All the evidence shows that we need to teach young people how to use new technologies, not ban them
The latest Pew Research Center study, the most accurate and reliable observatory of US technological trends, shows that YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram are still the most popular platforms for 13-to-17-year-olds.
Some 93% of young people use YouTube, with 16% admitting to being hooked, followed by TikTok (63% and 17%), Snapchat (60% and 14%) and Instagram (59% and 8%). In contrast, barely 33% say they have used Facebook, and just 3% of them use it all the time.
What does this say about an entire generation that is addicted to their smartphone? Doesn’t it suggest that we’ve got pretty much everything wrong? Perhaps we should recognize that we should be teaching our children how to use digital technologies.
The most popular networks are the most addictive: their recommendation algorithms are designed to favor doomscrolling, which is linked to poor physical and mental health among young people and leads to higher stickiness and more time in the app, which increases their exposure to advertising.
Faced with this evidence, how does a large part of society react? Some people are grouping together on platforms and demanding that schools ban smartphones and that a minimum age be set for their use, as…
