NZ is currently looking at whether to ban children under 16 from using social media… but shouldn’t we first face our own social media addiction? To be honest, Brodie Kane reckons yes, we should absolutely keep the kids off social media – but we also need to sort our own sh*t out…
Welcome to TBH – To Be Honest – Capsule’s monthly column with columnist and old pal, Brodie Kane!
For her previous columns, click here!
Never mind the kids, us adults need some rules and boundaries around screen time and social media.
There’s a big campaign at the moment to ban social media for children under the age of 16 here in Aotearoa. Early signs indicate there’s strong support politically for a law change which would see our younger people prevented from accessing the likes of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. They’re called B416, and are founded by a group including entrepreneur Cecilia Robinson and Outward Bound CEO Malindi Maclean – they’ve been rallying hard at our politicians to follow our mates across the ditch whose ban comes into force in December this year.
For the record, it’s an absolute no brainer for me. We all know the damage social media can do, the toxicity of how algorithms work, and how there are a multitude of wild and disturbing ways children can be targeted, brainwashed and influenced online.
On average, teenagers are spending 42 hours a week online. THAT IS A FULL TIME 9 TO FIVE JOB, ONLINE. Yes I am yelling.
Three out of four young people (75%) say mental health is the biggest issue they face. With half of all young people in Aotearoa identifying social media as a major issue.
We have rules and laws in place to protect young people already against harmful things, and this absolutely should be the next one. Not a single argument against it for me there.
Because we only have to look at the damage it’s causing us as adults, too.
How about the way we, fully grown, fully brain-developed grown-ass adults speak to each other online. The way we all think that firing off an awful comment about someone we either know or don’t know at all is somehow now the norm? How we are completely comfortable making racist, misogynistic, homophobic, hate-filled (I could go on) vitriolic comments about other people without even hesitating before we hit enter on the keyboard?
How about how we tell ourselves that somehow, being an absolute c*nt to other people is either the pathetically predictable “I’m entitled to my opinion” or “freedom of speech” rhetoric?
Can you imagine for a moment what the world would be like, if say, comments sections didn’t exist, but everyone who wrote an awful comment about/towards someone, went up to at least one of those people in real life and said it out loud? Like, actually imagine a world where comments sections existed IN REAL LIFE. Sit with that for a moment. Because I think it would be absolute carnage.
What about the fact that quite simply, our brains are not even remotely close to being wired to consume the amount of content we consume?
There’s a wild stat out there about the fact that we consume more information, more content, in a year than our grandparents consumed in THEIR LIFETIME.
We are sitting, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. We scroll past collagen powder ads, next is the war in Ukraine, followed by an Aperol Spritz being consumed in a Euro Summer, then someone is sharing their groundbreaking Get Ready With Me Video, and then we’re seeing children being deliberately starved and killed in Gaza.
You don’t have to be a brain expert to know that this is fucking up our brains.
We are spending way too much time online. And now early research is showing how much damage AI and Chat GPT is doing to diminish our creativity and our working brains.
So not only are we losing our damn minds, but we’re allowing ourselves to get dumber because we think we’re being efficient with our time by letting a water-sucking robot send an email for us so we “have more time in our day”. More time for what? To do more work? To do more scrolling? Fine if it’s helping us spend more time with our friends and family, but that’s not what’s happening is it?
Then there’s a whole world of creators who, while yes, are part of the growing wave of “new media” (and the pros and cons of that are an entirely separate column I could dive into) (and yes, this includes me) who have to rely on big tech. People who earn income from the social media giants and yet will never meet their employer. Their employer is faceless. Their employer does not have their back. Their employer will take their content, convince them the more likes, the more followers, the more views, the more engagement, the more successful they will be but you better do what your faceless employer says – which is post, post, post, trends, trends, trends for likes, likes likes and then we the faceless employer will reward you with likes and followers. And, in reality, you don’t even realise that all the while you are being deprived of the very creativity that brought you here. The creativity that should be celebrated. But instead you become a play thing to these social media giants, and they’re sucking creative people dry. Don’t use the right music? Sorry your post will flop. Don’t post five times a day? Sorry we won’t show your shit to get you more followers.
And don’t get me started on whether you dare decide to have a backbone and post to create awareness about an issue. Because your faceless employer doesn’t like you doing that and you’ll get punished.
What about the fact that so many of us, without even thinking, just pick up our phones and stare into it when we’re waiting for the lift? Or waiting for a ride somewhere? How we just struggle to just stand somewhere, on our own, and just be in the moment where we’re not stimulated by these fucking screens? The fact that we are actually talking about steps and boundaries and rules we are trying to put in place AS ADULTS to get our mugs off these blasted things so much because deep down we know we’ve let it go too far?
I could keep going but I think you get the gist. I am so in support of moving our kids away from social media, and in overall screen time. But we should be leading by example. And we have a long way to go in that space. But it’s not too late, if we are serious about what we want for our younger generations then we need to cut it out too.
It’s also so good for our brains! To nourish them, keep them thinking and thriving and healthy we need to let them slow down – and that means giving the poor things a break from our screens.
Small steps, each day, and I reckon we’ll get there.
(My small steps just in case you were wondering, so far are reading the book before I go to bed and that being the last thing I see, no phone while eating, phone away in gaps in the day [ie just mindless scrolling], and taking brain breaks).