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It’s Complicated: Youth, Social Media, and Mental Health

May 20, 2020
12:00–1:00 PM ET
Erin Walsh, Bolster Collaborative

Social networking, cell phones, and video games are game-changers for youth and families. Young people today spend an average of 53 hours a week with entertainment media, more than any other activity but sleeping. Digital technologies simultaneously unleash incredible opportunities and pose a new set of challenges for children and youth.

In this interactive and energizing presentation, Erin Walsh will use brain science, stories, and humor to explain how technology is changing the ways that students grow up, socialize, and forge their identities. Erin will help professionals understand the key ingredients for wellness in the digital age and provide practical tools and strategies that help students build on their strengths.

As a result of attending this webinar, participants will:

  • Understand new technology trends and emerging research about the impact of technology on mental health, social emotional development, and attention and focus

  • Learn digital practices that strengthen social connection and wellness

  • Identify concrete strategies and tools for helping young people to maximize benefits and minimize risks of using technology.

CYC Certification Competency Domain: Developmental Practice Methods



Erin Walsh, MA, is a dynamic, knowledgeable speaker who has addressed a wide range of audiences on topics related to brain development and digital media. In addition to writing for Bolster Collaborative and Psychology Today, she co-authored the 10th anniversary edition of the national bestseller Why Do They Act That Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen. Erin also facilitates workshops with Youth Frontiers and taught undergraduate students for nearly a decade at the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs, where she created and taught a program called Making Media, Making Change. She consults with schools, parent groups and youth-serving organizations throughout North America on issues related to digital media, children, youth.

fee: $45