Parents bemoan impact of social media on teens
29th April 2024 · 0 Comments
By Mason Harrison
Contributing Writer
Two decades after social media companies rose to prominence on the pledge to “move fast and break things,” few could have imagined that the thing tech firms would end up breaking would be America’s children.
A growing chorus of parents across the country are insisting that not only has social media shattered the lives of many young people, but that Big Tech executives hid evidence of the dangers of their platforms.
Kelvin Goode is the founder of ClaimsHero, a newly formed arbitrator leading the quest for legal redress on behalf of Black parents whose children have developed a habit-forming relationship with social media. “Kids are using technology similar to what is used to keep people addicted to slot machines,” Goode said, referring to the algorithmic supply of dopamine that rewards a user’s extended use of social media.
“I got involved in this because I wanted to find a way to give back to my community,” said Goode, a Jamaica, Queens, native who made good as a white shoe lawyer representing some of the country’s largest corporations. “But the work I was doing, helping to shield companies from liability, made it hard for everyday people to hold corporations accountable. I decided to make a difference by changing whose interests I chose to defend.”
Goode’s company is seeking claimants who either as adults or minors suffered harm from social media, including parents struggling to wean their children off addictive apps known to cause emotional distress.
“My daughter started using social media at 11 when I began to notice changes in her behavior,” said Zoltina, a Shreveport mother whose 16-year-old daughter is an avid user of the social media app TikTok. “She started hanging with the wrong crowd, ran away from home twice and was always on her phone.”
Zoltina, whose last name is being withheld to protect the privacy of a minor, said her daughter’s social media use is affecting her health. “She gets migraines all of the time because of how often she stares at the screen on her phone and she needs melatonin to fall asleep because of the disruption to her sleep cycle.”
Demand for melatonin – the sleep-inducing hormone produced by the brain at night – has jumped in the past decade, according to health researchers, but the supplement has not been approved for use as a sleep aid by the federal government and has been shown to have negative health effects when used in excess.
Zoltina made numerous efforts to restrict her daughter’s access to social media to no avail. “I took her phone away, then I bought her a government phone that she couldn’t use to access social media, but she would just use other people’s phones. She would ask her friends or other relatives to use their phones.”
Depression, anxiety, school-related violence and self-harm also accompanied her teenager’s descent into an eight-hour-a-day dependency on social media that she argues borders on addiction. “I had to place her in an in-patient mental health care facility and now need to find a competent therapist to help her.”
Baton Rouge native Earl Turner is a clinical psychologist, professor at Pepperdine University and founder of the blog, Therapy for Black Kids. Turner specializes in creating digital detox strategies for Black teens.
“Parents should understand that there is a form of compensation that their children receive from being on social media and that supervision is needed to minimize exposure to harmful content,” Turner said. “Eating disorders and engaging in self-harm can result from regular consumption of certain material online.”
Black parents should seek help for their teen’s social media misuse from culturally competent clinicians, said Turner, because children are more likely to respond well to treatment in a culturally aware setting.
“I recommend parents ask if a therapist has experience working with Black youth and families, whether he or she has a history of working with clients who experience racial discrimination or has undergone continuing education on the subject of race and how that affects the experience of Black teens online.
“If the answer to any of those questions is ‘no,’ then perhaps that is not the therapist for your family,” he said, noting that on average Black youths encounter anti-Black racism on social media five times a day.
“They are all addicted,” said Alicia, referring to teenagers, social media and her 15-year-old niece who lives in Thibodaux Parish and is fond of sending her aunt “messages from TikTok at all hours of the night.”
How much social media use is too much remains a source of debate within the family, with the teen’s mother, Monique, taking a more liberal stance toward her daughter D’Amoure’s long hours spent online. “Well, what is too much?” Monique asked. “When we were kids we stayed up all night long watching movies. I make sure that I monitor her and ensure that all she is doing online is making dance videos.”
D’Amoure estimated she spends up to 12 hours a day on social media, with her favorite apps being TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Roblox and Facebook. “I think older people should understand that they are on social media just as much as we are,” she said, deflecting criticism from adults about how often teens are online.
“Parents have to model good social media behavior if they expect their children to do so,” Turner said. “So, if you, as a parent, are spending a lot of time online then your child is going to take cues from you.”
Starting in July, minors in Louisiana will need their parents’ permission to create social media accounts thanks to a bill signed into law last summer by outgoing governor John Bel Edwards. “I do not know how states plan to realistically enforce these statutes,” Turner said. “Kids can simply lie about their ages.”
Goode hopes that social media companies will be forced to make changes to their platforms, including creating better parental controls, not allowing children to make multiple accounts and eliminating the waiting period between when a parent deletes a social media account and when their child’s profile is actually removed online. For parents like Zoltina, these simple industry changes can’t come soon enough.
“I feel like I am about to lose my daughter,” she sobbed, “and I don’t know what to do.”
This article originally published in the April 29, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
