Disown Your Phone . . .
Do you think that you could do without social media for a whole month? I don’t think I could.
Well, we have had a "Dry January" – when many people gave up alcohol for the whole month of January – and a "Stoptober" when the same applied to smoking – for the month of October. Now the Royal Society for Public Health, in Britain, is calling on us all to have a "Scroll Free September". Starting from 1 September, 2000 volunteers have officially pledged to quit using the "Big 5" on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube. The organisers of this campaign are hoping that hundreds of thousands of people across the UK will follow suit. Some will give up completely, others will cut down on using social media and some have said that they will try doing without it in the evening – to be able to switch off before going to bed. Would you be able to do it?
Most of us, both young and old, have become addicted to social media and cannot seem to do without being in contact with the rest of the world for even five minutes. We love to check Facebook, send photographs and check again to see how many "Likes" we have got. We send a quick message on messenger and watch anything and everything on YouTube – for hours and hours. It is fun, isn’t it? However, a report from #StatusOfMind, in 2017, highlighted a range of very negative effects of social media, which include anxiety, depression, negative body image, cyber bullying, poor sleep and what is termed as "FOMO" (the fear of missing out). Even Apple has realised the negative influence on people who are addicted to their phones and it wants to try and limit the time we spend on social media. Many users aged 18-34 think that by going "Cold Turkey" for a month, (which is a term usually referring to alcoholics who give up alcohol completely) they would definitely improve their mental health, have a positive effect on their sleep and real-world relationships. It is amazing how many want to take back control of their lives and stop being a slave to their phones.
Globally, more than five billion people are signed up to one or more of the "Big 5" social media platforms. However, they are facing scrutiny from many governments around the world over issues like addiction, data misuse and enabling (President Trump’s favourite words) fake news. Many politicians are trying to ban the use of iPhones in schools and it won’t be long before this happens. However awful that seems to all the young people who are going back to school this week, in the long run, it will help pupils to concentrate more on school work and not feel the need to constantly comment on every photograph or message. It will also help teachers to hold the attention of their pupils, if they are not so distracted. It would, hopefully, cut down on bullying in schools, as there will be no way for a bully to comment on a fellow pupil and arrange for others to gang up on them after school. In the UK, there have been so many cases of children committing suicide, because of being bullied through social media – the latest boy was only nine years old.
Finally, it is not only young people who have become addicted to their Smartphones. Media addiction is also affecting the older generation. I have seen families sitting in restaurants, not saying a word to each other but scrolling down on their phones instead – the parents worse than the children. What sort of role model is this, when parents and even grandparents are constantly scrolling through social media or tweeting, when they should be enjoying their children? What have we been reduced to? It is time to get our lives back again.