The harm of social media goes deeper than you might think. The apps are impacting attention spans and working memory skills for kids. So, what should a parent do?
Most parents are keenly aware of how social media has been affecting our kids. We’re also aware that once they start, it’s hard to pull back. So, what’s the solution? A group of moms from Edina, Minnesota has decided to take a different approach. They believe attacking the problem on the front end is the best course of action. Each of them has an oldest kid in the fourth grade, none of whom has been on social media yet.
“I reached out to my fourth-grade boy-mom text chain, and I was like, hey, this has been on my heart. It’s been on my mind. Do you think we could do something? And the response was immediate and strong and, I think within the next week, we were all together in one room meeting about like, okay, what change can we make and how,” says Alissa Ochs.
The women came up with an idea called, “Buzz Off Social.” The hope is to help delay the use of social media until age 16. The website has a pledge that talks about why and families can sign it together.
“You can see on the website every family who has pledged, which we find is important, because we can show these names to our kids and say, ‘Hey, your friends are also not going to be on social media,’ which takes away that peer pressure,” says Taylor Ellingson.
A pressure that is very real, according to Owen O’Neill, a student at Edina High School.
“It definitely has a negative impact on mental health,” he says.
Owen sees it in his friend group and beyond. It inspired him to do a research project last year, and to work with these moms to create the website for the Buzz Off Social pledge.
“I see people like reposting other people’s posts is huge. I see the same photo of a girl like 20 times, because everyone wants to be the one to repost her, and really feel validated of that. And then some people don’t get any reposts, and it’s kind of a social like hierarchy,” he says.
That’s the world these kids are living in, but the problem is so much deeper than that. The concern and danger of social media has layers.
“This like-based economy and kind of like how it’s pulling them into kind of watching other people’s lives and, and not living as much of their own,” says Dr. Joshua Stein with PrairieCare.
Dr. Stein says this move to short form videos has led to mindless scrolling, but it’s not just a time waster, it’s causing something called “brain rot.” We as adults probably feel it too, but Dr. Stein explains why it’s even more concerning for kids.
“With this kind of rapid short patterns, with the ease of technology, with the move towards AI, our brains are losing working memory skills, they’re losing computational skills, and that’s for people my age who developed them. And so, kids are not developing the same skill sets, the same effort sets, the same ability to use their brain, and, and that’s kind of scary,” he says.
“We’re seeing more and more evidence that kids don’t hold things as long. They can maybe hold it in working memory for an exam, but then it dissipates,” he adds.
And then there are all the issues that come along with that like-based economy he mentioned.
“We see that there’s issues with anxiety, body image, and at some points can lead to self-harm, depression, and other larger concerns. So what steps are these companies going to take? Um, because this is something that’s causing detriments to human beings,” he says.
Dr. Stein does believe the pendulum is swinging in the other direction. The state of Minnesota last year required districts to create policies around phone usage in school. And some countries, like Australia, recently banned social media for kids under the age of 16. Denmark, France, Norway, Malaysia and China have all either passed or intend to pass restrictions for kids and social media.
And until tech companies or our government does something similar, it’s up to us to fix it: Put peer pressure on the parents.
“I think that a lot of parents know that it’s not good for our children but do it anyways so, their kid is included and, isn’t left out of their, their friendship circles. So hopefully we’re making this easier for parents also to say, ‘Hey, here’s a pledge. Let’s read it together. Let’s talk about it,'” says Taylor Ellingson.
“I think that kids are smart enough to take in that message and start to understand the why instead of just being told no,” says Alissa Ochs.
“We can’t put that burden on our kids to try to fix the problem that we as parents allowed so, I think it is up to us to create change, and hopefully this will jump-start and get the ball rolling,” says Lindsay Melander.
Dr. Stein says social media can be good for some kids who are trying to connect with other young people who have the same interests and likes. It has also done a great amount to help destigmatize mental health, but he warns that not all information, of course, is accurate and it’s never a good idea to self-diagnose.
Parents take notice if your child’s behavior changes around the use of their phone and Dr. Stein says there is plenty of professional help available out there.
Originally published on KARE 11.