These stats are hard to ignore. Here’s the background provided in the tweet:
“Twitter was founded in 2006. Fbook was opened up to everyone over the age of 13 w a valid email in 2006. Apple announced the invention of the iPhone in 2007.”
The most commonly talked-abt “issues” when it comes to social media/smart phones are – 1) the effect of comparing ourselves to ppl who are only showing their best selves, 2) the isolation they create – our kids are not communicating & hanging out w one another – & instead on YouTube, social media, etc.
Both for sure play into the “issues” & the trends in this chart in a big way. But there are other factors stemming from phones & social media that aren’t talked abt as much, that need to be studied:
1) With phones/social media our somatic nervous systems are constantly on overdrive. We are checking over & over again – updates, new postings, comments, likes, etc. Compare that to when we grew up. I can remember playing w friends in the streets from the time I got home from school till our parents screamed from the porch to come home at dark. We’d then watch sitcoms that we enjoyed on specific nights of the wk. Maybe TV wasn’t the most healthy, but it was a way to relax & “veg out” after going out & playing or doing homework. Right now, our kids have their noses in their phones waiting for updates – it’s a feedback loop that continues on just that, a loop, & their/our brains don’t slow down. We’re actually exhausting them from phones/social. I learned this at that Qigong class last month.
2) Think abt what our kids see in REAL time now, w these devices & apps. When we were younger & something like the Gulf War happened, we saw the footage hrs after bombings, on grainy tapes, in lands that looked like another planet. Now w phones/social apps, our kids are seeing things like mass shootings – in Parkland, Vegas & too many other places – in HD, in real time, w victim pictures & vivid descriptions from witnesses. The result – our kids’ minds are again on overdrive – “that can happen to me/my fam when I/we leave the house.” Anxiety much?
Phones are great, but we must regulate too much usage.
