Whether you view Social Media applications and sites as a transhumanistic extension of ourselves or the agent of our de-evolution of our species, almost everyone will admit that exposure to Social Media is inevitable for young people on our society. Though I tend to believe most social media interactions lean to the latter, negative side of the spectrum, I also believe that is because of the general lack of education and awareness in using these tools. There are many examples out there where social media is used for good, I for one, having moved from Ontario fifteen years ago use social media to keep up with my family in a way that letters and phone calls could never achieve. Many educators are also not just educating their students on the use of social media but are leveraging the strengths of these platforms to achieve their end goals, educating their students (https://ajet.org.au/index.php/AJET/article/view/934).
I am of the firm belief that in order to make social media safer and more constructive, there needs to be education around it. This education will necessarily need to happen in the school system as access to the internet and devices at home and the basic knowledge of what these sites are all about are not a given in every household. There are some great resources out there on how to bring social media into the classroom:
https://teaching.utoronto.ca/ed-tech/teaching-technology/teaching-social-media/benefits-challenges/
https://learnsafe.com/5-ways-to-use-social-media-in-the-classroom/
And there are innumerable others. I say, embrace the challenge and as a previous student in a past year of this course said, steer into the skid!
I think that social media can absolutely be used to engage students in their learning, especially those who struggle with motivation. If they are using these apps all the time, why not find a way to bring them, or the premise of them into the classroom or as a potential medium for a project? This way, they can use their skills or interests (ie. video editing, photo taking, etc) and channel them into their learning and to show their understanding of concepts they may have other wise been unmotivated to learn about or struggle to demonstrate in other ways. Using social media in the classroom also presents an opportunity for teachers to supervise and teach the proper use, as well as digital citizenship.