If you’ve been following the news in the last few weeks, you’ve heard about the investigations into Facebook and Instagram, including their detrimental impact on pre-teens and teens.

We talked about this last month when we discussed the social media pressure faced by young people—particularly girls—to appear perfect.

Earlier this month, a whistleblower revealed internal Facebook research that showed the negative effects Instagram (which is owned by Facebook) can have on teen girls’ body image and self-confidence.

According to one document, Facebook’s research found that one in five teens say Instagram makes them feel worse about themselves, while another found that the platform makes body image issues worse for one out of every three girls.

Benefits of getting together

Coincidentally, these are three of this month’s topics for discussion in our popular Family Table Time kits: self-confidence, self-esteem, and body image.

We’ve dubbed family time together at the dinner table “the original social network” because it’s a low-pressure, high-reward opportunity to promote valuable in-person interaction and communication with your kids. Because of our hectic schedules, this is often the only time when the whole family can gather in one place.

Numerous studies have shown the value of family dining, from promoting sensible eating habits to creating closer bonds, to teaching good table manners.

Most important, according to Stanford Children’s Health, family dinners together are an ideal time to build self-esteem in children.

“By listening to what children have to say, you are saying, ‘I value what you do; I respect who you are and what you’re doing; what you do is important to me,’ ” the organization reports.

Time to talk it out

All this can help counter the negative impacts of social media on their lives.

So if you’re interested in finding ways to make the most of family mealtime, be sure to check out our Family Table Time activity kit.

Here’s what you get in each kit:

• an agenda for family meetings, which provides a detailed plan for conducting family meetings;
• character-based conversation starters to help explore each week’s topic in depth;
• quick, easy, and healthy family recipes; and,
• suggestions for fun physical activities families can do together.

If you want to see the positive impact Family Table Time can make on your family, you can try it for free for four weeks.