Kids Are Using Google Docs To Socialize — In Some Very Good & Very Bad Ways

Remember writing, intricately folding, and passing notes in school growing up? Well, those days are mostly over. And with widespread school cell phone bans, kids are no longer texting each other under their desks, either.

But where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Now, kids are getting creative to communicate with each other when the teacher is talking — and while some of it is ingenious and cute, some of it is troubling, too.

Let’s start with the good news. Note-passing has happened basically since classrooms were invented so there’s really no good reason to think they will ever stop. Since it’s bound to happen, we can focus on the creative ways that it’s happening.

Kids have discovered that it’s easy to create a real-time document in Google Docs or Google Slides that anyone in their school can hop on and contribute to. They’ve already figured out how to add pictures to these docs, write in white in order to hide text, and collaborate to create projects like short stories and poems.

Yes, this might be happening during school hours, but it’s nice to see kids communicating (kind of) offline to socialize and make art. It’s also cool to know that kids have found loopholes to basically all of our efforts to get them to pay attention in class (yes, just like we did in the 80s and 90s).

However, there are also some downsides, as pointed out by The Common Parent in a recent post.

The first downside is, of course, that this is often happening during classroom hours. Kids are already behind on math and language arts and constantly being in a group chat during instruction probably isn’t helping. Then, at home, the group chat looks like a homework assignment, allowing sneaky kids to gain extra screen time or avoid schoolwork.

The second downside is that teachers and parents don’t know to monitor these documents like they know to check texts and social accounts. That means that bad behavior often goes unchecked, allowing things like gossiping, rumors, and bullying to flourish. It could also be a place where inappropriate content or sexting happens, too.

What should you do if you think your kid might be using Google Drive or Google Classroom to socialize in or out of class?

“[Google Docs] offer kids the chance to improve their sense of connection to peers, collaboration skills, written communication skills, creative self-expression, conflict resolution, and other social competences,” Dr. Kathy Wu, PhD, a licensed psychologist and author of the forthcoming The Self-Regulation Handbook for Teens and Young Adults, told Scary Mommy in an email. “However, like other tools that enable anonymity, reduced boundaries, and asynchronous exchange of information, there are risks for mental health and developmental challenges,” she added. “These include exposure to negative peer influence, privacy violations, distractions from academics, harassment or cyber bullying, social exclusion, and heightened social comparison, all of which can reduce or undermine the development of self-esteem and self-regulation.”

She recommends first talking to your kids about collaborative docs.

“[I recommend that] parents balance giving their children enough autonomy to explore these communication tools while also providing guidance on responsible use, like any social media platform or smart phone app,” she said. “I would also encourage parents to come up with a safety plan with their children in case using these documents becomes stressful, and what is appropriate to share and not share in these documents.

In addition, parents should model good behavior online.

“Parents, most of all, can benefit their children by demonstrating healthy digital habits, such as periods of digital detox, having offline socialization, and having a life that is not so reliant upon technology,” she said.

Parents should take some time to familiarize themselves with their kid’s computer and Google Suite — and realize that they could also be using things like email, Sheets, and Slides to communicate. Know how to check the version history of a document, which will show you anything that has been deleted.

Finally, praise and allow good behavior. When I checked my daughter’s docs, she was writing a collaborative story about a dog who solves mysteries with three of her friends. Sorry, but I think that’s really cool!

Note-passing has been around since notes and it will likely live on far into the future. Let’s just make sure our kids are staying safe and aren’t getting too distracted.