social studies

In actuality, if the hyper-polarization of American politics and the growing discourse around social media’s habit-forming tendencies are any indication, we politics nerds are no more prepared to set limits without structural support than the teenagers attached to their smartphones in the recent docuseries “Social Studies.”

Bryan Rogers, a social studies teacher at the school since 2012, was accused of annoying or molesting a minor, though it was not clear if the victim was a student, according to KOVR-TV in Stockton.

The groundbreaking ‘Social Studies’ shows us what that looks like in real time.

There is a “scared straight” aspect to “Social Studies,” which seems to be aimed at parents who may not know what their children are doing while hunched over their phones, who have somehow avoided all of the recent research about the impact of digital dependence on young people.

And if “Social Studies” falls far short of being a definitive or broadly representative look at the issue — far too many of the kids are applying to Yale, for one thing — as a conversation-starter, like those after-school specials of yore, it is very effective.