“What does the government expect us to do? Go outside!?”

I'm halfway through giving a presentation to a youth advisory council at a local government. These young people are engaged, they are there because they want to make a difference in their community. A facilitator's dream.

We are talking about the issues that they are most concerned about, and no prizes for guessing the topic that kept coming up: the social media ban.

One student was so passionate about this topic that she launched right into it, telling me exactly what she thought.

"What does the government expect us to do without social media?? Go outside?"

After I picked my jaw up off the floor I probed a little more and asked her

"So you're saying you wouldn't just go outside because it's a nice day?"

"Umm no."

I tried to mask the shock and horror that had crept onto my face as she continued..

"What I would do is go on tiktok and look at inspirational nature and travel content and then once I feel inspired I'd go outside".

Young people have a fundamentally different world view to older generations - that much is clear. So just implementing a blanket social media ban is going to disrupt their lives with potentially unintended consequences that might make things worse, rather than better. What we need to do is support kids to transition off social media and build up their communities offline.

Social media ban workshops are the best way to educate your staff, students and parents about the ban. Book in for a social media ban presentation for your school, organisation or local government.