Twelve and a half years old. That’s the average age at which a child opens a social media account. Growing research finds that the more time spent on social media, the more likely a person will experience mental health symptoms like anxiety, isolation, and hopelessness. And according to one recent study, high levels of social media use over the span of four years was associated with increased depression among middle and high school youths. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 750 13- to 17-year-olds found that 45% are online almost constantly and 97% use a social media platform, such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat. “Technology’s promise to keep us connected has given rise to a host of unintended consequences that are catching up with us. If we can’t address our broken information ecosystem, we’ll never be able to address the challenges that plague humanity.” – The Social Dilemma
Twelve and a half years old. That’s the average age at which a child opens a social media account. Growing research finds that the more time spent on social media, the more likely a person will experience mental health symptoms like anxiety, isolation, and hopelessness. And according to one recent study, high levels of social media use over the span of four years was associated with increased depression among middle and high school youths. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 750 13- to 17-year-olds found that 45% are online almost constantly and 97% use a social media platform, such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat. “Technology’s promise to keep us connected has given rise to a host of unintended consequences that are catching up with us. If we can’t address our broken information ecosystem, we’ll never be able to address the challenges that plague humanity.” – The Social Dilemma
My guest this week is Maddie Freeman, a current student at the University of Colorado Boulder, studying Entrepreneurship and Business Manage. Maddie is the founder of NoSo November. NoSo November’s missionis to educate youth about social media’s impacts on mental health/suicide and tech addiction. We do this by providing a free educational challenge video we created that is aimed to spread awareness around the problematic business model used by Big Social companies. We also challenge viewers to take individual action to take their power back over these platforms by logging off/deleting all social media apps for the month of November and focus on implementing positive mental health practices in its place.
Our challenge to our Adult and Youth followers…take part in NoSo November. Find out more at https://www.nosonovember.org
For additional resources visit us at: https://robbies-hope.com
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