CHS counselors Kelly Maveal and Brian Williams both express concern about the effects of social media over time and how they will impact students and our community in the long term.

“I feel our world is so much bigger and more fast-paced as a result of social media,” Williams said. “It’s helpful, but it can also be dangerous in terms of how it overwhelms us.”

Williams believes that students can be easily sucked into the addictive cycle of constantly scrolling on their devices for hours on end — which can negatively impact their mental and physical health.

“I feel like social media, phones, and screens, in general, can be like the [antithesis] to mindfulness and being present,” CHS counselor Kelly Maveal said.

Social media can normalize unhealthy habits. Williams points out that just having your phone next to you can produce anxiety.

“Social media [can] feed into addictive habits like waiting to hear that notification sound so you can check it and respond right away,” Williams said.

As the students of CHS reacclimate to in-person school, it can be hard to form connections as they used to. Maveal encourages students to try out a new club or sport that they haven’t done before. Though students may not connect with these new groups of people, Maveal believes that students can balance the effects of their social media use by filling their time with hobbies that don’t involve constant technology use.

A big part of healthy social media use is being aware of when you turn to social media, according to Maveal. If you’re going to it because you’re bored, try another activity you enjoy that doesn’t involve screens instead.

Maveal draws benefit from exposure to diverse voices and different perspectives than her own that she finds on social media, but she knows that intentionality is key: unfollowing the people that don’t deserve your time are a way to curate your social media so that there is value in each scroll.

“We’re too early on to know how [social media] is going to impact us in the long term,” Maveal said. But I think we’re both expressing that we’re concerned about it.”