“It’s interesting to see Instagram and Snapchat ranking as the worst for mental health and wellbeing. Both platforms are very image-focused and it appears that they may be driving feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in young people,” said Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society for Public Health, which undertook the survey with the Young Health Movement.Two organisations that could also be said to be 'driving feelings of inadequacy and anxiety'..?
She demanded tough measures “to make social media less of a wild west when it comes to young people’s mental health and wellbeing”.
Social media firms should bring in a pop-up image to warn young people that they have been using it a lot, while Instagram and similar platforms should alert users when photographs of people have been digitally manipulated, Cramer said.OK, let's tackle the first idiotic suggestion: these apps and programmes already exist, and if young people felt it was a concern, there's nothing to stop them using them.
And as for the second....well, how on earth could you even...?
However, the leader of the UK’s psychiatrists said the findings were too simplistic and unfairly blamed social media for the complex reasons why the mental health of so many young people is suffering.
Prof Sir Simon Wessely, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “I am sure that social media plays a role in unhappiness, but it has as many benefits as it does negatives.. We need to teach children how to cope with all aspects of social media – good and bad – to prepare them for an increasingly digitised world. There is real danger in blaming the medium for the message.”I fear this eminently sensible view from a genuine expert will simply go unnoticed. Because the amateurs are connected.
Young Minds, the charity which Theresa May visited last week on a campaign stop, backed the call for Instagram and other platforms to take further steps to protect young users.*sighs*
Tom Madders, its director of campaigns and communications, said: “Prompting young people about heavy usage and signposting to support they may need, on a platform that they identify with, could help many young people.”You mean, help you stay in a cushy job?
3 comments:
This youth health problem will not be solved by tinkering by advocating changing human behaviour or prohibition or blaming specific suppliers of those things that are demanded. The problem goes much deeper than that as at it's heart is the very essence of our society. A society with standards, values and morals that are degenerate , hedonistic and decadent which the majority of us do not find fault with and whilst this is the case expect more mental health problems and many more equally as debilitating disorders.
Of course parents could always insist thier kids used the internet less, and Instagram less, and the little cosseted snowflakes could always take personal responsibility and
do something other than grind away on thier phones during every spare moment, but that would put the professional, taxpayer funded nannying groups out of business now, wouldn't it?
"A society with standards, values and morals that are degenerate , hedonistic and decadent which the majority of us do not find fault with and whilst this is the case expect more mental health problems and many more equally as debilitating disorders."
Sadly true.
"...but that would put the professional, taxpayer funded nannying groups out of business now, wouldn't it?"
It's fast overtaking undertakers as the most secure profession!
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