Parents, Can You Define Social Media?
A Driver’s Training for Social Media Story
Ask the average person to define social media and it’s likely the answer will be an app where you can share and view posts from users across the world. TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Linkedin, X, Pinterest, or Snapchat would first come to mind. That answer would of course be correct, but incomplete. Let me explain.
A few years ago we made the leap into Minecraft. The boys started to get into mods and asked about making custom skins online. They showed me how it worked on a website called Planet Minecraft where they could create and download skins from others across the web.
Upon further inspection, however, it surprised me to discover that Planet Minecraft also had a “My Feed”… and wall posts… and messaging… and groups… all with over five million members. Other than having a much smaller user base and a clunky interface, it had much of the same functionality as the big eight.
That experience was part of many reasons that led us to create Driver’s Training for Social Media. In the online course we lay out a definition that broadens the social media roster beyond the big eight we know:
Social media is ALL types of user interaction supported by a website, video host, game, chat service, email provider, app, forum or blog platform.
Minecraft? Social media. Planet Minecraft? Social media. Bleacher Report? Social media. We can even throw in Venmo. As we’ve written before, your Venmo transactions are public by default.
Understanding social media this way is crucial for parents as we try to protect our kids and teens. It would have been easy for me to overlook Planet Minecraft because my boys weren’t on Instagram or TikTok or Snapchat. But it would have been a website that had far less safety features than the latter three.
A friend shared a Facebook post a couple weeks ago from a mom whose 12 year old daughter was pursued by an online predator. The connection point? A video editing app. The app itself wasn’t named in the post, but in the hundreds of comments below the post I found other parents echoing similar scenarios through apps like CapCut and VSCO. Just a few months ago I wouldn’t even have considered either of those social media, but here we are.
Expanding the scope also helps all of us (no matter what age) recognize attention-driven design outside of the big eight. You’ll find some of the same tricks on Brawl Stars as you would on Facebook. Social media’s main goal? Keeping us glued to screens. And spotting them online is key to taking back the driver’s seat.
Driver’s Training for Social Media is accessible to “Behind the Curtains” annual subscribers. What’s included in the online course?
Four Modules with Twelve Videos
Reflection/Discussion Questions
Action Ideas and Additional Links and Resources
Printable Companion Guide with a Screen Time Tracker, Case Study Activity, and Media Plan.