Several studies through the years have shown the harmful effects of social media on teens. While the Internet is full of opportunity and greatness, there’s also a dark side to it that pushes kids, teens, and young adults to constantly compare themselves to others, and become targets of cyberbullying, abuse and online harassment.
Parents constantly fear for their children’s safety on social media. So when Hollywood actress Kate Winslet used her winning moment at the BAFTA Television Awards in London on Sunday to call for action against harmful content on social media, it hit home for many parents.
The actress was accepting the Leading Actress award at the BAFTA for her portrayal of a mother of a teenager consumed by social media in ‘I am Ruth’, a mini-series that also starred her real-life daughter, Mia Threapleton.
Winslet’s BAFTA speech resonates with parents across the world as they continue to stay on their toes over their children’s protection on social media and its dark side.
“We want our children back!” the 47-year-old actress cried on stage, a sentiment that was echoed in the audience as well.
Many studies have shown that young adults who are often on social media are three times more likely to suffer from depression. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of females who died by suicide between the ages of 15-24 has increased by 87 percent in the last 20 years, and the number of males between the ages of 15 and 14 who took their own lives rose by 30 percent.
“For young people who have become addicted to social media and its darker sides: this does not need to be your life. To people in power and to people who can make a change: please, criminalize harmful content. Please eradicate harmful content. We don’t want it. We want our children back,” the actress said.
“‘I Am Ruth’ was made… for families who feel that they are held hostage by the perils of the online world, for parents who wish they could still communicate with their teenagers but who no longer can,” Winslet said.
The ‘Titanic’ star isn’t the only global celebrity who has taken a stand against children being on social media and called for restrictions, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has also spoken over the issue multiple times in the past.
Just a few months ago, Musk, who himself is quite the star on Twitter, had opened up about making a mistake by never restricting his children from being on social media.
“I have not tried to restrict social media for my kids, which might have been a mistake.” They have been programmed by Reddit and YouTube. I would limit social media a bit more than in the past… watch what they are watching,” the 51-year-old had said at the World Government Summit in Dubai earlier this year.
Just like the biggies of the West, another billionaire back home who shared similar views on children and their access to smartphones is Anand Mahindra.
Recently, the chairman of Mahindra and Mahindra educated his followers on the harmful effects of children staying glued to smartphones. The Indian businessman shared a study on the mental health of young adults depending on the age they first started using smartphones.
“Incredibly disturbing. Research being conducted by Sapien Labs and Korea University, AP, shows that the age at which a child first owns a smartphone affects their mental well-being in adulthood. I join many others in urging parents to exercise caution & restraint,” Mahindra tweeted.
Studies have shown that owning a smartphone at an early age leads to lower self-worth, more sadness, anxiety, less motivation, and resilience. Several lawmakers in different countries are pushing for new and stricter laws for age verification that will prevent underage users from accessing social media platforms.
In a final warning, Tesla billionaire Elon Musk has instructed everyone to immediately delete their social media accounts. You’ll laugh at his reasons for deleting your Facebook and Instagram accounts. Elon Musk, by the way, has deleted his accounts on Facebook and Instagram.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder and CEO, is one of the people you’ll be surprised to learn about. According to the tech billionaire, social media is a danger. He’s well aware of the adverse effects of being constantly connected via social media on one’s health, job, and social relationships.
However, social media isn’t a form of communication at all. One of the most compelling arguments for quitting. Any type of addiction is unhealthy because it causes the body to create dopamine, making us feel good about what we’re addicted to.
They have a hard time finding enjoyment in anything but social media in this situation. Put another way, they’ll constantly want to be on social media to get that high. People are going to get more and more addicted to social media.
To ensure you spend as much time as possible on their platform of choice, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other big social media sites have hired attention engineers. Social media is widely believed to be cost-free. However, this is not always the case.
If you don’t pay for the thing, you’re the product, according to the saying. On social media, most users are unaware that they’re the product. Advertisers, not regular users, are the principal customers of social media platforms.
For this reason, the proprietors of social media sites want us to become addicted to their platforms so that we’ll be more likely to notice their advertisements. Similarly, it’s a good idea to delete your social media accounts because they take up valuable time.
For the average person, social media takes up to three hours of their day. Even more astounding is that social media-dependent teenagers may spend up to nine hours a day on these sites. We’re left to wonder how they fit their academic and other essential responsibilities into their schedules.
Adults addicted to social media are just as unproductive at work as their younger counterparts. Time was wasted on social media that could have been used for productive purposes. When you’re constantly working and carrying around your phone, you’re setting yourself up for distraction.
It’s customary for most employees to continually check their phones for notifications, which is a colossal waste of time. Using social media excessively might lead to a lack of productivity. An individual like Elon Musk understands the importance of productivity in his work.
Even though he tweets, you can be sure that he spends very little time on the micro-blocking site because of his hectic work schedule. Incredibly, this is true. It takes the CEO more than 16 hours a day to complete all of his tasks, equating to more than 120 hours per week. A.
If you want to be as productive and successful as Elon Musk, you can only work as long as he does because he runs many businesses, including Tesla, SpaceX, and Neurolink.Quit.Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media Musk want us to stop using social media because it’s not social at all.
Most people join social media to increase their social connections. Still, they end up feeling isolated and more isolated as a result. Several studies have indicated that people hooked on social media end up feeling isolated and depressed because they lack the opportunity to socialize with others.
It’s been shown repeatedly that the only way to improve and expand our social circle is to meet new people in person. It would be well worth it. The old school days might not be all bad if you went trekking with a friend instead of chatting on Facebook for two hours.
Social media users who frequently compare themselves with their younger counterparts are more likely to endure depression and anxiety compared to those who don’t use it. Many Facebook and Instagram users have had their accounts compromised.
Regrettably, success in life has been reduced to a social media status update. Most people take advantage of every opportunity to brag about their accomplishments. Facebook and other social networking platforms have become common for people to share information about their personal lives.
Some of these nice things are fine to publish, but overdoing it can lead to a climate of competitiveness that is not helpful for anyone. As a result, Musk believes that people will only post about the good things in their lives on social media.
One of the drawbacks of social media, according to him, is that people appear to have a better life than they have. Many people are posting clips or pics of themselves in happier moments. Even if they’re not editing the images, they’re selecting the most fantastic lighting and the best viewpoint to make them look better.
When using social media, it is easier to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others. Why aren’t your friends succeeding at the same rate that you are? According to Elon Musk, the vast majority of people who portray themselves as having a luxurious lifestyle on social media platforms may be living in poverty.
That friend who posts pictures of their travels from one vacation spot to the next doesn’t cause concern because they could be in Dubai today and in the Bahamas tomorrow. Never be shocked if you come across a location overrun with depressed individuals.
Say, this is just a group of people who only focus on making others unhappy on social media sites by trolling them. Here is how they do it. They can start by posting some defamatory things about you. They craft their allegations so well that most people will take them as absolute truth.
They will write some bad stories about you and post them on social media. Elon Musk, by the way, is a victim of cyberbullying. When the business insider published a report about a sex scandal involving a tech tycoon, many people were shocked.
According to the account, the creator of SpaceX solicited sexual favors from a female flight attendant. In exchange for a massage, he allegedly promised to buy the female employee a horse. Elon, on the other hand, dismisses that as a political witch hunt.
Using a tweet, Haun argues that the attacks on my life should be seen from a political perspective, which I agree with. Even though this is their standard disgusting tactic, nothing will stop me from fighting for a bright future for you and your right to free expression.
Some internet trolls have gone so far as to share someone’s naked photos on social media, which is terrible. For most teenagers, this is a major source of shame. Tragically, so many teenage females have taken their own lives as a result of cyberbullying.
In addition, it has been established that online harassment and suicide have a strong correlation. People who are subjected to cyberbullying are more likely to suffer from mental health issues, which can lead to suicide.
As a result, you should delete all your social media accounts because they put you at great personal risk of scanning. In this age of digital currency, scams and fraud involving credit cards and other electronic payment methods are on the rise.
Elon Musk attacks Twitter for allowing impersonators to scam his followers of their bitcoins, be cautious and don’t believe any lucrative investment deals advertised on social media without ascertainment. Unfortunately, the majority of people have lost their savings through online scams.
In the end, if you’d rather be safe than sorry, you should stop using social media altogether, as they say. Elon has just warned us. Maybe you’re curious about the best option if you’re addicted to social media.
Worry no more. Despite Elon Musk’s warning that we need to completely stop using social media, I have a solution for you. In the same way that we utilize social media for business and educational purposes, the social media detox plan is what I’m going to expose you to.
The social media detox program asks that you abstain from using social media for at least 21 days as part of a detoxification regimen similar to the one we use to rid our bodies of dangerous chemicals and methods. There won’t be any access to social media during this time.
If it is a must for you to use social media during this time, kindly do so once a day. Quitting or restricting your use of social media for no more than 20 minutes a day can have significant health benefits. It’s not uncommon for people who stop using social media to lead happier lives.
Most people on social media experience stress, loneliness, and depression in the absence of social media. These people can now involve themselves in activities that are helpful to the body, such as physical exercise and reading books on self-development.
Taking a trip to a beautiful location in the real world, on the other hand, is a great way to boost your mood. To make the most of their time. It is possible to live an everyday and prosperous life without social media. You can still get all the latest updates on anything without being on social media.
If you have to be on social media, limit the amount of time you spend on it. A minimum of 30 minutes a day should be the minimum time you spend on this. At the very least, as Elon Musk has warned, let us keep the heat on and remove the social media platforms altogether. You will not regret it. It could be the best decision you’ve ever made.
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Information Source:-economicstimes
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