Social media fills the gaps that society creates. In this case, the gap is a need for connection, says Mo Dezyanian, president of Empathy Inc.Manuel Ausloos/Reuters
Mo Dezyanian is president of Empathy Inc.
The Canadian government is planning to ban social media for children under age 16. It’s no secret that the previous Liberal government had an acrimonious relationship with Big Tech, which caused it to implement a number of well-meaning but destructive policies. It banished TikTok’s offices but left the app untouched. This caused a loss of cultural funding and was then reversed by the current government.
There was also the Online News Act, which effectively removed news coverage from social media and created news deserts, leaving Canadians to scroll through misinformation instead.
These policies have one thing in common: They’re akin to prescribing painkillers to treat a broken arm. Sure, the pain stops. But the arm’s still broken.
Opinion: Ban social media for young people? Good luck with that
Nobody is denying that social media is harmful for kids. Neuroscience has confirmed what parents suspected: Social media rewires developing brains in troubling ways. Cyberbullying, predatory behaviour and harmful content still proliferate.
The real question isn’t whether these apps harm children. It’s why do children need them in the first place? This is what policy makers miss: Today’s social media is widespread not because it connects us despite what platforms claim. It’s everywhere because it cheaply replaces eroding social systems. In fact, social media’s utility is hardly social at all.
Social media apps started as social connections apps and the term has etymologically stuck. But, by the end of 2016, most major platforms adopted the algorithmic feed in favour of the chronological timeline. This is what gave birth to what we now know as the For You Page, which serves content based on what is deemed interesting to the user. TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are now curated, fast-twitch entertainment channels. There isn’t a whole lot of social in social media anymore.
Canada is planning to propose a ban on social media for children under 16 as part of an online harms bill to be introduced Wednesday.
The Globe and Mail
Walk into any restaurant and you’ll see toddlers pacified by YouTube on their parents’ phones. Schools use screen time to control kindergartners during lunch time. Pinkfong and Cocomelon occupy three of the top five most watched YouTube videos of all time.
I am by no means immune to this. Embarrassingly, “Pinkfong” is part of my toddler’s 20-word lexicon! Two working parents and an overcrowded school system means that the grown-ups cannot give young children the attention that they need. The COVID-19 pandemic made this worse.
For teenagers, social media serves a different function. Teenagers want to hang out. But North American suburbs, an affordability crisis and the documented disappearance of third spaces mean there are fewer places to do that. Expensive after-school programs fill some gaps, but they’re activity-based.
So, kids gather online instead. Once again, a phenomenon exasperated by the pandemic. Social media fills the gaps that society creates. In this case, the gap is a need for connection.
But it doesn’t stop there. By young adulthood, the utility changes again as the fabric of our work has changed. Generations ago, employees would trade a mundane job for a decent income, a home and maybe even some retirement money. The relationship between young people and work was that of necessity and mutual benefit.
Not any more. The cycle of economic crisis and K-shaped recovery meant that job security has become folklore told by past generations. Meanwhile, the next generations are priced out of the housing market and increasingly priced out of a reasonable living standard. Loyalty doesn’t guarantee a job; connections might, but what is the most important component for success? A personal brand. Once again, social media fills the gaps society ignores. Social media is where people build their brands – for free.
Let’s pretend self-reported age gating works. It’s a tactic ineffectively deployed by pornography websites to comply with legislation. The reality is that even if enforcement was possible, young kids will find a way.
Take away social media and kids will migrate to what Venkatesh Rao has coined “the cozyweb.” That’s where real social interaction happens. The cozyweb is the inside of neighbourhood group chats, messaging apps, storage services and private servers. These are the places we hang out, in the comfort of privacy, away from advertisers; and away from regulators, too.
So, if the question is should there be a ban on fast-twitch, addictive, unfiltered entertainment for young kids, the answer is a resounding yes.
But the real question is a different one: How do we give the next generation the tools they need to build bonds with their parents and caregivers, to connect with their peers and to get a leg up in their careers so that they don’t need to use cheap entertainment apps as a crutch just to get by?