Social Media, Technology & Adolescent Wellbeing

Social Media, Technology & Adolescent Wellbeing

With Samia Quddus – MBACP, PGDip, PGCert, BA (Hons) with QTS

Dual Fully Qualified Therapist & Primary School Teacher

A workshop for parents, carers, teachers, youth workers and anyone over 18 working with young people.

Social media has evolved from a ‘pretty’ picture sharing platform to becoming a place for almost everything influencing what we eat, how we dress, where we travel, knowledge we seek and so much more. For teenagers, social media can be a useful platform to connect with peers and seek information about issues they may struggle discussing with others. For parents, the platform may pose multiple concerns particularly related to ‘hidden harms’ unbeknown to their adolescent children.

This presentation will aim to look at social media and its evolution as ‘new media’ and its impact on how we engage with the platform focusing on our emotional health. Activities will encourage the development of emotional literacy and positive adult-child/ teenager connection and attachment drawing on neuroscience, child development theory and aspects of Islamic psychology.

We will explore: How does screen time impact adolescent wellbeing? When is social media harmful for adolescents? How do brain changes influence adolescent development? What role does the environment have during adolescence? Does social media change the way adolescents relate to others and the self? As adults how can we promote and instil healthy digital self-care habits in our teenagers?

About Samia Quddus:

A fully qualified specialist child and adolescent psychotherapist, author, published BACP writer, primary and secondary school clinician and mental health expert on Islam Channel. Samia has taught as a primary school teacher for over 15 years specialising in the special educational needs area of social, emotional and mental health before embarking on psychotherapy training in 2017.