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Excessive social media use blamed for students' anger & communication issues
It was during a live broadcast of the Public Eye titled Navigating the Challenges: A Community Approach to Eradicating Social Violence, Drugs, and Sexual Abuse on February 10, 2025, that Acting Chief Education Officer Orlandette R. Crabbe used the occasion to warn about the detrimental effects of excessive social media use and children’s overdependence on digital devices.
According to Mrs Crabbe, the unhealthy practice has ultimately resulted in poor communication skills, increased aggression, and distorted perceptions of reality.
"A lot of the anger and aggression that we see is because our children lack that face-to-face interaction; We are robbing our children of all these developmental milestones because we use devices to keep them quiet so that we could do our own thing."
‘Their normal is abnormal to us’
It was brought out too that social media influences compounded by the post trauma effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout, are among some of factors that has led to deteriorating rates of misconduct among young students in the Virgin Islands.
According to Mrs Crabbe, many students experienced severe disruption following Hurricanes Irma and Maria, which displaced families and created long-term hardships.
Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic deprived children of essential peer interactions, affecting their social development and “for the children who are in this generation, their normal is abnormal to us.
They would have experienced the traumatic events of Hurricane Irma and Maria and watched the Territory recover from that. Some of those children may still be living in homes that were affected by the hurricane and haven’t been repaired or still living in situations that they would have been forced to enter because of the hurricanes."
Intervention
With this in mind, the Acting CEO outlined the various interventions being used to support students struggling with behavioural issues, adding that in cases where school counselling has proven ineffective, students are referred for clinical intervention, including psychological assessments and treatment plans.
"We refer children, when the counsellor has met with a child for a particular period and they’re not making any progress, for clinical intervention. So we have ongoing relationships with some of the private agencies in the Territory; They conduct what we call a psychological assessment, they create a treatment plan, they start the plan, and then they partner with the school so that what is being done privately can continue in the school."
According to Mrs Crabbe, mentorship programmes, daily check-ins with counsellors, and reduced course loads are some of the strategies recommended by clinicians to assist struggling students.
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9 Responses to “Excessive social media use blamed for students' anger & communication issues”
the home
the church
The school
And the community to support and train our children
We cannot kerp
On saying they come from broken homes and do nothing
Let us help to save our generation
If not all let us not give up
In terms of communication, social media has increased illiteracy. I frequently get emails in text speak from those professing to be high school graduates.