Social media users urged to turn off
SOCIAL media users in the UK are being urged to switch off Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat in September amid growing concern about the impact of social media on mental health.
The Royal Society for Public Health is calling on people to stop using the platforms in September, or to cut down the amount of time they spend on them.
Those taking part in the Scroll Free September campaign, which runs for the entire month, can continue using instant messaging platforms and social media for work.
Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the RSPH, said: ‘The aim is that by the end of the month, we will be able to reflect back on what we missed, what we didn’t, and what we got to enjoy instead of scrolling through our news feeds.’
Jim Harding, director of Bully 4u, an Irishbased group that provides anti-cyberbullying and digital safety workshops to children and parents, said that while this is an ‘excellent’ campaign, it is more realistic to expect people to cut down on social media use instead of cutting it out completely.
‘I know that if I was to say to somebody “you can’t use your Facebook for a month”, they would look at me as if I had two heads. Whereas if you said to them “you can’t use it on Tuesdays this month”… they’d give it a bit more serious consideration,’ he said.
Mr Harding believes that social media is giving young people unrealistic expectations, and that cutting back on their online activity during set periods would be a ‘huge benefit’ to their mental health.
‘I think it’s time that we came back into the real world instead of living our lives in a cloud and watching other people,’ he said. ‘They’re living in this virtual world. They’re being turned into commodities where they see themselves as a product, where they’re looking for approval and that can be very damaging for mental health.’
Mr Harding said that children are more likely to stick to a campaign such as this one if their friends are also engaging in it.
‘Trying to separate the phone from the child is like trying to remove an arm or a leg. Whereas if it is done en masse, within a class situation, a year situation, a school situation, it’s far more effective.’
The ISPCC encouraged parents to draw up a ‘screen time contract’ with their children, setting a limit on how much time they are allowed to spend in front of screens.
‘We do feel that parents have a role to play of course in this supervision,’ a spokesperson said.
The HSE told the Mail their Start campaign provides parents with tips on limiting screen time, and a campaign around screen time will be launched in the autumn.
The Department of Health said it has no plans to run a school-based campaign focused on reducing social media usage, but it recognises the importance of internet safety and has several initiatives in the area and online mental health support courses.