Life as a teen without social media isn't easy. These families are navigating adolescence offline
Life as a teen without social media isn't easy. These families are navigating adolescence offline
The damaging consequences of social media are increasingly well documented, so some parents are trying to raise their children with restrictions or blanket bans on social media use.
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Good on these parents for trying to raise their kids off social media. I can say with confidence social media only hurt me in middle and high school, and I wish my parents had had stronger opinions on me using it
I am so thankful that I got out of school before social media blew up. We had Myspace, and Facebook opened up to everyone I think my junior year of HS, but smartphones didn't become a thing until my senior year, and they weren't that prevalent either.
Same! I didn't even have a computer till the year I graduated high school because they cost too much then. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people had them. We were the odd family in the neighborhood. Not that anyone cared. Once I got one, the only social media type stuff that I remember using was AIM, Photobucket, and shudder LiveJournal. I couldn't imagine navigating the internet today where everyone has figured out exactly how to exploit you for everything without you even knowing because you are too young to understand still.
I grew up with access to social media. I got an Android 4.1 tablet when I was 8. Actually, I wish my parents had less strong opinions on it.
That's because they went the other way around.
My dad wanted me to have a Facebook account, which I created, and then was upset at me when I deleted it when I was 12 because of the dumb hateful "jokes" floating around there.
Then later he again urged me to at least use Messenger, as if he didn't have a plan with unlimited SMS and phone calls...I am an adult now, but not much has changed. It only went from Facebook to TikTok.
I quit all non anonymous social media a while back and it's lonely as fuck. If I wasn't a low level autist with a small very online friend group I'd miss out on a lot. When people make plans for parties, get togethers, anything like that, they do it on social media and if I dont somehow hear about it and ask, I don't get an invite. This works for me as many of those people and parties are things that I don't wanna do, but if I had a kid in school I could not imagine the massive social gap it would create for them to not have social media.
For kids it really seems like a pick your poison situation, social media and all that comes eith it, or being left out of a lot of social activities at the most social time of your life.