We Know Social Media Is Bad for Kids. Let’s Prove It.
This newsletter is a safe space, right? I know I can confide in you, dear reader. Well, here goes nothing: According to the Screen Time setting on the iPhone, I spent 30 hours and 22 minutes on my phone this week. A little over half of that — 15 hours and 27 minutes — was spent on social media. The fact that I regularly spend over more than 10% of my waking hours staring at a three- by six-inch screen is about the most embarrassing thing I could admit. In that amount of time, I could have:
Baked 26 almond berry layer cakes — a Melissa Clark classic.
Read all three volumes of Lord of the Rings with time to spare.
Taken an introduction to Python course to learn more about coding.
It's grotesque, I know! But social media is designed to be addictive. All these are meant pull your eyeballs in with a force stronger than a rip tide. Right as I say “No, I've had enough Instagram,” a friend will send me a TikTok video of how to make green garlic butter and then I'm sucked back in all over again.
For many children, the screen time statistics might look even worse than mine, and instead of green garlic butter, they might be exposed to videos that glamorize suicide or eating disorders. “Social media permeates a teen's day. Nearly every teenager in the US — 95% — is on social media,” Lisa Jarvis writes, and over a third report using it “almost constantly.” “Even when their child doesn't have their own TikTok account, they're certainly seeing it on the playground or after school,” she notes.
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a warning last week around social media, arguing that it is harmful to teen mental health. The announcement wasn't exactly a shocker, but issuing a health warning à la alcohol and cigarettes is trickier said than
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