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Surveys and Graphs

This is a survey that I have conducted to help gather some information and quotes from new parents. It asks questions about what social media platforms parents use the most and then asks for some examples of tips and tricks they have seen online.

Survey is linked here.

Interview With Beth Martell

Beth Martell is a life coach that specializes in parenting, attachment, and developmental relationships. She had a 26 year long teaching career and now runs her own business in Essex Junction. As a parenting coach she has seen lots of examples of that way that the media is affecting parenting in today’s society. She explains that digital media has affected modern parenting, creating a sense of overwhelm, distraction, and displacement of essential developmental experiences. Both adults and children are drawn in by the attention grabbing nature of the media. In her coaching practice, she frequently sees parents struggling with children wanting excessive screen time, leading to home conflicts, dependency, and even addictive behaviors. Parents themselves also struggle with their own media use, often unintentionally modeling distraction and emotional unavailability.

Martell knows that it is important for parents to get advice so to stay informed, she urges parents to follow experts grounded in human development, psychology, and attachment science (Dr. Becky Bailey, Dr. Daniel Siegel). She encourages parents to limit their intake. She also said that she is a part of a parenting facebook group in the Burlington area, and that she is amazed by the misinformation that is spread from parent to parent. She talks about how one parent will say something that is more hurtful than helpful and that will spread to the entire group.

A clip of her interview can be heard right below her photo.

Interview with Brenna Travis

Brenna Travis is a children’s librarian at Barrington Public Library in Barrington Rhode Island and is a new mother to her 10 month old son Desmond. I interviewed her about her social media usage as a new mother and how it has affected her. The first thing we covered was the apps that she uses the most. Brenna actively posts and uses Instagram the most, but she says that she scrolls TikTok the most in her free time. She also has a Facebook account but never finds herself reaching for that app. She said that after becoming a mother her habits have shifted and she now tries to only scroll social media when her son is napping, or late at night. Brenna says she does not necessarily follow any parenting influencers or advice pages but the algorithm does bring them to her explore pages so she does find herself watching them. Brenna says she has looked up some small tips before like meal ideas, but she tries her best to avoid deeper advice because it has heightened her anxiety. Throughout her early postpartum journey, too much parenting content especially around sleep training overwhelmed her with misinformation, judgement, and fear based warning. This made her feel a negative sense of herself as a parent and she said she felt like she was doing everything wrong. Although she does not trust the information that is given on social media, she says it is very hard not to compare yourself to this media. She even gave the example of comparing herself to her friends on social media. Seeing their posts and thinking to herself, “she looks like she has an easier time than I do”. Social media is the highlight reel that is only showing the good stuff. Brenna shared that she and her husband have decided to not have any screen time around their child, as well as not posting him at all on social media sites, for the sake of his safety. She said that social media creates a huge sense of information overload for new vulnerable mothers that are navigating hormones, exhaustion and overwhelming advice. A clip from her interview can be heard.

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