Media influence: What's a healthy way to spend my time online?
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Threads
Why this why now
As Year 8 pupils spend increasing time online and on social media, they need to understand how digital habits impact their wellbeing, self-image and academic performance. This unit provides essential knowledge about the effects of excessive screen time, curated online content and unhealthy comparisons. At this developmental stage, pupils are particularly vulnerable to online pressures around body image and self-worth, making it crucial they develop balanced digital habits and critical awareness to protect their own self-worth and maintain healthy offline lives.
Prior knowledge requirements
- Pupils should understand from Year 7 that online content can present distorted pictures of reality and that not everything shared online is true or represents real life accurately.
- Pupils should be familiar with basic online safety and digital wellbeing concepts from previous units, including the importance of balancing screen time with other activities.
- Pupils should know from earlier learning about the benefits of physical activity, sleep and spending time with others for mental and physical health and overall wellbeing.
Threads
Why this why now
As Year 8 pupils spend increasing time online and on social media, they need to understand how digital habits impact their wellbeing, self-image and academic performance. This unit provides essential knowledge about the effects of excessive screen time, curated online content and unhealthy comparisons. At this developmental stage, pupils are particularly vulnerable to online pressures around body image and self-worth, making it crucial they develop balanced digital habits and critical awareness to protect their own self-worth and maintain healthy offline lives.
Prior knowledge requirements
- Pupils should understand from Year 7 that online content can present distorted pictures of reality and that not everything shared online is true or represents real life accurately.
- Pupils should be familiar with basic online safety and digital wellbeing concepts from previous units, including the importance of balancing screen time with other activities.
- Pupils should know from earlier learning about the benefits of physical activity, sleep and spending time with others for mental and physical health and overall wellbeing.
Media influence: What's a healthy way to spend my time online?
This unit explores the impact of online time on wellbeing, including effects on sleep, body image, self-esteem and learning. Pupils learn to recognise healthy and unhealthy online habits, understand how curated content affects them, and develop practical strategies for balanced digital lives.
6 lessons in unit
slide decks, worksheet PDFs, quizzes and lesson overviews. You can select individual lessons from the Media influence: What's a healthy way to spend my time online? unit and download the resources you need, or download the entire unit now. See every unit listed in our secondary rshe (pshe) curriculum and discover more of our teaching resources for secondary rshe (pshe) programmes.