Overcoming Potential Risks of Student Tech Use

For decades now, tech companies have promised us everything from improved task efficiency to new ways to connect with each other.

Social media companies, for example, promise to broaden our networks—log into Facebook and you may be told you have hundreds of friends. But when you stop and reflect on how many of those people you’ve actually interacted with in the past year—or have any desire to interact with in the first place—you may decide that interpersonal connection through technology is a false promise. 

At its worst, social media isn’t social at all, and it can even promote polarization, bullying, and loneliness.

Students in particular are easily lured by the siren song of technology. They see platforms like Google and ChatGPT as sources of knowledge to be tapped into, eagerly looking for video explanations when they encounter a difficult problem or asking AI for answers to their questions.

Yet education remains a fundamentally human, highly creative endeavor. It’s important for teachers to think carefully about how and when to use technology in class and to be aware of the social and developmental problems that can arise when students become too reliant on digital tools.

We’ve put a name to four of the top risks of student tech usage that teachers have some capacity to address. Thankfully, risks are not certainties—and technology isn’t always the culprit. When deployed intentionally, tech can be used to uplift students, enabling them to do more creative work and foster deeper connections. Here’s what experts—from sociologists to educators—say about the risks of student tech use, along with some classroom strategies that can help teachers overcome them.

The risk of passive consumption

Though technology offers immense creative potential, it’s common for students to have a passive relationship with their devices, using them to consume content instead of actively creating things themselves.

“In my view, computers will not live up to their potential until we start to think of them less like televisions and more like paint brushes,” wrote Mitchel Resnick, professor of learning research at the MIT Media Lab, in 2006—and he tells me that this perspective shift is still needed nearly 20 years later.

This problem isn’t limited to students—it applies to teachers as well. Edtech expert Matt Miller, author of Ditch That Textbook, notes that many teachers default to the same few uses of tech: “We’re going to watch videos, we’re going to fill in documents, we’re going to do digital worksheets, and I’m going to make my slides on it. And a lot of it becomes consume, consume, consume.” 

On a good day, tech-savvy teachers might turn to something more interactive, like a game of Kahoot—but “interactive” is still a far cry from “creative,” Resnick points out. To offer students more creative digital outlets, Resnick’s team developed the coding tool, Scratch, and a new app, OctoStudio, that encourage students to use basic coding blocks to make everything from animations to games. 

Resnick recommends that teachers seek out activities that help students develop the four Cs of 21st-century learning: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. For example, instead of traditional assignments like tests and essays, occasionally let students use a design platform like Canva to create visually appealing and relevant posters—perhaps in the style of a video game or magazine cover—to accompany their short stories or book reports. In science classes, students can create how-to or stop-motion videos to demonstrate what they’ve learned. 

Miller notes that these creative assignments tend to be more AI-proof than writing assignments: “It’s not so easy to just write a prompt, stick it into ChatGPT, and get a video presentation with your face on it—at least, not yet anyway.”

the risk of Multitasking

Modern technology tends to give people the false impression that they can multitask effectively. Teachers and students alike often have one browser tab open for work, another for music, and another for email or social media—not to mention other devices, like phones and tablets, within arm’s reach. But cognitive science confirms that multitasking isn’t really a thing. “We have these little markers that make us think that we’re so productive and we’re doing all of this stuff,” says Miller. “But, in reality, it’s split attention, which just isn’t the same as focused attention.”

How can you help students kick their addiction to multitasking? “I recommend that teachers explain the ‘why’ around everything,” says educational consultant Catlin Tucker. Young people “aren’t reading cognitive science articles about these things,” she says—so when you tell them to get off the phone during class, they may not understand that you’re trying to help them to improve their focus and academic performance. They probably think they really can multitask, and you’re just being a stickler.

To drive the point home, Tucker once made a deal with a student who always wanted to wear headphones during class, insisting that music helped him concentrate. One Monday, he was allowed to wear the AirPods and took a quiz at the end of class. On Wednesday, he wasn’t allowed to wear headphones, and again took a quiz. When Tucker handed back both quizzes, the student saw the clear difference in his performance, “and it was not a struggle anymore,” she says.

the risk of Shallow Connection

In Walden, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “I had three chairs in my house. One for solitude, two for friendship, and three for society.” Introspective solitude and selective, meaningful connections are critical to one’s intellectual development—yet technology is increasingly depriving students of both, says AP Seminar teacher Hannah North Tadenev. To address this, Tadenev has—with a nod to Thoreau—implemented a system of “one chair” and “two chair” moments in her class. Tech can help teachers create these moments in ways Thoreau could not have imagined.

One chair moments give students “intentional space to think,” Tadenev says. Throughout the year, she emails her students open-ended questions like “What have you been thinking about lately?” They’re asked to take some time to think, then respond via email. (While introspection is the goal, Tadenev also uses the opportunity to build relationships with her students, responding to each email she receives.)

Similarly, Spanish and STEAM teacher Rachelle Dené Poth recommends having students reflect on what they’ve learned by blogging about it—in text or as a video blog. Alternatively, by using a platform like Wakelet to create a digital portfolio of what they’ve produced throughout the year, students “can build a narrative of their work and have a space to reflect on their progress and set goals,” Poth writes.

Meanwhile, two chair moments involve creating pairs (or very small groups) of students to converse deeply on topics that connect them. For instance, if Tadenev sees that two students have emailed her about similar interests, she will—with their permission—forward their emails to each other and ask them to have a discussion with each other, virtually or in person. “I’ve seen deep respectful friendships form with email chains in the hundreds—all from students who sat next to each other without saying a word,” Tadenev writes.

the risk of social isolation

Many researchers claim that cell phone usage—and social media use in particular—are driving factors behind the years-long rise in youth loneliness and hopelessness. In July 2024, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a warning label to be placed on social media platforms, citing research that “adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms.” 

Sociologists and psychologists have been saying for years that technology-mediated connection is simply not the same as face-to-face interactions. “Human relationships are rich and they’re messy and they’re demanding—and we clean them up with technology,” sociologist Sherry Turkle said in a 2012 TED Talk. “Texting, email, and posting all let us present the self as we want it to be; we get to edit, and that means we get to delete, and that means we get to retouch”—sacrificing “conversation for mere connection.”

Recent advances in AI may heighten the danger of tech-driven isolation by removing other people from the equation entirely. A 2024 report, for example, reveals that a growing number of students are turning to AI chatbots like ChatGPT to discuss questions or problems they’re having that are too embarrassing or uncomfortable to discuss with human listeners.

Though the connections between technology and mental health are complex, teachers can try guiding students to make more face-to-face connections. In addition to her two chair moments that form bonds between peers, Tadenev tries to pair students with like-minded mentors in the building or from around the community—not career coaches, but simply adults who share an interest with them, even if it’s K-pop or video games.

And, again highlighting that education is a fundamentally human endeavor, teachers continue to find ways to connect with students. Middle school math teacher Cicely Woodard, for example, greets every student as they enter her class—and she also finds time as students are settling in to have quick, informal conversations with individual kids. “I stop what I am doing, look them in the eyes, and listen,” she writes. “Because I’ve made myself approachable, some of my students will tell me stories about their lives during the five minutes between classes.”