Hey, my dear friend! Welcome to another edition of my newsletter. Let me thank you for your support and tell you how much I value it.
Now, today’s post covers a serious topic which is not really connected with photography, more with technology and education.
I want to add that I’m not a psychologist nor a qualified expert on the topic: I just want to share some personal thoughts and bring my experience up for discussion.
I’m the father of an 8-year-old boy and I often find myself and my wife discussing how to help him grow in the best way and with the strongest values and ethics. And, at the same time, how to help him be aware that the world outside can be dangerous in the same measure it can be beautiful.
A few weeks ago, I stumbled on a project called Laika 13. Laika is a 13-year-old Swedish girl completely created with AI. She’s been exposed to social media since the age of 8 and she’s been followed to understand the risks and the problems that social media can cause to our teenagers if they are left with no control.
"AN INHUMANE EXPERIMENT
Laika is an AI teenager raised solely on social media. Her personality, ideals, and opinions are 100 % shaped by the content and climate of popular digital platforms. Through her, we can observe and understand the potential risks of consuming too much social media, without exposing real kids. Laika is used for mental health research and education."That’s impressive. I mean, I’d like to bring up two points here. The first is the power of technology. We are now able to create these kinds of experiments without having to crash real people’s minds. And study the effects in a safe environment. The second is the core of the experiment itself. We need to care about our kids before it’s too late.
My son is now the same age as when Laika started her journey on social media. Honestly, I haven’t given him a smartphone yet (and he hasn’t asked yet), though he’s allowed to watch some YouTube under my or my wife’s supervision. I feel it’s not by forbidding him to use technology that I will teach him how to be prepared. I have to know in first person what the world he’s growing up in is like, what are the trends, what are the interests that children of his age like. Awareness is the best weapon.
"Laika’s childhood was filled with activities, friendships, and a curiosity about the world. Everything changed when she discovered social media at the age of eight. She was captivated by the digital platforms, and over the years, her contact with the outside world decreased. She isolated herself, replacing personal contacts with virtual ones, schoolwork with endless scrolling, and her own personality with imitations of popular influencers."As I said, I’m not an expert on this topic. It’s a complex and delicate one and I leave it to those who study it.
I just made a quick search to see what are the risks of a prolonged social media exposure on teenagers and the results that most of the time pop up are scary:
- Mental Health Impacts: Research suggests that excessive use of social media can be linked to various mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, loneliness, and low self-esteem among teenagers. Factors such as cyberbullying, social comparison, and the pressure to present an idealized version of oneself online can contribute to these negative outcomes.
- Addiction and Distraction: Social media platforms are designed to be addictive, with features like notifications, likes, and scrolling feeds that encourage users to spend more time on them. Excessive use of social media can lead to addiction-like behaviours and may interfere with teenagers’ ability to focus on other important activities such as schoolwork, hobbies, or face-to-face interactions.
- Impact on Sleep: The use of social media, particularly before bedtime, can disrupt sleep patterns, leading to inadequate sleep duration and quality. Exposure to the blue light emitted by screens and the stimulation from engaging with social media content can interfere with the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, potentially contributing to sleep disorders and daytime fatigue among teenagers.
- Cyberbullying and Online Safety: Social media platforms can serve as a breeding ground for cyberbullying and harassment, which can have serious consequences for teenagers’ mental health and well-being. Additionally, concerns about online privacy and the potential for exposure to inappropriate or harmful content are prevalent in discussions about social media use among teenagers.
The influence that social media has on people is tremendous. Even adults suffer from depression, anxiety and other problems connected to how “followers” react or don’t react to their content.
Teenagers often can’t rely on a solid background of experience, lived life and education to face the implications of social media exposure.
The risk is they start to think that the virtual world is the real world. And the risk is they start to think that the near absence of rules in the virtual world, translates into a near absence of rules in the real world.
From experience, I understand taking care of our kids is hard. It’s much easier to let them do whatever they want because, as many say, “everyone grows up, in the end”. The problem is HOW they grow up.
I don’t want my son to be on the news like the time someone burnt a homeless person when they were bored (yes, this happened for real, it was in the news some years ago) or when an old man was killed because he was trying to defend a young woman during a discussion with her boyfriend (yes, this also happened for real).
I don’t want to bury my son because he took part in some stupid nonsense challenge on whatever platform when I should have taught him to understand what is fun and what is dangerous.
I am a techie, and I work in the IT industry. I love technology and all the tools we can use to simplify our lives, to be creative, connected, and to make this world even smaller.
Technology is an ally.
My duty, as a parent, is to train and show my kid how beautiful it is. How he can rely on it for a number of tasks and in a number of situations. Most importantly, my duty is to show him how dangerous and harmful it can be if he’s not educated on how to use it. On how to distinguish between what’s helping and what’s causing problems.
My duty, as a parent, is to walk beside him and make sure he is aware of the world around him, so he can be a balanced human being and understand his decisions.
So he will not become like Laika.
Take care and talk soon!