The rapid advancement of technology use in North America has significantly impacted the development of young people. Educators are only beginning to understand the effects of digital technologies on young people’s holistic well-being. My interest in this topic stems from firsthand experience as a high school teacher. Comparing my teaching experiences now to those of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have noticed a significant delay in student’s social-emotional development. Today’s students exhibit higher anxiety, poorer stress management skills, and are less comfortable with social interactions with peers. Despite the marked impact that hand-held technology and social media has on students, there is a lack of emphasis on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in high school curricula. The current digital climate could have long-lasting effects on students worldwide, influencing their worldviews, well-being, and holistic resiliency into adulthood. In this paper, I argue that technology has detrimental social emotional effects on students and provide teaching suggestions to directly mitigate these effects. This paper will focus specifically on the effects of students’ daily use of personal cellphones and social media on their SEL, which argues based off corroborative literature review, that a negative correlation between social media use and social-emotional development exists. The findings of this paper have broad implications for educators, policymakers, researchers, parents, and students themselves. A deeper understanding of the digital climate will help integrate SEL more effectively into the high school experience. The anticipated outcome is that this paper will offer actionable insights to mitigate the negative impacts of digital technology on social-emotional development and promote a more balanced approach to technology use among students. Keywords: Cellphone, Technology, Social Media, Social-Emotional Learning, Development, Emotional-Intelligence, Digital Citizenship.
