When it comes to social media People. Have. Opinions. Depending on who you talk to, social media can be either one of the greatest or one of the worst things ever created. The way I see it, it's a bit of both. Like so many other things, it's neither inherently good nor inherently bad. We get to determine its worth by how we use it.
Used carefully, it can create and preserve healthy connections, keep us informed of things we want to know about people, places, events, and ideas, and bring us some happiness and positivity. Used less carefully, it can suck away our valuable time, create and preserve unhealthy connections, add unnecessary negativity to our lives, feed on our insecurities, and even foster depression and addiction, and cause great harm.
Earlier this summer, I had the opportunity to hear Collin Kartchner speak. This is a man who has a lot to say about social media and it's effect on kids. In case you don't know Collin, he's a "YOUTH ADVOCATE, SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVIST, CROWDFUNDER, TEDX SPEAKER, DAD." You can learn more about him and his cause here on his website, here on his #SavetheKids site and here from his TEDx talk.
As he puts it on his website, "Collin is on a crusade to help educate parents on the damage social media and 24/7 access to peer culture will have on their child's mental health." He talks a lot about, "social media and the culture of toxic perfectionism it has created."
"Culture of toxic perfectionism." That's a powerful phrase and he has some stark examples and quotes from kids regarding of the dangers of that culture.
His focus is mainly on kids and teens, but even those of us with brains (hopefully) more developed than the under twenty crowd, need to navigate these relatively new waters with care and intention. Social media is still young. This is the first generation to deal with it, so there are plenty of mistakes to make before we figure out it's most effective place.
Even with all the potential pitfalls, there's no need to oppose to social media all together; it's the free-for-all, 24/7/365 access and the many and varied kinds of posts that pull us down that are the problems.
Near the end of the talk I attended, he issued some challenges worth accepting. -
* Family challenge: Pick a day each week and do No phones 5-9 pm, especially at dinner. Try it.
* No more devices at bedtime. Central charging station away from bedrooms. (Leading cause of teen anxiety/depression = lack of sleep.)
* Instagram/Facebook/Social Media - unfollow EVERY person/account that doen't make you happy. Cut the joy thieves. If you're struggling, take 1 week off each month to reset your brain.
* Use your accounts/posts to spread joy and encouragement.
It's easy to forget or dismiss, but OUR VOICES HAVE POWER. And as you may have heard, (nerd alert) "With great power comes great responsibility." Let's use our voices - online and offline - to uplift, to promote positive ideas, to build self-esteem, in short to bring light into this troubled world.