As most of the major social media brands are under American ownership and leadership, it behooves the U.S. to set better operational policies on online commerce other nations can emulate.
"Social media is most beneficial when it complements offline life, rather than replacing it." That's key to this excellent piece.
I will readily admit that SM for me in high school was the school bus. The shouting, pushing, joking, snapping on others, and trying to be a school bus influencer was the groovy...Ha. I guess an analogy would be school was Reddit. The bus was a SubReddit with everyone weighing in. It was IRL with all the mental health pitfalls of today in slow mo. OFC the comparison is the thief of joy moments were still there. Who wore what. Who had a varsity jacket who didn't. Who made out with whom. Online back then was the Dewy Decimal System. Which was annoying as hell to use. Cards of knowledge that required manual labor. Then the SubReddit of the bathrooms. All of that was kinda not different. Kinda way different.
I guess my point is it was a bit balanced then. It had risks and benefits. It took a lot of work to hold space on the bus. It took a lot of work to discover new. It was work to be a kid. Still is. The challenges for teens today is tantamount to climbing Everest only using your left hand and right foot. I do not compare back then to now. One is not superior to another. Different with a dash of what the shucks.
What I will note about the scrolling to get fast dopamine hits. It's the opposite to long form deep dive reading that can have almost a telepathy with another(s). These long form discovery moments can become hours of mmmmm hummm yes. Not drive by discovery which evaporates immediately by code driven...next, next, next.
What's here what you're doing Ben is long form learning. Long form sharing. The sitting at the feet of Plato to learn from the spoken word which soon became the written word. Which is now hearts and likes. We do need balance and advocacy. Policy changes can drive change. I would also advocate for reading long form. Reading to connect. Sure Tale of Two Cities vs. some ice cube challenge. That will happen right after Musk brings a rocket full of blue cheese back from the moon.
And now a random synapse firing thought that confuses me. There is an entire generation that read all of Harry Potter. Thick long reads. And the siren's call of SM dashes all that on to the rocky shoals of being a teen today. We're in the I'm sorry innocent youths we owe you more edition helpline.
As most of the major social media brands are under American ownership and leadership, it behooves the U.S. to set better operational policies on online commerce other nations can emulate.
People tend to ruin things when given enough chances to do so.
"Social media is most beneficial when it complements offline life, rather than replacing it." That's key to this excellent piece.
I will readily admit that SM for me in high school was the school bus. The shouting, pushing, joking, snapping on others, and trying to be a school bus influencer was the groovy...Ha. I guess an analogy would be school was Reddit. The bus was a SubReddit with everyone weighing in. It was IRL with all the mental health pitfalls of today in slow mo. OFC the comparison is the thief of joy moments were still there. Who wore what. Who had a varsity jacket who didn't. Who made out with whom. Online back then was the Dewy Decimal System. Which was annoying as hell to use. Cards of knowledge that required manual labor. Then the SubReddit of the bathrooms. All of that was kinda not different. Kinda way different.
I guess my point is it was a bit balanced then. It had risks and benefits. It took a lot of work to hold space on the bus. It took a lot of work to discover new. It was work to be a kid. Still is. The challenges for teens today is tantamount to climbing Everest only using your left hand and right foot. I do not compare back then to now. One is not superior to another. Different with a dash of what the shucks.
What I will note about the scrolling to get fast dopamine hits. It's the opposite to long form deep dive reading that can have almost a telepathy with another(s). These long form discovery moments can become hours of mmmmm hummm yes. Not drive by discovery which evaporates immediately by code driven...next, next, next.
What's here what you're doing Ben is long form learning. Long form sharing. The sitting at the feet of Plato to learn from the spoken word which soon became the written word. Which is now hearts and likes. We do need balance and advocacy. Policy changes can drive change. I would also advocate for reading long form. Reading to connect. Sure Tale of Two Cities vs. some ice cube challenge. That will happen right after Musk brings a rocket full of blue cheese back from the moon.
And now a random synapse firing thought that confuses me. There is an entire generation that read all of Harry Potter. Thick long reads. And the siren's call of SM dashes all that on to the rocky shoals of being a teen today. We're in the I'm sorry innocent youths we owe you more edition helpline.
Thank you Ben
Hi Ben. Great article that is near and dear. Wanted to share this resource launched by SAMHSA last summer. https://www.aap.org/en/patient-care/media-and-children/center-of-excellence-on-social-media-and-youth-mental-health/
Great post. Thank you 🙏🏻