SM Addiction

I wouldn’t have said I was addicted to GN but now I think about it I probably am!

Part of my morning ritual is having a look to see what has been posted in my absence.

Like you say, if it’s too hot, wet or whatever to be bothered to do anything (any excuse!) I’ll pick up my phone and start scrolling

It was only half way through when I realised that SM was not an initialism for a range of 'private practices'!

I read a lot less than I used to, and waste a fair bit of time scrolling.

I'm not at the stage where my 'real world' is online, but I think we should consider the way apps such as Zoom and Teams have opened the world for many. I live in the sticks, but can 'attend' events and classes anywhere in the world and join in with interest groups and so on that I would miss out on without them.

I have also made good friends online who I see (however rarely) in 'real life', so people's worlds can be expanded that way, too.

I think we need to be careful about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

There is much to be concerned about where social media is concerned. You try taking a 13 year old to a 15 or 18 rated film and see how far you get. Our local cinemas are very strict and rightly so. However, that 13 year old can access some horrific footage on their phone. How many times are we told that a crime was committed by a young person copying a computer game or following instructions on some dark web site? This country has been far too slack where phones are concerned in schools. BOTH main parties have avoided putting rules into place and now we have a completely grey area where schools have to put their own rules into place. On the BBC News yesterday they showed a secondary school where the teachers had reached their limit. When a pupil arrives at school they must put their phone in a pouch which is secured at the top with a security tag which cannot be removed, much like the ones in shops. At the end of the day they use a device that releases the tag. Result- classes are less disruptive, concentration and production has improved. Some families are reporting that their children use their phone less at home. The punishment for breaking this rule is the phone being confiscated for 4 weeks, even if it encroaches on school holidays. What a deterrent. Small changes like this can start to make a difference because otherwise SM will become an addiction.

I read a lot less too, I actually also worry what social media is doing to young people , particularly with regard to attention, focus, etc. I still work and find if I have been spending a lot of time on social media, my ability to focus on a particular report (especially the fine details) is impacted, although this may just be old age. I suppose I wish there was more research/ understanding on the impact of SM. By contrast I also think it is easy to blame SM for a variety of issues.

I worry about the young and what sort of "reality" they are growing up into. All the misinformation, misogyny, casual and not so casual racism and hatred. I worry about the proliferation of AI although I do recongnise its good uses. But fear how it will reduce the job market.
I don't worry about my age group. We are all old enough and maybe wise enough to recognise if our use of social media is taking over our real life or colouring our real life in not a helpful way. We can actively reduce it. I am trying to limit myself to half an hour on GN,BBC news and a quick look at facebook reels at a time. Breakfast time, lunch time and bedtime.
Fingers crossed I can keep to it.

Good to have a thread like this every so often to remind us to look at our use. However currently in such hot weather and staying indoors relaxing I expect everyone is scrolling away.

My SiL has taken the drastic step of taking away youngest DGS's phone. He really had become obsessed/reliant on it. He'd withdrawn, didn't talk any more and wouldn't eat. It's very worrying. However, without his phone he's since gone out to play with friends, bike rides and joined in some fun activities with a bit of a prob from DD. It felt like his phone life had become more real to him than actual life. Although he seems a bit better we're all worried about him.

WhiteWave
At least you’ve been honest. It makes a change from the posts where older people would like us to believe it’s only young people who have this problem it’s not, it’s across all ages.
If we were all honest we most of us would have been the same.
I know I would.

Thats good to hear Aveline? Well done your son in law and family. Excellent parenting. Children can still have a cheap pay as you go dumb phone for keeping in contact while out and about.
And then have very strictly limited usage of the internet.

Personally I am relieved my AC''s generation born 1977 didnt have social media and all its problems to contend with...neither did I as a young mother.