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Bridging Critical Media Literacy & Social-Emotional Learning
By Nicole Oster
Today's students are deeply immersed in digital environments, with teenagers spending an average of 4.8 hours daily on social media. Studies from Common Sense Media and the American Psychological Association have linked excessive social media use with increased anxiety, depression, and diminished self-esteem among adolescents. As noted in a 2023 Surgeon General's advisory, the relationship between social media and youth mental health represents an urgent public health concern.
Simultaneously, generative AI tools have rapidly entered students’ lives, with 49% of K-12 students reporting regular use of AI. While these technologies offer their affordances, they also introduce complex challenges—from amplifying existing societal biases, to creating new forms of information dependency, to authenticity concerns, all of which can affect students' developing identities and sense of academic self-efficacy. These tools are not emotionally neutral—they are designed to elicit engagement. This can affect students’ emotional development and mental health, and their influence can cause real harm. The tragic case of Sewell Setzer III, a teenager who died by suicide after forming an intense emotional attachment to an AI chatbot on Character.AI, starkly illustrates the profound psychological impacts these technologies can have when they become entwined with students’ social and emotional lives.
Yet most existing media literacy frameworks primarily address the cognitive dimensions of technology use—teaching critical analysis of content, evaluation of sources, and technical skills. What's often missing is attention to how these digital environments shape students' emotional lives, social relationships, and sense of community care.
This blog post explores potential intersections between Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Critical Media Literacy (CML), particularly in K-12 educational contexts. Using the CASEL framework as our guide, we can consider how educators might nurture both critical thinking and emotional resilience in young people navigating digital spaces.
The approaches suggested in this post are offered as starting points for educators, parents, and students to develop our own contextually appropriate practices. In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, we need flexible frameworks that honor students' lived experiences while providing them with tools to engage thoughtfully with technology.
Integrating SEL and CML: A Framework for Digital Well-being
We can define Critical Media Literacy as the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act using all forms of communication, with particular attention to power dynamics, representation, and the social construction of media messages. The CASEL framework identifies five core competencies of social and emotional learning: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. This framework was designed to help students develop essential life skills for managing emotions, setting goals, showing empathy, building positive relationships, and making responsible decisions. When applied to digital contexts, these competencies offer valuable perspectives for helping students navigate media environments in ways that support their well-being and critical understanding.
This post is an invitation to explore how each dimension intersects with critical media literacy in contexts related to the rapidly evolving domains of social media and generative AI and how we might cultivate student reflection in these areas. Reflective questioning serves as a powerful tool for developing critical awareness about technology use. It is important to note that while the following questions are designed with students in mind, they equally invite educators and technologists to examine our own digital practices and emotional responses and model the reflection we hope to nurture.
1. Self-Awareness
When we combine self-awareness with critical media literacy, we help students recognize both what media does and how it makes them feel. Media isn't just consumed cognitively—it's felt. This intersection creates space for students to examine their emotional responses while developing critical perspectives.
How do different digital technologies affect your emotional state? (Consider how scrolling through social media impacts your mood, how you feel immediately before opening an app like TikTok or Instagram, or what emotions arise right after you close these apps.)
What emotions surface when you encounter content that's designed to engage you? (Think about your reactions to influencers, curated posts, or AI-generated recommendations.)
How do you recognize when digital experiences are shaping your sense of self-worth or creative confidence? (For instance, how using AI for creative work evokes feelings of pride, guilt, or detachment.)
2. Self-Management
Self-management skills intertwine with media literacy when students learn to regulate their reactions to digital content while critically evaluating it. Critical media literacy prompts us to ask "What's the message?"—while SEL evokes, "What's my reaction, and how do I navigate it?"
What strategies help you maintain boundaries when digital spaces become overwhelming or when you receive AI outputs that seem convincing but questionable?
How do you pause and reflect before responding to triggering content or accepting AI-generated information?
What practices help you balance creative authenticity with technological assistance?
3. Social Awareness
Developing social awareness in digital contexts means recognizing who is represented in our media and who isn't as well as the broader societal implications of these technologies. This SEL competency enhances critical media literacy by encouraging students to question not just content but the systems and power structures behind it.
Whose voices and experiences are amplified or erased in the digital spaces you frequent and the AI systems you use?
How might algorithmic systems (in both social media and generative AI) reinforce stereotypes or structural inequalities?
What practices help you engage authentically with perspectives different from your own in digital environments?
4. Relationship Skills
The intersection of relationship skills and critical media literacy helps students understand how technology mediates human connection. Students learn to navigate relationships in digital contexts while critically examining how social media platforms and AI tools shape interaction patterns.
How do digital tools influence the way you communicate and connect with others? (Consider how social media affects your relationships and how AI might change collaboration.)
How do we navigate relationships with AI systems that are designed to seem human-like, and what happens when we begin to anthropomorphize these technologies?
How do you maintain meaningful human connections in and beyond spaces increasingly mediated by algorithms and AI?
5. Responsible Decision-Making
When responsible decision-making is coupled with critical media literacy, students develop frameworks for ethical engagement with technology. This intersection empowers students to make intentional choices about their digital participation.
When evaluating content online or from AI tools, how do you balance your emotional responses with critical analysis? How might your current emotional state influence what you trust or find persuasive?
How do you consider the potential emotional impact on others when deciding what to post, share, or generate using social media or AI? What feelings might motivate your digital sharing, and how do those align with your values?
In what ways do your digital choices affect the emotional well-being of your community? How do you navigate the tension between personal benefit and collective care when using technology?
To thrive in today's technology-saturated world, students need more than technical proficiency—they need meaningful tools for self-reflection, empathy, and ethical decision-making. By integrating emotional intelligence with critical analysis, we can transform how young people engage with technology from passive consumption to mindful participation.
This isn't only about teaching students to decode media messages or develop skills using AI tools. It's about nurturing their ability to recognize how digital environments shape their inner lives, relationships, and worldviews. When we reimagine digital literacy to include emotional literacy, we empower students to approach technology with both critical awareness and emotional resilience.
Moving Forward: Practical Steps
While integrating SEL and CML requires thoughtful consideration of context and student needs, below are some concrete starting points for different parties invested in supporting young people's digital well-being.
For educators:
Co-create with students reflective spaces—such as journaling or discussion circles—where they can safely explore their emotional responses to digital experiences
In collaboration with students, design ethical scenarios drawn from students' actual tech use (e.g., "When is using AI in schoolwork appropriate?" or "How do we respond to harmful content?")
Partner with students in authentic media analysis activities that explicitly address both cognitive and emotional dimensions
For designers and developers:
Include SEL considerations in the creation of educational technology and digital literacy resources
Partner with educators and students to understand the lived emotional experiences of technology use
Develop tools that encourage reflection and conscious choice rather than passive engagement
For researchers:
Investigate the interplay between digital media consumption and creation, AI tool use, and emotional well-being
Explore participatory methodologies that center student voices in developing new media literacy frameworks
Share findings in accessible formats that can inform both classroom practice and policy
The intersection of SEL and CML is more than a theoretical framework—it's a practical necessity. By helping students navigate digital spaces with agency, awareness, and care, we prepare them not just for technological futures but for lives of meaningful connection and caring engagement in an increasingly complex world.