THESE times we are living through feel like we are almost going back in history. The price of electricity and gas has us thinking seriously about leaning into Victorian times and wondering if living by candlelight – which is free – would suit us better.
Anyone who has visited a petrol pump in the last few months must surely have had the thought that running a horse might be a cheaper alternative until all of this 'cost of living' stuff blows over.
If we are going back in time, and the option is there to drop some stuff from the present, I would like us to also lose social media. I am an adult and I find social media exhausting at times, infuriating at other times and quite depressing, particularly Northern Ireland social media. Goodness knows what our young people think of it.
There is so much negativity on social media at the moment it is a massive positivity-sucking virtual energy vampire. Head onto Twitter any day of the week and you'll find the usual suspects clanging their negative chimes of doom with increased vigour, heralding the apocalypse 10 times a day, encouraging anger, frustration and division.
It's hard for me, an adult, to absorb. I can only imagine the impact it has on younger people, who basically live their lives on social media. Our young people were born into the digital age, and during the pandemic were thrust even deeper into the virtual arena because of lockdown.
People of a certain vintage, and I include myself in that, are confident that the real world is what happens beyond your phone screen. Our young people's worlds are often contained in the small device in their pockets and what happens there impacts on their lives.
Research conducted in 2018 by the Pew Research Center found that 45 per cent of 13 – 17-year-olds polled said they were 'online constantly' and that 97 per cent of teenagers polled used some manner of social media daily. That is a lot of time spent online.
On Twitter, which is a big virtual bar room brawl, 24/7. On YouTube, which can be a platform for a lot of disinformation. On Instagram, which paints an often falsely positive picture of other people's lives.
There is no doubt that children and teenagers use social media to have fun, share videos, maintain friendships, be creative and explore their identities, all good stuff. But there is also a direct link between social media and self-esteem, body image and cyber bullying. There is also some suggestion that it can impact negatively on mental health.
Because this environment is a key part in how our young people connect with friends, we need to make sure that they are aware of the pitfalls and dangers that lurk in that world.
Like the rest of us, when we log in we can be exposed to inappropriate or upsetting content. In the last month, I've seen photos of dead bodies pop up on my timeline, videos of shooting incidents, images from warzones.
Our young people are seeing the same thing day and daily. They are being exposed to mean, aggressive, hostile comments, some of a sexual nature, often posted by anonymous trolls who seek out people to target.
Social media is akin to the Wild West at times and here in Northern Ireland it is that multiplied by 100. Young people are sharing videos with sectarian comments or hate-filled rhetoric about people's identity or sexuality. They don't need to shout it at someone in the street any more, they post it online and it is shared thousands of times, it has a much farther reach. Hurtful and abusive comments that impact on our young people's confidence are coming through to them on their trusted devices in their safe spaces.
I will not go full Mary Whitehouse and demand that social media be banned, but we do need to ensure our kids know that it's not the real world, that agitators make snide, nasty comments simply so to attract followers and widen their reach. And, like the rest of us, they need to unplug and come live in the real world for a little while.
