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One little mistake can be posted on social media and completely change your life.
Our parents and their generation didn't have that experience.
So we need to kind of figure that out for ourselves and figure out how to manage that in a healthy way and in a positive way.
That's 16-year-old Samantha from the San Francisco Bay Area, who's involved with a group called Digital for Good, where kids help other kids figure out how to use social media in a good way and avoid the negative pitfalls.
Thank you so much for joining us, Samantha.
It's great to have you with us.
Thank you so much for having me.
So can you tell us what exactly is digital for good?
So Digital for Good is a nonprofit that's all about promoting digital safety and citizenship, especially to youth.
We have a huge target of education, so students and parents, teachers, staff.
It's all about educating and bringing awareness to social media, both the good side and the bad side.
Yeah, and there is definitely a good side and a bad side for sure.
Why did you get involved?
So I got involved when I was in eighth grade.
My teacher went to a leadership conference and he heard about it and he recommended that I apply for this random internship.
I applied to be on the program and events team and I got on and I loved it.
So in my middle school journey because I think middle school is definitely a weird phase for many people I saw online bullying all the time or just people misusing social media to spread a lot of negativity.
So I think it was really once I joined the organization that I started talking about those things and started realizing that those things weren't OK.
So I just got really, I got really moved by that, the story and the purpose of what we're trying to help students figure out, which is how to navigate social media, because a lot of people don't know.
And what's the best kind of advice that you would give to somebody who might be experiencing negative bullying online?
In my experience, when people my friends, me experience going online, there's always a reason that is completely not related to you.
It is online.
They're not, it's not face to face.
It's easy to be hateful when people are insecure in their own ways.
People are going through their own Thank you so much.
I encourage talking to an adult.
Yeah.
And parents are certainly an option.
But you know, hopefully there's some other adults you know, maybe a grandparent, maybe a cousin, maybe a coach or something like that, or a teacher.
Teachers and coaches are a great resource, especially because, trust me, it's not the first time someone's come to them with something online.
Like it is Very, very common.
So I think you just have to realize that you can't let it, you can't take it personally.
You can't.
You have to figure out how to say wow, this is the bad side of social media and I need to step away from that.
Very good advice.
So what, what is your role at Digital for Good?
Yeah, so now I'm the lead annual program and events intern.
So I host a Students for Good webinar every month, which is I bring students from around the world that have started their own nonprofit or they start any kind of podcast positivity social media platform.
I reach out to them and, along with my team, and we have a webinar where they get to share their story and we get to share their platform on ours.
And when I was looking at the Digital for Good website, it sounds like you have programs and curricula for students, but also for parents and for teachers.
And some is paid, but you also have some free resources as well.
Is there anything that you find is particularly helpful for students out of the resources that you have?
Yeah, so number one, all of our events are free.
So attending the Students for Good webinar.
I actually think that is a great platform for students because you get really inspired.
I've met a lot of really interesting people.
But then all of the curriculums I find are really helpful.
The ones that actually stick out to me aren't for the students, they're for the parents, because the parents have a really direct impact on how kids view social media, how kids use social media, whether they even have it or not.
So I actually encourage parents to look into those curriculums.
They're really impactful.
And also for teachers as well, because I believe there's some resources about phone free classrooms, which I had a did a convos on about six months ago with the Wall Street Journal reporter.
And that does seem to be a growing trend.
So do you have classrooms without phones in your school?
Yeah, we do have a no phone policy.
I know that some of my, some neighboring schools not in our district have like the lock boxes and things like that.
We don't do that.
We're just a no phones on campus.
It's actually very beautiful to see a campus where students aren't on their phone during lunch and people are back to playing hacky sack in Varsity Lane.
And I think it's actually been really, really positive at our school.
I mean, that's wonderful to hear.
And yeah, Hacky Sack, I certainly remember those days.
Yes.
That was a while ago.
We're going to take a quick break.
When we come back, the reaction Samantha hears when she tells her classmates about this effort and why it's so important for kids to be working with other kids on this issue.
We'll be back with more Kid News Convos right after this.
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And we're back with Kid News Convos.
I'm Tori talking with Samantha, a 16-year-old from the San Francisco Bay Area who's an intern leader at Digital for Good.
When you talk to other your classmates about this concept of digital for good and being able to be positive, what kind of response do you get?
I get a lot of like wow yes, that's awesome, because I think many, many students high school, middle school have experienced negativity online, have experienced some kind of bullying or, in my case, just witness people around them experience that.
So I get a lot of, wow, that's so cool.
I'd love to be involved and things like that.
I'm really honored to have presented to the leadership class my original teacher that got me to apply.
I presented to that class twice, so now one of one of the freshmen at my school who I love her, she's great, she's on my team this year because she was really inspired and wanted to join.
And how important is it for students to get involved in this effort versus having adults telling you how to handle social media?
Well, because we don't want to listen to adults all the time, do we?
Like, here's the deal.
Even parents that are strictly no social media know this.
Students are still exposed to it one way or another.
They see their friends exposed to it or they sneak it.
But We all have our own unique experiences, and parents, the older generation, didn't have the same experience that we're having now.
They didn't live through a high school life where everything is about your image online or whatever.
You know when you're going to play a basketball game in high school.
Now, like it's been posted all over social media,
There's little beefs like in rivalries going on that is all screenshotted and sent everywhere.
One little mistake can be posted on social media and completely change your life.
The older, like our parents and their generation didn't have that experience.
So I think it's really hard for a lot of teachers staff, parents to really truly understand why we are so involved online, why we're so hooked.
So we need to kind of figure that out for ourselves and figure out how to manage that in a healthy way and in a positive way.
Did you follow the trial at all?
You know, the one with Instagram and YouTube and the now 20 year old young woman who had sued for causing major mental stress and basically becoming addicted to social media.
Yeah, it's crazy.
It's.
It's really complicated, but it definitely shows you know how much being a part and having organizations like this and we got to start young is really important.
Cause a lot of like, we don't know how to navigate.
This is a whole new world.
Like we don't know how to navigate it.
And I'm not, I don't want to say all social media is bad.
There is a good side, but it's really hard, especially for young people to find that.
And the good, I assume, would be connecting and keeping in touch with friends.
So networking.
When I do my students for good, all of those amazing youth that I meet, that I find for these events.
I find them all through social media.
LinkedIn is a great social media platform for those that are trying to network with people, get into the corporate world.
So I mean there's pros and cons and it's just a matter of being able to focus on the pros and minimize the cons, the negative side.
Yes.
And we can't expect students to do that without any guidance or any resources.
Right.
Yeah.
So as far as the opportunity for other kids to get involved, how would they do that?
So I highly recommend our student internship program.
It is huge.
We have our annual side and our seasonal side, and our annual side is all about high school and middle school students.
So we have many, many positions, many teams for interns.
I know I mentioned the program and events team, but we have marketing videography, graphic design, all these different things.
So if you're, if students are interested, I highly recommend going to our website and looking at those.
For high school and middle school, look at the annual internships.
I think I've really grown as a human from those.
And we focus a lot on developing skills outside of just digital for good.
I've developed how to network, how to public speak.
And there's a lot of opportunities that come from the internship program.
So I'd highly recommend.
As far as getting people involved, how would people get more information?
Yeah, so go to our website and digital for good hashtag I can help.
We also have an Instagram.
Our Instagram has been growing very steadily.
So we always have posts every week, stories up every day, a lot of like inspirational things, resources that we post directly on our Instagram, you know, to stay connected, stay involved.
Absolutely.
Well, this has been terrific.
I've really enjoyed this and I've learned a lot and I hope other people will learn as well.
And I wish you all the best, Samantha.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for having me.
And thank you for listening to Kid News Convos.
If you have any comments or feedback on this episode, please drop us a comment at wehearyouatkidnewsorg.
We hope you have a great day and remember to tune into our regular Kid News episodes every weekday morning.
