Digital Wellbeing for Students: Beyond Screen Time

More and more, I'm hearing the same thing from teachers:

Social media and AI platforms are creating a huge proportion of the pastoral care and wellbeing issues they're dealing with.

That makes digital literacy much more than a one-off "online safety" presentation.

Students need ongoing education that helps them make safer, more ethical and more deliberate choices about the technology they use.

I've seen this firsthand when working with students in schools. Recently, I had the pleasure of presenting to students at Court Grammar School for the second year in a row, this time working with Years 7–9 on exactly that.

And one thing I keep coming back to is this:

Students have heard "spend less time on your phone" before.

We need to give them more than that.

Digital wellbeing for students needs to go beyond screen time

Telling young people to put their phones down isn't a particularly sophisticated approach to digital wellbeing.

Most students already know that spending hours scrolling isn't necessarily good for them.

The more useful conversation is helping them understand why it can be so difficult to stop.

Social media platforms are businesses.

They are designed to keep people using them.

The longer we stay on a platform, the more opportunities there are to show us content and advertising, collect data and keep our attention.

Once students understand this, the conversation starts to change.

Instead of simply hearing an adult say, "Get off your phone", they can start thinking about what is happening behind the screen.

Who benefits from keeping students online?

This is one of the questions I like students to consider.

Who benefits from keeping me online?

Platforms compete for our attention.

That means the content that keeps us watching, scrolling and interacting can be particularly valuable to them.

Sometimes that content is entertaining.

Sometimes it is useful.

And sometimes it can be content that makes us angry, anxious, insecure or frustrated.

Conflict and outrage can generate engagement too.

For young people, understanding this changes the way they look at their feeds.

They can start to recognise that the experience they are having on a platform isn't entirely accidental.

There are systems behind it.

There are design decisions behind it.

And there are businesses that benefit when they keep using the platform.

What can students ask about social media?

Rather than giving students another list of rules, we can give them better questions.

When they are scrolling, posting or interacting online, they can start asking:

Who designed this platform?

Understanding that social media platforms are designed by people and companies helps students recognise that what they see isn't simply appearing by chance.

What are they trying to get me to do?

Is the platform encouraging me to keep scrolling?

To click?

To comment?

To share?

To watch another video?

To come back tomorrow?

These questions help students recognise the design choices that influence their behaviour.

Is using this actually making my life better?

This is a much more useful question than simply asking how many hours a student has spent online.

Two people can spend the same amount of time online and have completely different experiences.

The important thing is helping students reflect on what that technology is actually doing for them.

Do I want to keep giving them my attention?

Attention is valuable.

Once students understand that, they can start thinking about where they choose to spend it.

That is a digital wellbeing skill.

Social media and student wellbeing are connected

Digital wellbeing isn't just about screen time.

It also involves how technology affects our mood, attention, relationships and behaviour.

For students, social media can become part of their social lives in ways that are difficult to switch off from.

A disagreement at school can continue online.

Cyberbullying can follow a student home.

A carefully curated feed can influence how young people see themselves and the world around them.

And the pressure to stay connected can make it difficult for students to step away.

This is why schools need to think about digital wellbeing alongside online safety.

Students need practical strategies for navigating these experiences, but they also need to understand the systems contributing to them.

Digital literacy is an ongoing skill

A single online safety presentation isn't going to prepare a student for every situation they will encounter online.

Technology changes.

Platforms change.

The way students use those platforms changes.

AI is now becoming part of the same environment.

Students can encounter AI-generated content, algorithmically recommended content and increasingly personalised digital experiences alongside everything else they see online.

That means digital literacy needs to be an ongoing part of education.

Students need opportunities to revisit these ideas as they get older and as the technology around them changes.

We can't protect young people from every online risk

We will never be able to protect young people from every risk they encounter online.

There will always be a new platform.

A new trend.

A new feature.

A new way of interacting with technology.

Trying to remove every possible risk isn't a sustainable solution.

Instead, we need to equip young people to make better decisions for themselves.

That means developing students who are critical, tech-savvy consumers rather than simply telling them what they can and can't do.

What should schools teach about digital wellbeing?

For schools, digital wellbeing education can include much more than screen-time recommendations.

Students can learn to:

• recognise how platforms are designed to capture attention

• understand how algorithms influence what they see

• question why particular content is appearing in their feeds

• recognise how online interactions can affect wellbeing

• think critically about the content they consume

• identify when technology is improving their lives and when it isn't

• understand the role of businesses and incentives in the platforms they use

• make more deliberate choices about where they spend their attention

These are skills students can take with them beyond school.

They aren't dependent on one particular app.

And that's important because the platforms students use today won't necessarily be the platforms they use in five years.

The goal isn't to make students afraid of technology

Good digital wellbeing education shouldn't leave students thinking that phones, social media or technology are inherently bad.

Technology can be useful.

Social media can help people connect.

AI can be genuinely helpful.

The goal is to help students understand the trade-offs and make informed choices.

When students understand how the technology works and who benefits from their attention, they are in a much stronger position to decide how they want to use it.

That is the kind of digital literacy I want students learning.

Not simply "spend less time on your phone."

But:

Who designed this?

What are they trying to get me to do?

Is this actually making my life better?

And do I want to keep giving them my attention?

Those are questions that can stay with students long after a presentation has finished.

If your school is looking to build practical digital wellbeing and online safety skills for students, my school workshops help young people understand the technology they are already using and make more deliberate choices about it. Dopamine Hackers is designed to explore attention, social media, gaming and the ways technology can influence how students use their time.