Has Social Media Ruined Childhood?

Pre-vote: No.

Going into this debate, I can absolutely understand how people would believe that social media has changed childhood for the worst. I could even point to some examples from my own life that would support this opinion. However, I’ve made an effort to learn more on this topic in the last year, and I still have to disagree with this notion.

Opening up the debate, Kaela and Mike presented some really great points, three of which stood out to me:

• Rising mental health issues – when we take away boredom, we take away imagination.
• Bullying due to prolonged access.
• They’re performing and branding themselves before they even know who they are.

Photo by Mariia Shalabaieva on Unsplash

I thought that a good place to start reading would be on the topic of rising mental health issues. As someone who is passionate about student and teacher wellness, I can see how social media can affect this in negative ways. In the article Social Media Use and Internalizing Symptoms in Clinical and Community Adolescent Samples the author notes that the proportion of UK adolescents “… with a probable mental health condition increased from 10% to 25% between 2017 and 2022.” I know in his book The Anxious Generation Jonathan Haidt shares similar data.

Photo by Carlos Muza on Unsplash

However, after taking a closer look at this data, there doesn’t appear to be any direct connection between mental health decline and use of social media. In fact, Luisa Fassi goes on to say that “…current research fails short of adequately targeting the specific populations required to draw accurate inferences about this matter.” In other words, just because we are seeing a rise in mental health issues, it isn’t fair to blame that on use of social media… perhaps youth who are struggling with their mental health are turning more to social media to cope.

The pro side also brought up the issues of bullying and adolescent self branding before they have a chance to figure out who they are. I can see the risk in someone putting themselves out there and the harsh comments they could receive. At the same token, I wonder if we tend to look at the negatives of social media before considering the positives. In Dr. Becky Kenndy’s 5 Tips for Family Digital Safety, clinical psychologist Becky Kennedy, PhD mentions hearing from a family whose child is part of the LGBTQIA+ community and was able to find an online community to connect with to better navigate their sexuality. Dr. Kennedy goes on to say “That’s incredible that we can use technology to feel less alone, to have a sense of belonging, to hear stories that make us feel OK. Our kids are living in a world where that’s possible.” Although it’s human nature to be fearful of new things, it is still so important to remember the advantages.

The con side of the argument opened up very strong as well, leading with this idea that everyone believes their childhood is superior over those that follow (talking about the good ol’ days). Heck, I even catch myself feeling overly nostalgic from time to time… last summer I made sure to teach our nieces how to make cootie-catchers and play cat’s cradle as an alternative to sitting on the iPad. This past Christmas we even look turns trying the “light as a feather, stiff as a board” magic that my old babysitters taught me!

Carol and Nofisat reminded us that past generations worrying about those to follow is nothing new. They shared in their remarks that “Soccrates once worried that the advent of writing would ruin people’s memories, making them reliant on external sources rather than their own minds.” This proves their point that just because something is different, doesn’t mean it is bad or worse than what has come before.

This is where Carol said something that really resonated with me… perhaps “ruined” is the wrong word to use in this debate.

Childhood is not ruined, it’s just being reshaped, and that’s scary.

In this article titled Social Media Benefits, the author shares a lot of great points. Two of these points are ways that parents can support their children who are using social media; Role model the behaviour you’d like them to express, and look for ways that they can do good. Quite often, children aren’t hearing the adults in their lives say positive things about social media and how it can be great… but at the same time they’re watching these same adults doom-scrolling on Facebook and re-sharing wildly inaccurate information. 

In the end, I stuck with my vote that social media is not ruining childhood. Although both sides presented great points and great arguments, I agree that childhood is just being reshaped by social media.