A Summary of the Documentary, LIKE – Examining the Impact of Social Media on Our Lives
Last Tuesday evening, Enhance West Van, brought the social media documentary, LIKE, to the West Vancouver Recreation Centre. It was another thought provoking Indie documentary which I would recommend to all parents, tweens and teens. This particular showing was complemented by a panel discussion afterwards.
Are you using technology or is technology using you?
The film discussed how persuasive psychology is used to attract people to specific platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram etc. In particular, “variable rewards” is used which is similar to what happens with slot machines, and is highly addictive. Each time someone “likes” or comments on what you’ve posted, you receive a little squirt of Dopamine and this tells the PFC (prefrontal cortex)… I want more.
The colour red is also by design – it is used to tell you how many notifications you have, and the brain is more likely to want to pay attention to it and dismiss the colour of red.
Before, Instagram hid the number of hearts that one would receive for a post, it was common for the person posting, to delete their post if it did not receive a hundred likes or more! Thankfully, Instagram has recently stopped making this information public, so now only the owner of the post can see the number of likes that they’ve received, but of course they still judge themselves on how much external validation they receive through likes and comments.
All of this social comparison is extremely detrimental to mental health.
Mental Health and Phones
The statistics now say that one in three will have an anxiety disorder by age 25yrs. The film also said that youth who spend more time on their phones have more depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. Phone usage is going out of control.
There are also higher than ever rates of BDD – Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
People who have body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) think about their real or perceived flaws for hours each day. They can’t control their negative thoughts and don’t believe people who tell them that they look fine. Their thoughts may cause severe emotional distress and interfere with their daily functioning. They may miss work or school, avoid social situations and isolate themselves, even from family and friends, because they fear others will notice their flaws.
The doctor in the film explained that “selfies” reinforce perceived flaws, because one’s face is naturally distorted in a selfie due to the close proximity that the photo is taken. Therefore, youth are looking at distorted images of themselves on social media all the time.
Also, it’s now easy to edit out pimples, add filters etc. which all adds to the pressure of having the “perfect” look.
Tweens and teens are branding themselves by what they post. There is constant judgment.
Dr. Shimi Kang, local teen psychiatrist and author of The Dolphin Parent has a new book coming out soon, called The Tech Solution. She compares the technology we consume to the food we eat, and explains that we should consume content in moderation and according to how it’s impacting us.
For example, one hour of content, where we compare ourselves to others, is like toxins, and releases cortisol.
One hour of scrolling is like junk food, and releases dopamine, which creates addiction.
One hour of positive, inspirational quotes releases seratonin and is more like healthy food.
Another panel member, who suffered with anxiety and depression herself, recommended auditing your followers and who you follow and to only follow positive influences.
Dr. Shimi Kang quoted slogans such as “Wait Until Grade 8” and “No Screens ’til Teens” which are in support of holding off on smart phones for as long as possible.
For many people, the phone is the first and last thing of their day. Thus, it is recommended to use a real alarm clock vs. a phone for waking up and use Night Shift mode or the F.lux app to turn off the blue light at night time.
One teen in the film commented that we no longer use our phones as a phone! How true is that?! It’s a camera, it plays music, it types messages etc. but it’s rare for teens to actually call each other on the phone! In fact, some teens have anxiety about actually speaking to someone on a phone.
There is also the experience of FOMO – Fear of Missing Out. On Snap Map, (through Snapchat), one can look and see where everyone is, so it soon becomes evident if there’s a gathering with a group, and you weren’t invited. Also, on Instagram, youth feel excluded as they see group photos at gatherings where they weren’t included. We used to only feel this social pressure while we were at school, but now it is with tweens and teens all the time, as long as they are looking at their phones.
It was also a reminder that parents need to role model. If parents are always on a screen, then children will model that behaviour.
Phones encourage us to multi-task but this is making us much less efficient – it takes 23 minutes to refocus after a distraction.
The film was mostly focussed on highlighting the detrimental effects of too much screen time. One panel member objected to this and explained that some teens, who now have the ability to text a mental health line, while in school, are getting more support for their mental health. She also mentioned the positive effects of Twitter etc. in its ability to mobilize world-wide environmental marches etc.
As we know, technology is here to stay but the key message is that we have to set limits on the amount of time that our kids are on their screens and when they start to engage with social media. (The legal age of social media sites is 13 years old.) It is recommended to have wifi completely shut down during sleeping hours so that teens aren’t up until the early morning hours on their video games etc. It is also recommended to have screen time-limits, which can be set through various wifi service providers etc.
I do believe that screen-time and social media is increasing the high levels of anxiety, depression and low self-esteem, and we need to take steps to be proactive about this.
This may be a film that you ask your school or parent activity council to host. Details are here.
Warmly,
PS. Registration is now open for my next round of Brain Science groups to teach 7-9 year olds and 10-12 year olds about anxiety and anxiety management strategies. You can view the flyer, for more information, here. You can also phone the ABLE Clinic at 604-922-3450 to find out more and to register.
For my previous article on handling screen time and some recommendations by Dr. Gordon Neufeld click here.
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