Episode Details

329: Teaching Students to Navigate Social Media

Teaching students to navigate social media is more important than ever as teens face a constant stream of information, misinformation, and online pressures. In this episode, Meryl Van der Merwe is joined by returning guest Stephanie Simoes, founder of CritiKid, a platform dedicated to teaching kids critical thinking.

Stephanie shares:

• Common social media challenges for teens: pseudoscience, scams, clickbait, unhealthy comparisons, and more

• Why trying to shield your kids from social media isn’t enough—and what to do instead

• A fascinating study about how studying misinformation can actually strengthen critical thinking

• Her “Three Tab Method” to fact-check what you see online

• How to turn your own social media feed into a teaching tool

We also introduce Stephanie’s new Social Media Simulator, a safe, interactive platform to help students identify manipulative content and logical fallacies

Resources mentioned:

• Stephanie’s article: Turning Misinformation into Education

• CritiKid website

• Fact-checking search engine by Media Smarts

• The Critical Thinking for the Digital Age course: FundaFunda Academy