EXPLORING THE ROLES OF PARENTS IN MANAGING STUDENTS’ SOCIAL MEDIA USE: A PHENOMENOLOGY

Teacher Education

ABSTRACT EXPLORING THE ROLES OF PARENTS IN MANAGING STUDENTS’ SOCIAL MEDIA USE: A PHENOMENOLOGY MARY JANE N. ALDUESO This research embarked on exploring the roles of parents in managing social media use of their students. The study employed qualitative-phenomenological research design using an interview guide in the in-depth interview of eight (8) parents. As revealed by the participants, their experiences in managing social media use of students were: monitoring and regulating online activity, quarreling most of the time, undone household chores, giving rules and regulation, need to be more aware as parent, children should stay updated, and extremely concerned on the effects of social media. Social media provides access to important information, creates space for self-expression, has wide range of educational content and accessibility to educational resources, maintains social bonds, acquire knowledge and information relevant to studies, awareness of the latest happenings, able to explore and collaborate, and enhance communication. However, parents revealed also the disadvantages of students’ social media use. They said that students often do not get enough sleep, unable to do household chores, unable to limit screentime, too much exposure to online games, and more vulnerable to discovering sensitive videos. The participants encountered also challenges such as worrying about child’s development, setting schedule, no time management, not following rules, balancing between respect of privacy and monitoring, spending too much time in social media, and lessen productivity throughout the day. But the most challenging part they encountered were comparing themselves to others, less time doing real-world activities, sharing nonsense posts, giving screentime limit, and potential existence of doubt. The ways used in handling challenges encountered were monitoring, supervising and reminding the children, checking Facebook accounts, creating clear rules and guidelines, giving own self space expressing concerns, and setting own screentime limits and boundaries. The effective parenting strategies suggested by the participants were setting rules, time management and limits, taking social media holidays as a family, having open and approachable environment, communicating and investing in time, and building comfortable environmental climate for parent-child community. Establishing house rules, time management, reward system, creating a sense of unity, reminding screen time limits, and establishing good relationship with God were the parenting strategies found effective in managing students’ social media use.

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