We’ve seen social media use skyrocket in recent years amongst children as young as nine, often leading to negative or even tragic consequences. Perhaps this isn’t so much the fault of the platforms themselves — rather, modern societal norms have led children to being left, quite literally, to their own devices.
All Work and No Play
In a culture that encourages both parents to work full-time jobs, is it any surprise that quality time with the kids is steadily decreasing? Between school and work commitments, most parents spend less than an hour a day with their children and just six hours together weekly. When you think about it, an hour a day is very little time for forging meaningful family bonds. It’s not even long enough to watch a movie. But could this sparsity of free time be responsible for the rise in social media use among young people?
What social media undeniably offers is a startling array of role models. Influencers, whether intentionally or not, tend to position themselves as the perfect role models because of their apparent success. And so, a child might think: Wow, look, an adult who’s made millions, just by streaming Minecraft gameplay! How cool would it be if I grew up to be just like him? Of course, success is a complex matter, but children often don’t know any better. What they see is the polished persona of a content creator who has been blessed by the algorithm that placed them on TikTok’s front page.
By having a constant presence, influencers unlike absent parents can become instant role models to a child than a mother or father who are constantly short on time. The cost-of-living crisis has contributed to this issue, forcing parents to work even more hours to keep food on the table. Fellow adults can understand the struggle to cough up enough money for rent and will sympathise with the need to work more. But children are different. They have no understanding of budgeting, running a household, or how many hours of work are needed to produce enough income. More often, what they see is a parent who can’t take time away from their job to play Mario Karts or take a walk in the park. When all things are considered, it’s understandable why kids spend so much time on their devices. TikTok shorts can help a child escape into a reality where fun things happen to the people they admire.
Is Modern Culture to Blame?
Having to work full-time jobs leaves many parents with little energy, time and enthusiasm to become inspirational role models for their children. This is not the fault of parents but more a consequence of the culture we live in. From age 5 to 21, we’ve been told it’s education, education, education! until we land that entry-level job. After that, we’re encouraged to spend every moment until retirement career-climbing. Between career building and saving enough for a comfortable retirement, we’re also expected to find the time and resources to raise a family. While this may have been possible until the early ’90s, the twenty-first century brought with it rapid inflation, wage stagnation and a financial crisis. The idea of achieving that suburban idyll as long as you work hard enough has stopped being realistic for some time.
The reality is that a full-time UK employee works an average of 7.28 hours per day. This doesn’t account for shifts that employees often have to pick up due to sickness or understaffing on weekends and evenings. Adding to this 6 to 8 hours for sleeping, time for cooking, travelling and housework, and you end up with very little quality time for parents to leave an impression on their child, beyond the image of a constantly busy adult. If a child has to wait two hours after school for their parents to get home from work, they’ll likely pass the time on a mobile device.
From YouTube to various social media platforms, becoming interested in an influencer’s content is now almost an inevitable outcome of children spending so much time on their own. Being just a click away, these online strangers end up being more present in their lives than their parents. So, is it any wonder that kids are spending more time on their devices?
Content Creators are Not the Problem
According to the National Literacy Trust, ‘more than half (52.6%) of children and young people said that they look up to a YouTuber’.
It might seem that I’m targeting content creators — I’ll be the first to admit I’ve put them in the firing line before. But for once, I’m not. Content creators are not the problem here; they’re simply the people that left-alone kids often resort to.
Unless the cost-of-living crisis improves, the problem of having no time for play is likely to get worse. The work-life imbalance has already been normalised to the point where being a stay-at-home father or mother is less a viable life choice and more a luxury for those with low or middling incomes.
Ironically, COVID-19 may have helped this issue very slightly by forcing employers to switch to remote and partially remote work for their employees. This way, at least working parents can now be around their children, despite being unable to actively engage in play or other activities. Sadly, the work-from-home ‘revolution’ has done little to help retail assistants, factory workers, and anyone else who must be on-site to carry out their work duties. Additionally, these are often the people who have to work longer hours to maintain a stable income.
Perhaps what we need is better cooperation between employers and the people who keep their companies going. Something akin to Denmark’s model seems to better respect the work-life balance by giving parents more time for family life. The bottom line is that social media often fills a parenting void, and something needs to be done before it’s too late.
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