Young People and the Problems of Social Media

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Anyone walking on a city street these days will be struck by the number of young people glued to handheld devices oblivious to the world around them.

There are numerous books published recently that paint an alarming picture of the effects of the obsession of young people with social media. According to the latest research, for instance, the average 13-year old spends eight hours a day, seven days a week, glued to a screen.

I recommend three books that parents might read to grasp what a huge problem this is and how it might be dealt with. Jean  W. Twenge, a professor at San Diego State University, is the author of IGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. (IGen means “Internet Generation” and refers mostly to those in the teenage years.)

Obsession with social media is not the only explanation for the growing dysfunctionality of many of the young, but it is a large part of the problem. Much is explained by poor parenting, a lack of a robust family life, and the facts that these days kids often raise themselves – mostly with the help of social media.

The research that Twenge draws upon paints a worrisome picture of a device-dependent world that teenagers now live in and how it is affecting their mental and emotional well-being. Too much time in the cyber world is rewiring young people’s brains, affecting their ability to flourish in the real world, as anxiety, depression, loneliness and a sense of being excluded from things soars.

Twenge writes about the decline in person-to-person social interaction, the sharp rise in mental health problems, the sense of insecurity, the disinterest in religion, the decline in civic involvement, poor writing and study skills and their unemployability. She describes the Internet generation as growing up disengaged, narcissistic and anxious.

Social media critics say that present-day youth culture, centered on social media, is raising a new kind of human being, displaying all the problems  I have outlined.

People blame the Church for the fact that there are few teenagers in the pews these days, and say that it would be different if the Church’s general style were more attractive to the young. There is no doubt some truth in that assessment, but it is certainly not the main contributor. It is increasingly apparent that young people simply do not know how to worship and participate in the liturgy. No one has taught them.

Is all lost, then? By no means. But parents have to become educated in this whole area of child-rearing, and teachers need to refine their educational methods if things are to turn around.

Thankfully, there are psychologists and educators who are helping parents to  reorient the formation and education of their youth away from making social media the center of their lives.

In this regard, I recommend a book by nationally-renowned psychologist Thomas Kersting titled Disconnected: How To Reconnect Our Digitally Distracted Kids. Kersting provides simple strategies to help parents reduce the screen-time of their youth, as well as a host of meditative techniques to help the young reclaim their brains and their lives.

I also recommend the work of Dublin-based psychologist Anne McCormack, who shares the same concerns as the commentators just mentioned. In her book Keeping Your Child Safe on Social Media: Five Easy Steps, she uses case studies and straightforward language to demonstrate how parents can assist young people as they build resilience and mental fitness for the social media world.

Msgr. M. Francis Mannion is pastor emeritus of St. Vincent de Paul Parish.