy with your teen. These may be useful when looking at specific content on their social media newsfeeds or profiles that other people have shared.

• Who created this?
• Why did they make it?
• Who is the content for?
• What details were left out, and why?
• Who might benefit from this content?
• Who might be harmed by this content?
• How did the content make you feel?
• How might different people interpret this content?

Some potential questions might include:

• How do you know these people?
• Why do you think they shared these videos?
• Who do you think they hoped would see these videos, and why?
• What message do you think they hoped to send when posting these videos?
• What details were left out, and why? Who might be harmed by these videos, and why?
• How did seeing these videos make you feel? 
• How might different people respond to these videos?

Some potential questions might include:

• Why do you think this celebrity shared this picture?
• How might the celebrity benefit from sharing this picture?
• Who do you think they hoped would see this picture, and why?
• What message do you think they hoped to send when posting this picture?
• What details were left out, and why?
• Who might be harmed by this picture, and why?
• How did seeing this picture make you feel?
• How might different people respond to this picture?

Once your teen understands the basic concepts and questions to ask when viewing content on social media, they can apply it to their own posting or sharing behavior on social media. Some teens may find it useful to ask themselves some questions while they are considering posting and/or before they share something on social media.

• Why am I sharing this content?
• Who am I hoping sees my content?
• What message am I trying to send?
• How might this post make me feel?
• How might it make others feel?
• How does this post represent me as a person?
• How would I feel if this content was shared with others I know? Or people I don’t know?
• What might someone viewing this content think about me?
• What would happen if I didn’t share this content?

Now that you have some more information on tips, strategies, and potential questions to start these teachable moments about social media literacy, think about how you can practice these skills. What opportunities in your family’s lives might be ideal for having these conversations? We suggest that whenever you are watching, listening, or discussing any type of media with your teen, you use these opportunities to practice answering some of the questions above. Remember, media literacy is a skill that grows over time, so the more opportunities to practice, the better equipped your teen will be.