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Taking Your Tech Temp:

Is Social Media Making You Heated?

Using technology and social media may elicit real, intense emotional responses. Asking "How did you feel when you saw ____ online?" assists adolescents in learning how to check-in and check-up on their emotions.

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Dismissing or minimizing an adolescent's feelings could be invalidating or cause shame. Through this exercise, you can encourage adolescents to recognize their own triggers and process their reactions to build the capacity for emotional regulation and resiliency.

Moving From !@#$%^&* to Regulation & Resiliency

 

Objective #1:

Identify Trigger on Social Media

 

The following examples have been derived from clinical practice experience. 

Have adolescents consider their own triggers, aside from those listed. 

Loss of snap streaks

Being blocked by someone

Subtweet about you

Significant other liking/commenting on others' posts

Not enough likes on post/picture

Significant other DM'ing another person

Losing high number followers

Seeing posts or photos of friends out without you 

Friends getting more likes on posts than you

Experiencing cyberbullying

Being "left on read" or ignored

OTHER:

Name Trigger

Objective #2:

Label Emotion Elicited by Online Trigger

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Have adolescents click below and discover they are not alone.

They can see the percentage of adolescents who may also feel similarly to them.

Objective #3:

Work to Understand Emotions

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The following examples have been derived from clinical practice experience. 

Have adolescents work to gain their own personal insight into their feelings.

Objective #4:

Assess Emotion Regulation Skills

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Have adolescents take the quiz below to determine their ability to regulate their emotions effectively. *Results have been validated to provide clinically accurate results.  

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References

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Butler, E. A., Egloff, B., Wilhelm, F. H., Smith, N. C., Erikson, E. A., & Gross, J. J. (2003). The social consequences of expressive suppression. Emotion, 3, 48-67.

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Gross, J.J., & John, O.P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348-362.

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Ochsner, K. & Gross, J. J. (2005). The cognitive control of emotion. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 242-249.

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The Expanded Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training Manual: Practical DBT for Self-help, and Individual and Group Treatment Settings (2011) Book by Cortney Sidwell Pederson and Lane Pederson. Premier Publishing & Media; 1 edition (January 27, 2012)

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