Social Media: Is it the biggest danger in a modern boarding house?

 

When looking at the modern boarding houses, there is one  day to day issue that for me shine above all others; the mobile phone. When you have prestigious heads calling them those ‘infernal machines’1 there can be no doubt that the management of schools, classrooms and boarding houses is now as much about managing the pupils’ addiction to screens as it is their general behaviour and attitudes.

 
However, the management side of the issue is something that I will leave to SLT members to discuss and plan - it is the mental health and online aspect that I am more concerned with and have seen creeping into the boarding House. When two in five children now feel online anxiety 1 and that 8%feel that they have negative experiences all or most of the time whilst online, there is no doubting that we have an issue. I have even had parents calling me up and asking for advice on managing their son’s phone use.

This is clearly a growing epidemic that boarding Houses could be accused of being slow in dealing with. When anonymous apps like Whisper, ask.fm, secret and Yik Yak are common amongst pupils but unused by adults, we are trying to manage a world where we are on the back foot. When two Youtubers fighting on a Saturday night 1 has more viewers than Anthony Joshua, these really are times when current pupils are conversing and finding their viewing experiences outside of what adults are used to.

I have taught for almost 15 years and have been involved in boarding schools for the past 7 years,

having lived in or run the boarding House for 5 of those years, and this is the first time that pupils are starting to really feel the experiences of online bullying but also, on amore positive note, that it can be captured and used against the ‘bully’.

A recent example in my previous House showed the strength of screen capture after the boy took a shot of the offending comments and passed on his worries. This event was dealt with and the two boys involved have been able to quickly move on.

However, it does highlight that the realm of bullying has moved. It has moved away from the old fashioned public area of the playground or the boarding House and has moved itself to the new
public area of Snapchat and Instagram.

The schools are starting to employ heads of Esafety working with the pupils in advertising what

to do with online bullying and the promotion of the Tootoot reporting app, in the previous instance, meant that the comments were recorded and we were able to act upon this with clear evidence and come to a satisfactory conclusion.

I want the boys to be more confident to use capture and the support around them. This whole

school collaboration allows pupils to talk about their issues and problems. Pupils can now feel

much better in talking about their problems, we have managed to get a better idea of the trends

and issues within the school and the pupils are now taking screen shots much more regularly and
thereby helping to save ‘evidence’ of bullying that has once an impossibility.

However, the true success of an app like Tootoot or education on e-safety can never fully be known

as the bullying is done away from prying eyes and away from an area that we can know about. In a
classroom we can monitor better, we can patrol, we can create safe places but online – we cannot

monitor 4G, we cannot stop Snapchats and Instas from the pupils’ own 4G data allowance. The

‘sexting’ generation is clearly addicted to their devices to the point that a recent digital detox day

I ran was met with very mixed responses.

Digital Detox Day

We ran the detox day in my previous House (I would like to do one again, sorry boys) as both an

opportunity for the pupils and an experiment to help this essay. The resulting surveys showed that

82% of the pupils felt that it has been a beneficial day. However, the fact that 3% felt that their
human rights had been breached and 20% admitted feeling separation anxiety for some of
the 24-hour period really starts to show the issue that we are dealing with in the boarding world.
This also supports evidence from scientists who are terming this separation anxiety as
‘nomophobia’ 1. Several of the boys also handed in 5 devices that day and admitted that on normal days they would have just handed in a phone at bedtime and used another one once the teacher

had gone.

The surprising outcome for me of this experiment was which boys actually struggled most. The ones I see on their phones the most are the big groups of boys in friends that sit in front of the PS4 whilst chatting online and streaming music to the Bluetooth speakers. These boys were the ones that said that the day was beneficial (I have subjectively grouped the boys together as the in my results and taken their sub-section results to show 67% positive experience) 1. These boys just altered their method of communication, talked more and felt very little difference to their day other than remembering which lesson they had and checking prep. The boys that struggled most were those that have fewer friends in House. Their friends are online, people they have never met, groups that game and chat but they cannot alter their method of communication for. One boy said that he had been separated from his best friend. In the journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking, they state that the phone now evokes so many personal memories and experiences that people see them as an extension of themselves.

“As smartphones evoke more

personal memories, users extend more

of their identity onto their

smartphones,”
 

A recent report in the Guardian revealed that schools with a full ban on devices are seeing a 6% increase in academic attainment 1. However, VPNs and second/third devices are hard to policeand bans can be navigated by pupils. In an anonymous survey in the Boarding House 76% said that they knew of people with second devices in the House 1. The pupils are taking their parents old iPhones and iPods and using them after the time for devices to be handed in. Even bans are now easy to navigate around and allow pupils access to the Internet and social media at times when we think we have it managed. VPNs are in most school acceptable use policies but they are hard to track as the whole point of the VPN is to filter the visible website on your browsing history or to re-route the server your device is using 1. The danger to pupils is the dark web access via a VPN but most pupils only use the VPN for access to Instagram, snapchat or fortnite whilst at school 1.
Many schools ban Instagram and snapchat but for the older generations, this is the equivalent of banning phone calls or texting; this is the pupil’s main method of communication. Familyzone states that as many as 1/3rd of secondary school pupils have used or attempted to use VPNs to bypass school systems as they see it as a way to get around the restrictions on communicating with their friends or playing their favourite game 1. Another important point to remember is that online is now also their main platform for self-esteem building.
 

The ‘like culture’

The so-called ‘Like culture’ is a major issue and can make some of the social interactions much more

extreme. When Youtubers are going into suicide forests for those all-important ‘likes’1, we also have
our pupils searching for these highly regarded social signposts. Getting a like on social media releases dopamine and you get a mini high, meaning that pupils go searching for these likes, search for slightly more elaborate posts and the release of dopamine and short term happiness that this brings1. As far as your brain is concerned the like is similar to taking a drug. The reason for is the unpredictability of the response.

The like is unexpected and gives

you a dopamine rush. Like drugs,
this is addictive.
The problem is that the same app that generates the likes (Instagram) also only shows you the very best version of everyone else’s life. You scroll through looking at stylized and filtered shots and this leaves young pupils feeling depressed. Instagram has been shown to be the most harmful social network for mental health1 and we are starting to see the results of this in our boarding Houses. The phone addiction previously mentioned is a real problem when it comes to managing people’s use and their subsequent exposure to cyber bullying. Phone addiction is linked to video game addiction which is now seen as so serious that it has become a registered mental health ‘disease’ under the new WHO guidelines1.

This addiction and constant need to check the device is also where the screenshots become dangerous. The images and terms can be accessed at all times and the abuse can be sent at all times of day and night. Before 2006 there is no mention of cyber bullying in any journal or study and yet today it is everywhere1. It is no surprise that schools have been slow in responding. Some of this abuse is also reasonably ‘accidental’. The pupils are creating images, videos or ‘memes’ to try and get other pupils to look at them. Just as we are familiar with Facebook likes, Instagram tells you how many views your video has had.

Cyber bullying is shown to impact people’s mental health. A pupil being cyber bullied is more likely to see a decline in academic performance, begin ‘acting out’ and some reports also suggest it increases difficulties at home1. With these issues also being ones far too familiar in the modern day boarding house, it is crucial that we look at managing cyber bullying and helping pupils that feel as if they are being targeted. However when the percentage of those that say they would report cyber bullying varying from 9% to 57% and with between 9% and 25% saying that they would not tell anyone (parent, teacher or friend). 50% did, however, say that they would use limiting tactics like blocking the person, changing passwords or restricting ‘buddy’ lists1.

When you look at the government advice on cyberbullying for teachers, headteachers and school

staff1, the advice is easy to follow in a boarding school environment and the whole school policies lead the way in how to deal with the problem once it has been reported. The advice is common sense and I would hope that pupils know what they are ‘meant’ to do should they be cyber bullied. The advice states recording it, telling the appropriate adult and within a boarding house, there is a clear support structure that the pupils can use, they also have the safeguarding team, the DSL, counselors, independent listeners and are aware of Childline and the children’s commissioner through posters and House assemblies.

If the research is correct and we feel that we are dealing with the problem, we are only dealing with

the maximum of 57% of pupils that actually report it and this is compared to the 11% who admitted being cyberbullied over the previous 12 months and an amazing 40% said that they had both been
cyberbullied and acted as a cyber bully in that time. The Daily Mail report a 40% increase in cyberbullying year on year1 whilst the NSPCC report an 88% increase in those looking for online help after being cyber bullied1 and most worryingly of all, the number of deaths associated with cyber bullying is also on the rise1. This is therefore a problem whereby old fashioned bullying is on the decline but online bullying is on the up. In America they have been reporting a decline in both types of bullying1


but we are not there yet and the boarding house is a place where there are many spaces for the pupils to be the recipients of this abuse and where fear of being a ‘snitch’ or ‘snake’ may mean that they suffer in silence.
 

The future?

This issue brings me to the final element I wish to consider. With US cyber bullying on the decline and UK on the increase, it must pose questions over whether we are dealing with this correctly - so what is the future of dealing with these incidences?

Should there be a zero blame culture with schools heaping praise on good behavior, hoping to create a culture and ethos around this or should school be looking for total outright bans? The third option is that the social media platforms actually start to take accountability. With Instagram’s negative impact being made clear by teachers, experts and sociologists and this is even before we consider cyber bullying and sites like pro-anorexia1 and the whole pro-ana movement, shouldthe sites themselves be made accountable?1 As I write this section, Google have announced that they are ditching ‘Sarahah’ the anonymous messaging app. Apple have also followed suit and both of the biggest mobile operating systems have now banned this app due to the large amount of bullying that has been attributed to it.

However, we are being reactive rather than proactive and when ‘Ana’s’ are wearing red bracelets which are promoted online, sold online and help people ‘strengthen their diet’ and meet other Ana’s – it is clear that we are well behind the curve with online behaviour and what is en vogue at that particular time. These sites are easy to find, easy to search and available via Google or Bing. Whether they will also look at other apps and social media platforms remains to be seen but YikYak

can allow post codes to opt out if a school is within the effected area and others will also adapt their service if schools complain. Some people have blamed schools but UK schools are one of the world leaders on cyber policies and regular updates. People have blamed the UK’s playground bullying culture and blamed teachers themselves for not dealing with the issue well enough1.

However, the evidence now points towards pupils being the solution to their own problem. Cyber mentors and peer leadership is the next step that needs to be implemented. The core social media code of conduct in Brook Court is pupil written and the posters are made by the pupils. I have previously had professional coaches into my House to train my House prefect team in coaching techniques and they have been helping the younger boys to deal with their online life better (the prefects have currently had their safeguarding awareness training and we are looking at

coaching training in the coming months). Punitive approaches on their own have shown very little impact on school cultures1 and zero-tolerance approaches likewise drive cyber bullying underground and make pupils scared to talk out. However pupil voice approaches have seen success and I am hopeful that the future of cyber bullying and online policies will see regular updates together with pupil inputs.

Cyber bullying is clearly a growing problem. However, the boarding house is uniquely positioned to deal with it. Problems can be reported to House staff as they occur, the incident can be dealt with at any time of day or night and there is a web of support for the pupil that allows them to have the confidence to speak to several people within the House and whole school structure. The government advice also states that the very best schools start to pick up emotional changes as

they first happen, they can see conflicts starting to build and can intervene early1. Again, this is what

boarding schools and boarding houses are good at. We at Dean Close have small tutor groups, we see the pupils regularly and have a large amount of contact time. If there is a type of school where we are likely to pick up on issues early, it is in a boarding school. That is why I am happy with the two incidents that I have shared, I am pleased with the responses to the digital detox day and although a lot of the research is negative about both online use and bullying online, I feel that the area of education in which I work has a glimmer of hope that can potentially lead the way in solving this universal problem.