The Impact of Social Media on Children and Youth (Part 1)

Interesting starting point to discuss the impact of social media on children and youth. Looking forward to read the next parts.

Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Fear of new technologies influencing children and youth has a long history. From comic books in the 1930s to television in the 1950s to computers in the 1980s and now social media in the 2020s, many parents, teachers, and pundits railed against the negative influences of these new media upon children’s. This multi-part series deal with the forerunners of the present concern over social media shaping children’s minds and actions.

Consider the popularity of comic books between the late-1930s through the mid-1950s.

According to some researchers, the 1930s and 1940s were the “Golden Age” of comic books. Well before television entered American homes, comic books were immensely popular with the young, especially boys. For example, in 1945 “the Market Research Company of America found that about 70 million Americans, roughly half of the U.S. population, read
comic books.”