The idea that social media is damaging is becoming more widespread, although it has been repeatedly rejected by the corporate giants that target teenagers to pad their own pockets, even when their own (suppressed) internal research has documented just how harmful their products are to young brains.<\/p>\n
Some parents are also sceptical \u2013 how damaging can social media really be when Meta and its ilk<\/a> go to such pains to parade \u201csafety features\u201d and promote the power of \u201csocial connection\u201d? And \u2026 if we\u2019re honest with ourselves \u2026 when it\u2019s slightly convenient that children and young people can be entertained so thoroughly by a screen, enabling busy and tired parents to take a break.<\/p>\n The fact that many Big Tech executives go to lengths to prevent their own children from accessing the products they peddle to the children of others tells us a lot.<\/p>\n What Silicon Valley executives know, and want to shield their own children from, is that social media can go wildly wrong for our young people \u2013 particularly our girls and young women. The story goes something like this:<\/p>\n A girl is given a smartphone.<\/p>\n She sets up social media profiles, creating an online version of herself that she hopes will be judged favourably by others (and though this has become normal, let\u2019s not underestimate the weirdness of a child creating an online \u201cbranded\u201d version of themselves), and begins scrolling. Her developing brain circuitry lights up, and she begins to crave the dopamine hit that comes from the tiny pokie machine in her hand. Without careful guidance from older and wiser brains, flicking through her own personalised chaos-reel of kitten videos\/eating disorder glamorisation\/self-harm videos\/makeup tutorials becomes the way she spends seven-plus hours of her day.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, her parents notice she has become withdrawn and irritable. They begin to wonder what has happened to their daughter. By the time they start to question the device that follows her around as if it\u2019s glued to her hand, their daughter has likely been exposed to real harm \u2013 dodgy narratives about how she should look, violent or pornographic images, sycophantic AI bots reinforcing skewed ideas or even scams and blackmail. From there, parents start on the back foot \u2013 forced to rapidly upskill themselves to reverse the damage that has already been done.<\/p>\n Some of the horror stories of what can go wrong when young people are drawn in by social media involve child sexual abuse and youth suicide. I\u2019m personally grateful at least that we are armed with the knowledge of these tragedies and can make better decisions for our young daughter. I wish we\u2019d known more earlier, a feeling I\u2019m sure is shared by many other parents \u2013 particularly parents of Gen Z.<\/p>\n Gen Z may well come to be known as the lost generation. Those who were the true guinea pigs of the experiment of what happens to developing brains when you expose them to machines designed to aggressively capture and retain their attention. The generation for whom boredom is such a novelty that it presents as an itchy-scratchy kind of discomfort. The kids whose screen addictions Big Tech ruthlessly commoditised and sold to advertisers and influencers for record profits.<\/p>\n Those kids are currently finishing their education and entering the workforce. They are doing so with significantly higher rates of anxiety and depression than older generations. They\u2019re reporting high levels of loneliness and social isolation. They\u2019re tired and wired, lying awake doom-scrolling a bedtime snack of overstimulating, discombobulating shorts designed to ultimately a) make them buy something, b) make them feel defective in the hope that they will buy something or c) keep them scrolling endlessly until their brains dribble out their ears.<\/p>\nLizzie Marvelly is the chief executive of GirlGuiding New Zealand, which provides programmes centred on confidence-building, outdoor adventure, life skills and leadership for young people aged 5-18. Photo \/ Janna Dixon<\/p>\n