Using Values-Alignment Messaging to Teach Healthy Digital Habits

Educators are working hard to create focused, connected classrooms—and thoughtful phone policies can help. But as many teachers know, taking phones away doesn’t necessarily translate into lasting, healthy digital habits. Supporting students’ digital well-being requires more than compliance; it requires reflection, discernment, and skill building.

Research shows that students attending schools with restrictive phone bans are still averaging four to six hours of phone use every day. Instead of serving only as “on-off regulators” of personal devices, schools have an opportunity to help students develop agency over their digital lives. Katie Davis of the University of Washington’s Digital Youth Lab notes that “self-directed, community-supported” media use is linked to a range of healthy outcomes that extend well beyond the school day.

Why Traditional Messaging Falls Short

To encourage healthy habits, adults often highlight the long-term benefits of behavior change. When it comes to tech use, these include better sleep, improved focus, and stronger mental health. While such messages may resonate with younger students, research shows they often fall flat with middle and high school students.

This is partly explained by what is going on in their brains—adolescents are wired for discovery. Their job is to explore their identities, form friendships, learn through trial and error, and contribute to something bigger than themselves. Their brains are sensitive to rewards, tuned in to social status, and fueled by agency and autonomy. As a result, even well-intentioned efforts to influence their behavior can feel like an affront to their independence. Plus, future risks and benefits often pale in comparison to the immediate rewards of life online.

Try Values-Alignment Messaging Instead

Rather than write off middle and high school students as disengaged or unmotivated, we would be wise to tap into their superpowers. A growing body of research shows that values-alignment messaging—framing digital decisions around autonomy, identity, and social justice—works better with adolescents than traditional approaches.

For example, instead of saying, “Avoid TikTok so you can sleep better,” the message becomes, “These platforms are designed to profit from your time and attention—how might you take back control?”

You can integrate values-alignment activities into advisory lessons, embed them in core subjects, or build them into existing digital citizenship curricula. Here are three ways to get started.

1. Unpack the attention economy. A key part of values-alignment messaging is exposing the manipulative tactics tech companies employ to keep users scrolling. The goal is to show students that exercising digital agency isn’t just good for you, it’s a way to reclaim autonomy from persuasive platform design. 

Students are already primed for this: A Common Sense Media study found that nearly two-thirds of teens don’t believe major tech companies can be trusted to care about their well-being. Educators can channel this skepticism into meaningful learning and reflection.

Teachers can use these resources to guide student exploration and the discussion prompts to spark thoughtful conversation:

• “Mind Control: How Apps Use Design Tricks to Hook You”—KQED Above the Noise
• “Design Tricks”—Common Sense Media lesson plan

Discussion prompts:

• How do social media companies make money?
• Why is your attention so valuable?
• How are these platforms designed to keep you scrolling?
• How does this impact your life? Your friends’ lives?

2. Use values reflection to guide digital decisions. For most young people, digital agency doesn’t mean logging off media altogether. It means developing discernment. “Am I choosing to spend time here, or am I being manipulated into staying?”

Values reflection helps young people explore their identities and strengthen their internal compass. Research shows that this kind of writing can boost resilience, strengthen self-control, and increase openness to health messages.

It shifts the conversation from “Do this because I said it’s good for you” to “What matters most to you and how can your digital decisions reflect this?”

In the classroom, teachers can invite students to rank personal values from most to least important using the Tech + Values lesson from the Harvard Center for Digital Thriving, and then ask students, “How does social media help, or hinder, your ability to live into this value?”

Research indicates that values reflection is most effective when connected to real-life choice points. Teachers can continue to build on the Tech + Values lesson with a values journal in which students respond to the following prompts:

• Choose one of your core values. Why is it important to you?
• Write about a time today when this value shaped a decision.

• Describe a time this week when your tech use supported this value. How did it feel?
• Describe a time this week when your tech use conflicted with this value. What might you do differently?
• How would you redesign a social media platform to support your values?

3. Explore youth movements for digital change. Adolescents are deeply influenced by their perceptions of peer norms. They are more likely to internalize values-alignment messaging when they feel that others are doing the same. Plus, joining peers feels good now, not just in the distant future.

You can leverage social norms in the classroom by exploring youth-led campaigns like #HalfTheStory or Design It for Us, which advocate for more equitable, youth-centered tech design.

Teachers can set up a case study activity in which students rotate through stations, engaging with videos, posts, and quotes from one of the movements. Students can then discuss in small groups the following questions: What are young people demanding? What strategies are they using? How do their efforts challenge current tech norms?

For a follow-up challenge, students can create mini-campaigns for tech accountability. They might develop posters, slogans, or calls to action that reflect their values and inspire their peers.

Building Toward a Healthier Digital Adulthood

Thoughtful cell phone policies are part of the solution. On their own, however, they won’t equip students with the skills and motivation to take charge of their digital lives. Values-alignment messaging helps build digital agency—not just to manage the online world as it is but to shape a healthier and more just digital future.