Of Teens, Antisocial Media and Leadership

Reading Time: 2 minutes
In England, Australia and Switzerland
parents want to ban mobile phones from children beneath 14 years of age. In theory this is an excellent idea this is a fantastic and fabulous idea, because it means parents can avoid spending thousands of francs per year on mobile phones, and tech is seen as toxic.

In practice parents are scapegoating the medium, rather than the source of the problem. Facebook, Zynga, Supercell and many other companies are deliberately targeting people to make their platforms addictive and compelling. In my eyes, and in those of others Social Media platforms should be held to account. In my eyes the issue is not mobile phones, or social media that is the problem. Toxic leadership is.

Years ago I started, but never finished, reading the Ten Cent Plague. It’s a book looking at how comic books were vilified decades ago by parents in the 40s, 50s and beyond. It explored how culture saw comic books as both a waste of time, but also a source of dumbing down of children, much as smart phones AI are vilified today.

Smartphones are a medium. They do what we want them to. If we want to use them as an e-book we can. If we want to use them to watch documentaries we can. If we want to use them to take pictures then we can. If we want to use them to chat with friends that we are not currently with, we can.

Some people think that the medium of mobile phones is addictive and toxic, but it’s not the device that is toxic. It’s how apps are designed to be addictive that is toxic. FB is toxic. Instagram is toxic. TikTok discourages healthy conversations.

I don’t see anyone saying the Guardian app is toxic, the e-mail app is toxic, the NYTimes app is toxic. If FB, IG and other apps are toxic I would follow up with their leaderships, and I would ban or restrict these apps.

I would go further. I believe that the apps that parents see as toxic for children are toxic for adults too, and that adults, as well as teenagers should hold the makers of toxic apps to account. Instead of banning smart phones we should ban those apps that have a toxic effect on our emotional and intellectual well being.

Don’t blame the medium for its content.