Banning the young from social media

is not going to work.

For those of you in Elsewhere I need to explain that there is a discussion here about whether "the young" (those under fourteen or sixteen - take your pick) should be banned from using "social media". There is finally a realisation that overuse of it can be harmful. 

PIU or "Problem Internet Use" is apparently now a recognised mental health issue. Someone in the media has likened the psychological impact of social media on young people like "behavioural cocaine" as they seek more and more "likes". 

I doubt "banning" it, even if it is technically possible, will help. It is more likely to send the problem underground - with all the likely appalling consequences. That really would encourage those who misuse and abuse social media.

I use social media. I suppose it could be said that even writing a blog post is "using social media". I use Twitter (X) to keep abreast of the news and occasionally respond to something there. I also, along with a group of colleagues, use it for work. It is a very, very valuable tool for some of workers out in the field.  What Elon Musk and others have done for the world is not, as some would like to have us believe, entirely bad. 

I have a Facebook account too. It is a good way of keeping in touch with friends in far places. I have very few local friends with whom I am in touch on social media. There are usually very special reasons for this. (How else do you get pictures of one of your favourite cats?!) There was an email from my friend M... this morning - a suggestion that we get together for coffee tomorrow. It is something we have been trying to do for months - instead of making do with quick chats in the shopping centre. I am going to rearrange my morning so I can do it. I am happy to get a "social" email like that.

But I did not grow up using social media. We did not have it. If anyone had told us that those expensive timed phone calls from no more than 50km away would turn into a small monthly charge that allowed you to talk for as long as you liked anywhere in the country we would not have believed you. That it could be done from a hand held device smaller than a block of chocolate would have seemed ridiculous. We made friendships and lost them in other ways. There was still some bullying. There were still people who were isolates. Social media has made this more obvious - and harder to control.

But banning social media? I doubt it will work. What we need to change is something else - the desire to use it so often. Anyone who knows anything about psychology will know about "conditioning" behaviours. Perhaps we could begin by getting rid of the "like" buttons" - for everyone. It might not be as much fun but it might help.