Youth on Social Media

Building on the previous Youth Rendering that talked about Adolescent and Cell phone use, this rendering examines social media use among Adolescents. As previously discussed, a large majority of adolescents today have access to a smartphone, a device that can be a distraction or a useful tool in the classroom. However, it is important to note that because of the capabilities of a smart phone and the ever growing presence of the internet in the world today, adolescents will have access to social media programs such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. In fact, a study done in 2015 finds that an average teenager spends about 27 hours online a week, and one and a half hours on social media on one day (McGillivray). Like cell phones, social media does have its pros and cons, even in educational purposes. The most obvious con would be it provides another distraction for students in the classroom, where students become disengaged from learning if they are on their phones and consuming social media, which in the long run can negatively affect the grades of the student. Furthermore, social media use can help lead to risk taking behaviour, since it gives the adolescent access to the internet and social media of other people, including those that give off negative influences and encourage risk taking such as smoking, drinking, etc. However, the same study notes that social media can also be used positively in classrooms, not only to help students study and prepare for tests, through engaging games and challenges, but also can help create a digital classroom, where the teacher can share material online for students to use (McGillivray),  with a good example of this being the York University Moodle. At the end of the day, it would come down to the educator to determine the policies of social media, and in my opinion, just like how cell phones can be put to good use in engaging the learners, so can social media, especially if it helps the adolescent discover positive influences that help minimize risks and broaden their perspectives on inclusivity, being caring and respectful of others.

Works Cited List

McGillivray, Nick. “What Are the Effects of Social Media on Youth?” TurboFuture, TurboFuture, 12 Oct. 2015, turbofuture.com/internet/effects-of-social-media-on-our-youth.

About Me

My name is Alexandre Stakhanov, and I am a Teacher Candidate at York University. I have graduated from York for History and English, and I aspire to become a secondary school teacher. I plan to effectively engage learners using new methods of pedagogy that I learned from the Teacher's college program at York University, and using my historical backgrounds, will make my classes a safe, inclusionary and fun environment for all my students. I also have extensive knowledge of technology and computers, and plan to incorporate cell phone and computer use in my classroom lessons, which will turn them from being a detrimental distraction into a useful learning tool.
This blog here is designed for adolescent development and includes useful articles and links that can help deal with adolescent problems, such as Peer Pressure, and in more extreme cases Youth Homelessness, and how to combat it. In addition, it includes lesson plans, my teaching philosophy and standards of practice.
I hope you enjoy your stay
Alex S

Youth and Risk Taking Article Analysis

In the Article "Towards a More Sociological Understanding of Youth and their Risk-Taking," there is an interesting section that tries to explain why some Youth are more prone to taking risks than others. The paragraph goes on to explain that risk taking and problematic behavior is based on biographical and social-psychological factors, including personality, beliefs and influence from peers, friends and other people (France 320).  This part explains that youths can engage in risky activities due to peer pressure, which is one of the most common causes of risk taking, and social factors such as wealth status, and class, and finally also factors based on personality, such as having an addictive personality, or being under constant stress, and needing a way to relieve that. The paragraph also goes on to state that risk taking influences primarily come from the person's peer group such as friends, colleagues, classmates, and their parents. In this case, in order to target and minimize risks and minimize the influence of the peer group in regards to risk taking, there are preventative measures that can be taken. For example, the Kids Health website suggest being firm and giving a firm "no" when faced with a situation where a group is peer pressuring the target in order to get them to partake in risk taking activities, such as smoking (Lyness). The beginning part of the paragraph builds on the theories proposed in the previous. It states that there are five behaviors or influences that pre-dispose adolescents into taking risks, with these being school failures, indifferent family environments, peer pressure, needing to prove oneself, and families that encourage negative behaviors (such as drinking, smoking, etc) (France 321). Some of these influences can be faced in schools, with the assistance of teachers, such as peer pressure and school failure, however there are influences that relate to the adolescent's family, and as a teacher are much harder to combat, since they require substantial parental input and support. Therefore, in order to combat negative influences that lead to risk taking behaviors, solutions must be double ended, and have to extend from the home to the school, as minimize the chances of the adolescent engaging in risk taking behaviours. For if such adolescents end up engaging in risk taking, such as smoking, drinking, drugs, etc. it can lead to a larger array of problems that range from substance addiction, to failing grades, to dropping out, and in worse cases, homelessness.

Works Cited List

“Dealing With Peer Pressure.” Edited by D'Arcy Lyness, KidsHealth, The Nemours Foundation, July 2015, kidshealth.org/en/kids/peer-pressure.html#.

France, A. (2000) “Towards a Sociological Understanding of Youth and their Risk-taking”, Journal of Youth Studies, 3:3, 317-331

Cellular phone use by Adolescents

Adolescents on their phones during class time

This rendering of Youth culture is one that is familiar to teachers and students alike. At first glance this picture shows several of the students are on their cell phones during class time, distracting themselves from class work and learning. In our modern world today, a recent study from 2015 showed that 88% of adolescents have access to a cellphone of some type, and 73% of them have a smartphone (Lenhart).  This means that most adolescent students in class will have some kind of cell phone, and I can personally observe this in my practicum classes as well, where almost every student has a smartphone of some kind with them. While it is true that cell phones can cause distractions in class, especially if it is uncontrolled or unsupervised phone use, cell phones and new technologies have their use in the classroom, and can actually be beneficial to learning. For example, a phone (or a computer) can be a useful learning tool for in class test review, where the students can use it to participate in a game of Kahoot!, which is a program that actually requires a computer or a cellular device in order to answer questions and get points (where the questions can be made by the teacher and is related to class material). In short, while unregulated use of cell phones in the classroom can be destructive to learning, completely banning their use is also the wrong way to go. Instead, teachers and educators need to find ways to incorporate this technology into their classroom, so that instead of being a detriment, it can be a useful tool to advance meaningful learning.

Works Cited list

Lenhart, Amanda. “A Majority of American Teens Report Access to a Computer, Game Console, Smartphone and a Tablet.” Pew Research Center for Internet and Technology, Pew Research Center, 9 Apr. 2015, www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/a-majority-of-american-teens-report-access-to-a-computer-game-console-smartphone-and-a-tablet/.

Youth Homelessness in Canada - Reading Analysis

In contemporary Society, homelessness is a major problem facing Youth in Canada, especially those that live in major cities like Toronto. As I walk down Queen Street to get to work, I see a  large amount of homeless people engaged in panhandling and begging, with a large amount of them looking less than 25 years of age. According to Covenant House Canada, there are up to seven thousand homeless youth in Canada on any given night (Covenant House), with a large majority of these people being found in cities and urban centers. These youth are not only homeless, but also unemployed, with panhandling and asking for handouts being their main source of income. In the article Youth Homelessness in Canada, the author addresses this lack of traditional jobs, where the income of Homeless Youth come from non traditional jobs, such as squeegeeing, panhandling and criminal activity (Gaetz and O'Grady 247). This part of the article directly correlates to what is seen on the streets, especially downtown or more urban than suburban areas. The article also goes on to explain the informal economic activities that homeless Youth engage in depend on a variety of factors, such as when they left home, their education level, and any addictions or any physical or mental disabilities (Gaetz and O'Grady 247), with those worse off engaging in more quasi legal activities such as prostitution and criminal activities.
In order to combat this problem, proactive measures need to be taken to minimize the amount of homeless youth found in Canada. For starters, cities need to increase the amount of Youth shelters available for those without a home, in order to give those on the streets to stay for the night. However, emergency response measures such as this is only the first step solution, and as Professor Gaetz pointed out in the lecture, steps must be taken in order to combat Youth Homelessness through prevention, and better supports for those already on the streets. In addition, programs have to be set up by government agencies that would focus on providing legitimate and legal jobs for Youth that found themselves on the streets, since that would provide them with a more stable source of income than informal societal methods such as panhandling. Even if only Toronto would manage to invest money in more support for homeless Youth and by helping provide them with jobs, it would not only greatly decrease the amount of homeless in Toronto, but in Canada as a whole.

Works Citied List

Gaetz, Stephen & O’Grady, Bill (2013) “Why Don’t You Just Get a Job? Homeless Youth, Social Exclusion and Employment Training” in Gaetz, S., O’Grady, B., Buccieri, K., Karabanow, J., & Marsolais, A. (Eds.) (2013), Youth homelessness in Canada.

“Facts and Stats.” Covenant House, Covenant House Toronto, 2017, www.covenanthousetoronto.ca/homeless-youth/facts-and-stats.

Youth Rendering 1 - Youth Poverty

Child Workers from a Coal Mine. 19th Century

While this rendering is from the 19th century, the message of the image is pretty clear. During the 19th century, these children were forced to work in mine shafts, mining coal and other minerals for large corporations, in a futile attempt to lift themselves up from their poverty stricken lives. 

In our modern day, while children and adolescents no longer work in coal mines or in depraved conditions, the issue of adolescents growing up in impoverished situations remains. In 2008 alone, roughly 14 million children in America live in families that are living below the poverty line (Murry 114). For all the progression and advances that were made in the 20th and 21st centuries, that is an alarmingly large number of children that still remain below the poverty level. However, as Murry notes, one key difference in impoverished families in the 19th and early 20th century and the present day, is that African-American and Latino adolescents have higher odds of residing in impoverished neighborhoods than white youth do (Murry 114).While in the previous century the issues of adolescent poverty was more the concern of employers and governments, in the present day this has shifted to educators and school boards as the primary vehicle for helping students from impoverished neighborhoods succeed. 

In our modern schools, in order to combat neighborhood poverty and to combat the negative effects of it (such as lower than average marks, higher drop out rates) educators must make changes at classroom and school levels in order to be more inclusive of all students, and bridge the gap between the rich and poor, in terms of access to materials and learning (with one method being having laptops to give out to all students for in class assignments). Secondly, after school programs and events that allows students regardless of their economic status to participate is a great way to involve students from impoverished areas, since it makes them spend less time with the negative influences that come from impoverished neighborhoods. Lastly, in terms of academia, schools need to end the process of streaming students into particular academic levels of study (ie academic, applied, locally developed math) based on their race or gender, a problem which has been happening in schools since the 19th century. With work and implementation of solutions such as these, it would help reduce the levels of poverty among adolescents and youth.

Works Citied

Mcbride-Murry, V. (2011) “Neighborhood Poverty and Adolescent Development.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 114-128

Neighborhood Poverty and Adolescent Development Analysis

From the Article, the passage that I have chosen to look at talks about the indirect effects that Neighborhood poverty has on an individual's academic achievement, including their literacy and their drop out rates. 

In the first section, it mentions that "The effect on neighbourhood disadvantage on school dropout was twice as large for African American youth as compared with White Peers (McBridge-Murry 117). In this case, this quote is in line with the article, since the article attempts to prove the effect poverty has on academic achievement, and how this poverty is split among racial lines. Therefore, the quote can be seen as a way to represent the entire article, since it states that African American youth are more likely to drop out of classes than youth of other ethnicities, even though other factors such as family structure and demographics have an effect on drop out rates across all ethnicities. This data is also backed up by the second article by Steinberg and Sheffield, who also go on to claim that ethnic and socioeconomic issues affect adolescent success and dropout rates (Steinberg and Morris 96). Furthermore, it is interesting to note that the article mentions that in non African American youth, females were more likely to drop out of high school than males were (McBridge-Murry 118). This can be due to the social pressures and conditions young women find themselves in, especially coming from a position of poverty, where they may be required to take care of younger siblings, take care of the house, or fall victim to substance abuse. Lastly, the section concludes with the statement that “across generations, the negative influence of neighbourhood poverty has increased for African American youths and remained equal for White youths” (McBridge-Murry 118). This is an interesting statistic to note, it can be seen that living conditions for African American youths are poorer than they were in the past, despite the racial inequality, since in the modern age, African American youth from impoverished areas are more susceptible to exposure of illicit substances, in addition to increasing peer influences from their community, coupled with the fact that most schools do not attempt to provide help to those coming from impoverished communities. Therefore, in order to change the problems noted in this article, schools need to be able to provide the proper tools that allow students from poverty to succeed on the same level as those from middle or upper class neighborhoods. In this case, providing free after school activities, safe spaces for their feelings and learning, and places to express their creativity would be a good place to start.

Works Citied

Mcbride-Murry, V. (2011) “Neighborhood Poverty and Adolescent Development.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 114-128

Steinberg, L. & Sheffield Morris, A. (2001) “Adolescent Development.” Annual Review of Psychology, 52:83-110