In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of talk about making changes to the age of social media usage. Because governments aren't overly innovative, they all just tend to copy from each other, which is part of the reason that the world is in such a mess, because they are copying each other's mistakes too. However, as France released a report on screen time and digital learning for kids, and there has been lots of publicity around online bullying and kids suiciding, it is getting some traction.
While I don't want to agree with what governments do, nor do I think that governments actually have our best interests at heart, I do think that more restriction should come from the parents when it comes to screen usage. When I see babies and toddlers given screens to entertain them at a restaurant, I feel the anger rising in me at the parents, because they obviously don't give a fuck about their kids future wellbeing.
I could be wrong.
But parents need to stand up and stop the excuses to justify their decisions based on "everyone is doing it" or some lame ass "they have to learn to live in the new world" bullshit. Yet, I get it, because it is also far more convenient to kick the can down the road out of convenience, even if it leads to problems for the children.
It is up to the parents though, as I don't think that governments do a very good job of making rules for people that actually work. The restrictions on alcohol or drugs, don't stop alcoholics or drug addicts, and i don't think restricting social media will have much affect either, because while they will no longer be able to define what social media is. No matter how they try to legislate internet usage, it is not going to stop people finding a way to do what they want to do. The only way to actually accomplish this through restriction, is by making it impossible for kids to access the internet at all.
Good luck with that.
But, similar to drug and alcohol addictions, it isn't the social media alone that is at fault, it is just that they catalyze and exacerbate the situation. At the core of all of this is the fact the society is failing, where communities are falling apart, where violence is increasing. Where kids are disenfranchised, disconnected, and disillusioned from the world to the point that they just don't give a fuck either. We have encouraged personal branding, we have commoditized ourselves and as a result, we have made ourselves and each other disposable. Gone is the sense of civic duty, we no longer see people as human.
Just digital avatars.
The challenge is that in order to rebuild community, it has to start within the family units, but the parents of the young kids these days have also been at least partially raised into this ridiculous digital world, which is part of the reason they let their kids have so much screen time as it is. I remember the reports for the last two decades or so where the tech leaders don't let their kids have social media, or too much screen time at all. And going back further, there were studies on the difference between how much "reality programming" the rich and poor watched, where the the percentage of rich who watched was almost zero, but the poor was very high.
Reality television is an escape from reality. The irony.
Perhaps the problem is that we keep building ways to escape reality, without realizing that there is no escape. Our reality is going to be where we spend our time, where we experience the world, and if that is through some messed up engineered platforms, then that becomes our lives. And as such, it also becomes our bodies, our weakness, so that when it is attacked, we feel it physically, even though we do not have a scratch upon us.
And of course, when we act like that digitally toward real people over and over from a young age, making them faceless avatars, then our behavior spills out into the real world, where people are flesh and blood. Some of the stories I have heard of how kids are acting today in so many ways, are absolutely atrocious. Yet, that is the world we have created, that is the one we have encouraged them be part of - because it was easier than spending time with them directly. Less time consuming than sitting them down for a good game of chess or a discussion on their school day.
We are products of our environment.
And we have productized ourselves for an everchanging market that is never going to be satisfied. We are making trends of ourselves, even though we can't maintain changing at the the speed of which opinion changes, so we are always chasing, always falling behind, and also being made redundant continually. Then we tie our identity to labels that we feel will benefit us in society, only to get attached to them and find out that our chosen identity was just another trend after all.
So who the fuck are we?
And this is the dilemma that adults are having and are unable to discover, yet we are pushing children to attach to whatever identity they have in a period of their life where they are changing rapidly, and have very little experience in the world. No wonder they are breaking. Social media in its current form is largely a scourge on society, but it is we the users who are broken.
And, just like the governments - we keep copying the errors of our peers.
Prohibition has never fixed a problem.
But it has created many more.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
The other day I was watching an interview with Bill Gates, who forbade his children to use phones until they were 14 years old. I call that being wise knowing that he is one of the fathers of the technological revolution. He himself knows that all this technology is very addictive and giving a child a phone as a form of distraction is dooming him to failure. It is creating more rebellious children. Just look at the reaction of a child when you take the phone away after a few hours.
I don't know if we can golf off til 14, but not planning on giving Smallsteps one yet. She has a watch phone that she can call us on, but we have complete control and transparency on that. No games. No internet access to content. Only approved numbers can contact her or she contact.
That's loving your child. My son is turning 9 and he wants me to buy him a phone. Maybe because of the pressure of seeing all his peers that he is a good student and deserves it. I hope when I buy it for him he continues to maintain good grades.
His usage of it can't be up to him - it has to be guided.
I've got a problem with all of these laws that are being made to call out and punish social media. I feel like they are missing the mark. Similar to how video games used to be the cause of all our troubles. People need to stop looking for something to blame and start to focusing on the actual issues.
I agree with you. Social media is a tool, how we use it matters. It isn't a healthy model, but this is what happens when ad revenue is the driver.
I wouldn't fault governments for copying others, especially if there are reliable research involved. That is just making good use of available information. With screen time on kids, I do agree that exposure should be delayed until they are older. I read some articles before that the constant change of visuals creates ADHD in children. Things like cocomelon, with their cute and colorful visuals, catchy tunes, and frequently changing animation is like crack for kids.
I don't think this is what is happening though in most cases. Look at Corona lockdowns.
Yes. It is all designed to draw attention. It doesn't matter if it is drawing attention away from learning the skills we need to actually be useful in this world.
What about the Corona Lockdowns? I believe the quarantine helped lower the transmission rate.
I think that people are copying each other's bullshits and carry them a step further on social media.
It is a vicious spiral. A race to the bottom.
I am sure, sending some of those kids to a summer camp with no digital connection at all, having to socialize the old way, working together on common goals such us to clean a forest, taking care of a garden, or building something. Helping one another when needed and relly getting to know each other in reality, not just interacting in front of a screen. Would make them realize how good it is to live a "real life" instead of a digital one.
Most of the problem today is that many of those kids spend very little time socializing with friends in real life beyond school hours. It is not easy as the cheap way is to give them a cell phone and get them distracted but as we are all seeing it is bringing serious problems to the generation, and not only the kids generation, but also the adult one.
Today, Smallsteps spent 6 hours with the neighbors kid (a 12 year old - Smallsteps is 7) and there wasn't a phone in sight. When the 12 year old had something better to do, she did something better :)
Governments strangely control social media, why do they do it? In some cases, the government wants less dialogue against them. Some social media work for the government and lick their feet. People are afraid to express their opinion on these social media
Most of the social media platforms have been "allowed" by government and even encouraged.
Agree on it.
Well, I have seen and experienced in my life- PROHIBITION IS an INVITATION, particularly in a tender age, teenage.
That will eventually posit mankind against one another. We are not setting a healthy social turf in this digital age for the next generation.
We are definitely not building a foundation for success in my opinion.
What the government do is make decisions for the public so it is the duty of the parent to place those restriction on their children. For example, there’s a general examination students write here in Nigeria when they are about to gain admission into the university but a whole 70% of them failed and if you take a good look at it, you’d realize that these kids don’t learn anything on their social media pages. All they do is watch TikTok, play and do all sorts of things
70% failed? What are they teaching at school? :D
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You're absolutely right T... I believe the restrictions on screen time is certainly the Parents responsibility... The parents are closer to the kids and can check them more efficiently.
I actually do see that the government may not have our best interest after all... Elon Musk said it in an interview, the government is the world's biggest corporation and cannot go bankrupt unless the nation goes bankrupt
You're right @tarazkp 🤩 about parents needing to own up, beacause excuses like "everyone's doing it" won't cut it. But yeah, it's tough when convenience wins over what's best for the kids... and governments making rules? Meh. Restrictions rarely work, because people always find a way around them. And I also think that social media's a mess, but sometimes it's us as society who make it that way 😔.