28 January 2025
Bamboozled solves social media, you’re welcome
January 28, 2025
Australia officially has the toughest laws in the world restricting social media for kids and teens.
It’s a policy that has its critics, but I’m definitely not one of them, and I suspect I’m in the majority of parents with teenagers.
Hot take: staring into the tiny screen for hours a day isn’t great for any of us. The developing mind, particularly so.
I’d like to say that if we’re following, engaging with, and supporting accounts we are creatively inspired by, those of creators and causes we support, that maybe the social media landscape has its redeeming features.
And yet, when our children are not even in control of the content they’re being fed, be it explicit, exploitative, or just downright rot, it seems tough to make a case for kids on social media, especially in the face of overwhelming evidence as to its effects on youth mental health.
I’m celebrating any change that delays my kids being on social media, critics be damned!
But looking to the near future, we parents of kids who have grown accustomed, even addicted, to a life online, have a bigger challenge coming. Breaking the habit.
I’ve loved listening to this insightful piece by Jonathan Haidt, who calls for us to combat the addicting influence of technology on our kids’ lives, and lays out a framework for us to help clean up our kids’ media diets, even before the changes are enacted in a year’s time.
So, what’s our take on all this through an arts lens?
Diets don’t work.
What…?
Banning it, cutting it out, restricting, policing. Perhaps we should say they seldom work. Or seldom work in isolation.
But really, what we want to say, is that the thing that DOES work is shifting focus. Crowding out the bad foods with the good, putting our focus on finding ways to enjoy vegetables, to get our steps in, to attend the yoga class.
Pouring our energies into the things we know make us feel good, and crowding out the bad.
If we hold the belief that our children’s social media diets are ‘bad’, how then do we crowd it all out?
Well, we could listen to research like this 2018 study from the Australian Theatre for Young People, which found that “of the more than 1,200 people who participated in the survey, 89% reported that participating in drama had a positive impact on their self-confidence and 94% of respondents said that it had a positive impact on their overall sense of wellbeing.”
Not to mention over half of respondents that reported positive or very positive impact on their anxiety levels…
We could heed research like this study here into the untapped potential of theatre-based interventions for mental health, or accept what general common-sense tells us — if we want our kids spending less time on screens, investing in rich, rewarding programs for youth, and creating opportunities for them to connect with one another within the safety of our creative communities just makes sense.
It’s fair to say that the ban denies our kids a form of connection that many have grown accustomed to. That’s not to say it’s wrong.
I’d argue that if we’re taking something away from our young people, something they’re accustomed to using as a platform of connection with one another, the more important question is…
What are we giving them to replace it?
If our government’s answer to that question were to be increased investment in live theatre, in arts education, and in programs that nurture the creativity and collaborative spirit of young people, then they’d find they’ve got a cheerleader in me.
Until then? We’re watching with interest — make sure you’re following our social media and we’ll let you know where we land...
