The big social media debate

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Take a look at our guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.  
• Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers. 

Planning and setting up this activity

• You could provide books, leaflets, printout sheets or devices with internet access for people to do research and prepare for the debate.

Running this activity

1. Gather everyone together and explain that you're going to host a debate about social media.
   • Choose one of the following as starting question or topic:
   • Social media has improved the way young people communicate.
   • Social media is harming young people’s communication skills.
   • Social media is a good tool for building meaningful connections.
   • Young people communicate better online than in person.
   • Social media is changing communication for the better.
2. If you want to, you could chat about the topic as a group, before people decide if they’re for and against it. Some people may be undecided and that’s OK.
3. You can organise the debate in different ways:
   • Group format: Divide the group into two teams. One supports the idea (for) and one opposes it (against). If some people are undecided, they can form a third group of those who are unsure. They should debate as a group.
   • Individual or pair format: Instead of groups, people can work in pairs or speak individually. Before sharing their thoughts, each person should say whether they are for, against or unsure about the topic.
4. Give everyone time to prepare their arguments. They can use research, statistics or personal experiences.
5. Gather back together and set clear rules. For example, taking turns, using time limits for each response, using respectful language, staying calm and actively listening to each other.
6. You can begin the debate. Some ways to debate might be:
   • Team Debate: Two teams take turns arguing for or against a topic, with each person having a specific role, such as giving an opening statement or rebuttal.
   • Fishbowl debate: A few people sit in the middle to debate while everyone else watches, and anyone can jump in by taking an empty seat when someone steps out.
   • Hot seat: One person sits in the ‘hot seat’ and must answer questions or defend a position while others take turns challenging them.
   • Ball throw: A soft ball is thrown around the group, and whoever catches it must give a point either for or against the topic before passing it on.
   • Four corners debate: Everyone listens to a statement, then moves to a corner of the space based on how much they agree or disagree and shares their reasons with the group.
   • Popcorn debate: Anyone from either team can stand and speak at any time, but only one person speaks at a time.
   • Relay debate: Each team has a set amount of total speaking time. Team members take turns talking by passing a baton or token, sharing the time between them however they choose.
   • Panel Debate: A small number of people act as expert panellists. They each represent a different argument, such as for, against or unsure. The rest of the group asks questions or challenges their views.
7. Make sure there’s time for questions or for a team to reply to the other team, such as with a final closing statement.
8. At the end of the debate, you could ask if anyone’s changed their view or were convinced by the other team’s argument. For example, you could vote before and vote after, then see if anyone’s vote has changed.
9. Finally, ask everyone to think of or write down three things they like about social media and three things they would change. You could then share your ideas as a group.