Social Media: Connection vs Consumption.
With the recent ban on social media for under-16s in Australia, there has been an uptick in discussion that has polarised people's viewpoints. Here, I will discuss the pros and cons that I have seen addressed, and also some personal issues I find with the policy and what I believe could be a helpful way to apply the policy if it were to come to the UK. To discuss the pros and cons, it is important to understand what influenced the government to come to such a swift decision. The book Anxious Generation, which outlines how smartphones have led to a negative health epidemic for younger children and how it has caused loneliness among them, was a leading spark in the debate. However, we have seen many other ideas spread recently, including the TV show Adolescence, which showed a more personal look into the damaging side effects of social media. The combination of all this media pushing against the early adoption of these services does raise the question, are they right, or is there so...