1 - Start ~4 mins
You already know social media can be brilliant and difficult in the same week. Today you sort real-sounding situations into genuine opportunities and real risks, then work out how to keep more of the good while reducing the harm. You will lean on the charter you agreed as a class, so the habits you name are ones you can actually use.
2 - Examine and Discuss ~6 mins
Social media is not one thing. Hold both sides at once using shared lenses:
- Opportunities: connection, learning, creativity, voice
- Risks: pressure, privacy, misinformation (false or misleading posts treated as true), wellbeing
Some situations lean clearly one way. Others sit in a grey area, and that is worth arguing about.
3 - Hands-on: Sort Opportunities and Risks ~14 mins
Work through the interactive as a class on the board. For each invented situation, help decide whether it mainly shows an opportunity, a risk, or depends / grey area for someone your age. Be ready to say why when your teacher asks.
Use these lenses when you argue a placement:
- Opportunities: connection, learning, creativity, voice
- Risks: pressure, privacy, misinformation, wellbeing
Place by the main effect for someone your age. If the class disagrees, park it in Depends / grey area and say what would tip it either way. Explore mode lets the class change its mind after hearing someone else's reason.
Opportunity or risk?
4 - Your Turn: Keep the Good, Cut the Harm ~10 mins
Sorting is only half the job. Now work out how to keep the opportunities while reducing the risks, using your class charter or any shared agreements you already have about how this class treats each other online.
- In pairs, use the situations still on the board (or the list your teacher leaves up). Pick one from the Opportunity side and one from the Risk side. You do not need new examples. If a card sat in Depends / grey area, choose the lean you argued for.
- For the opportunity: name one habit that protects the benefit (for example, how you stay in the club chat without sharing your home address).
- For the risk: name one practical response that reduces the harm without pretending the whole platform is useless (for example, mute notifications after a set time, refuse to forward a private photo, check a claim before you share it).
- Look at the class charter (or today's board norms). Find at least one statement that already covers your habit or response. If nothing quite fits, draft one short line the class could add later.
- Be ready to share one pair of "keep this / cut that" ideas with the class.
One protected opportunity, one reduced risk, and a clear link to the charter or shared agreements in your own words.
5 - Make Sense ~3 mins
Pull the threads together. Social media offers real opportunities for connection, learning, creativity and voice. It also carries real risks around pressure, privacy, misinformation and wellbeing. Holding both at once is the point: you do not have to cheerlead or panic.
The useful move is practical. Name the benefit you want to keep, name the risk you want to reduce, and use shared agreements like your class charter to turn that into habits you can actually stick to.
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