Social Media is drastically impacting young people's:
Mental Health
Focus
Social Skills
Productivity
Self-Worth
Social Lives
Communication
Mental Health Focus Social Skills Productivity Self-Worth Social Lives Communication
Social Awakening helps teens, schools, and parents survive and thrive in this digital world.
"This was the most important student program I have seen in my 33 years as a school administrator in terms of supporting student health and wellness"
Jennifer Galambos, Kent Place, Head of School
"My daughter & her friends deleted all their social apps for the week. She didn't really miss it and hasn't decided if she'd download again. Thank you, Max!"
Israel, S. Parent, City and Country Day School
"Max's program created a shared language around this gigantic and ever-changing topic, that helped get students, parents, and faculty all on the same team."
Jana Lucash, Teacher, Hunter College High School
Why, Social Awakening?
Young people are tired of the finger-wagging from parents and teachers who “just don't get it." Both as an industry insider and as an award-winning artist & storyteller, our CEO and Speaker, Max Stossel, is able to connect with students in a way that others simply cannot.
Bio:
Max Stossel is an award winning artist, the Founder of Social Awakening, and Youth & Education Advisor for the Center for Humane Technology.
Before working in this field, Max was a media strategist with an extensive background in social media. He ran social media for multi-national brands, and later worked for a social media company where he designed some notifications to distract people.
He has spent the past seven years speaking with 100,000+ students, parents, and educators around the world about social media's impact on our lives, and creating resources to help manage that impact.
Max provides a unique and much-needed perspective on the role of technology in our homes, schools, and in our society.
Presentations
“We’ve Been Sneaking Into Your Brains” Is a presentation for students.
Max illustrates specific ways technology is designed to be addictive & distracting. He provides tools to help combat these designs, and leads a much-needed discussion among peers about the impact of phones & social media. Max does distinct versions of this talk for middle schoolers, high schoolers, and for college students.
"Social Media and Your Kids" Is a similar keynote designed for educators and parents. this presentation includes an overview of how students are using social media and gives recommendations on how to improve focus and diminish distraction in learning environments. This session concludes with time to discuss what’s working and not working in our classrooms and households.
This Panda Is Dancing
This Video Helped Launch the Humane Tech Movement
The LIKE Documentary
Indieflix documentary, “LIKE”
Additional Resources
Meaningful Daily Actions for Young People
Here are some of the best practices recommended in our presentations. Having spoken to many thousands of students around the world, these are some of the most popular actions.
Meaningful Daily Actions for Parents
Here are some of the best practices recommended in Max's presentations. Having spoken to many thousands of parents around the world, these are some of the most popular actions.
Full Video Recording of Presentation
Here is a full video recording of Max Stossel's presentation to a mix of Students, Parents & Faculty at Calvin University.
Digital Wellbeing Guidelines
We and the Center for Humane Technology created these Digital Wellbeing Guidelines for parents during the COVID pandemic.
#MySocialTruth
We worked with Collin Kartchner and the Center for Humane Technology to create this campaign where young people share their own experiences publicly about how social media has influenced them.
If you're not sure where to begin when talking about social media, these stories serve as good conversation-starters for families or classrooms.
Meaningful Daily Actions for Schools
Here are some of the best practices recommended in Max's presentations. Having spoken to hundreds of schools around the world, these are some of the most popular and effective actions.
FAQs
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Yes. But there are some unique aspects of this new technology that make it categorically different. What is more new than the technological advance, is the 24/7 accessibility of social media.
I love ice cream, but if I carried around ice cream 24/7 in my pocket, had to go inside of a tub of ice cream to talk to my friends and do my work, and there were 1000 engineers on the other side of the ice cream updating it every day to be more personally delicious for me... I'd probably have a lot of ice cream related problems.
Regardless of whether or not social media has caused the myriad of issues young people are facing today, it has definitely poured gasoline on many of the fires.
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Yes! We have custom programs for each group. We advise working with all groups to make sure everyone is aligned to tackle these challenges together.
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Yes! Book a call so we can custom-fit them to your needs
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We work to make sure we can serve a variety of communities with different funding and needs. Please fill out this form and we'll get back to you with a quote.
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It can be difficult to get permission from Netflix to host a screening of the Social Dilemma, but this link is your best route to doing so.
To organize a screening of LIKE, this Indieflix page has everything you need.