Send This Message: Social Media Is Toxic For Kids
According to research from Common Sense Media, teens now spend an average of nine hours a day glued to their devices, with teens not far behind at six. And that’s not taking into account the use of technology in our nation’s classrooms, or all the computer homework that follows our kids home from school.
Touted as a learning tool, many teachers now incorporate Twitter and video games into their lessons, negatively affecting attention span and critical thinking, along with spelling and writing skills.
As for teachers who refuse to jump on the bandwagon of educational technology? They are called “tough” and are often criticized for being old school and far behind the times.
Fortunately, they are not alone.
Among those concerned are Steve Fischer, eBay’s chief technology officer, who sends his kids to a Waldorf school instead of the tech-packed local public school; so do many Silicon Valley employees.
That’s because founder Rudolf Steiner designed the Waldorf curriculum to focus on the academic, artistic, and practical to develop students’ imaginations and prepare them for the real world, screen-free.
However, the result for everyone else’s children is a world driven by technology, both in and out of school.
In fact, Common Sense Media CEO and founder Jim Stryer calls the amount of media technology in children’s lives “mind-boggling.” As he points out, he rules his world and they can’t seem to resist his lure.
One result: multitasking. Now, 50% of teens say they “often” or “sometimes” use social media or watch TV while doing homework; 60% say they text and over 75% listen to music at the same time.
However, the pushback is growing with outfits like Truth About Tech: How Tech Has Kids Hooked.” Sponsored by Common Sense Media, the Center for Humane Technology and others, it held an event in DC earlier this year. Its mission is to expose the techniques used by tech companies to hook our kids into finding a way to ensure their digital well-being too.
As the Center points out, “technology is hijacking our minds and our society.”
And it’s all been done intentionally.
In fact, Facebook founding chairman Sean Parker has admitted that he and other top brass devised “a social validation feedback loop” that makes the social media platform addictive.
At one point, another early FB executive, Chalmath Palihapitiya, accused his company of creating “dopamine-fuelled short-term feedback loops that are destroying the workings of society.”
And though he tried to retract that statement, he still has legs, so to speak.
Even Apple CEO Tim Cook gets it. Although he himself has no children, not only does he set firm boundaries for his niece when he gets to social media, but he doesn’t consider it a success if we all use technology all the time.
As it is, 50% of teens feel they are addicted to their mobile phones, and 60% of their parents agree.
One teenager confided: “I’d rather not eat for a week than have my phone taken away. It’s really bad.”
Additionally, Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University and author of iGensays that heavy device users (5 or more hours a day) are:
- 56% more likely to say they are not happy;
- 27% more likely to be depressed; and
- 35% more likely to have a suicide risk factor.
These numbers are supported by numerous experts and also supported by brain imaging studies.
However, Dr. Nicholas Kardaras, author of Glow Kids: how addiction to screens is kidnapping our childrenhe points out that none of us want “some who will tell the truth and tell us the emperor is naked,” and that the devices we are so attached to pose a problem, especially for children’s developing brains.
However, regardless of the disturbing evidence, Facebook is not stopping, far from it.
Not satisfied with its current 2.13 billion users, supposedly all over the age of 13, it is now aiming lower with Messenger Kids, created with children as young as six in mind.
This video, calling and messaging app allows kids to connect with friends and family via tablet or smartphone, and it boasts that countless parents and child advocates were involved in its design.
However, many of those contributors received funds from Facebook…
Meanwhile, among the Messenger Kids boasts: Parents must first approve all contacts, and it has kids and parents chat with each other in “a safe and controlled environment.”
Safer than what, face-to-face conversations?
Countless child development experts and others disapprove.
Organized by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, several of them recently sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging him to remove Messenger Kids. Citing its potential for harm, they noted that young children are not ready to handle social media, online relationships, or the misunderstandings and conflicts that can arise from them.
However, Messenger Kids is still working, so…
Bottom line: keep it personal, not virtual.