If Ireland can achieve something like a smartphone ban for children under 16, it will be landmark moment, akin to how the country, in many respects, led the way on smoking bans. This is what the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) is calling for, characterising smartphone use and social media content as “overwhelmingly destructive”, and calling on the Government to treat smartphone and social media usage “as a public health emergency”.
Ireland is not unique in this characterisation. In May 2023, the United States surgeon general, Dr Vivek Murthy, issued a new advisory on social media and its risk of harm to the mental health and wellbeing of children and adolescents saying: “We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address.”
In June, he wrote a piece for the New York Times calling for a warning label on social media platforms, “stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents”.
But if we’re going to be serious about this, we will have to admit that it’s not just children and adolescents who are being damaged by digital addiction and the negative consequences of both the hardware and software that creates it. There is a crisis of adult smartphone usage too.
Chophouse in Ballsbridge latest restaurant to close: ‘We have tried everything’
Who earns the most? Employees in information and communication sector have highest median weekly earnings
Eamon Ryan ‘shocked’ at over-€335,000 cost of bike shed at Leinster House
Sharp increase in ‘doorstep’ passport checks on flights arriving in Dublin
If children’s social media usage is a public health emergency, then it is also that for adults. Of course, children – their brains not yet fully developed – suffer the most, but if something’s bad for your health, then it’s bad at every age. If adults were able to be more discerning, if they had control over their smartphone and social media addictions, if they didn’t get plunged into weird time-blindness vortexes, if they hadn’t shattered their attention spans too, if they didn’t reach for their phone more often than real-life interactions, if they didn’t end up in a cycle of anxiety around social media, then maybe this wouldn’t be an adult problem. But it is. So what are we going to do about that?
If I could take back every moment I have ever spent on social media, I would. On balance, all of it has been worthless. Like many people, the way I use my phone often feels compulsive. Once locked in, 20 minutes can pass like nothing at all. I kid myself with magical thinking that some excessive use (but I’m just playing Spelling Bee! It’s not like I’m on TikTok!) is better than others. But it’s all a profound waste of time.
The IMO said: “Our young people are exposed to a toxic mix of both extraordinarily harmful content and social media platforms that use features such as infinite scroll to promote more user activity, creating a vicious circle of use.” But surely that’s also true of adults’ exposure?
Like all entrenched crises, this one generates new forms and bleeds out into many facets of life and society. Earlier this year, the National Election and Democratic Study (NEDS) for Ireland undertook a survey to coincide with the local and European elections. What was especially alarming was the conspiracy theory section. In response to the statement, “elected officials want more immigration to bring in obedient voters who will vote for them”, 7 per cent of respondents said this was “definitely true”, 15 per cent said it was “probably true” and 19 per cent were “not sure”. In terms of the racist conspiracy broadly known as the “Great Replacement Theory” – or how it was framed in the survey as this statement: “The establishment is replacing white Irish people with non-white immigrants” – 9 per cent said this was “definitely true”, 13 per cent said it was “probably true” and 18 per cent said they were “not sure”. As for the statement “Viruses and/or diseases have been deliberately disseminated to infect certain populations”, 6 per cent said this was “definitely true”, 15 per cent said it was “probably true” and 19 per cent were “not sure”.
There are serious issues here – not just with media literacy, critical thinking, bigotry and rage – but what’s driving it. Most propaganda that turns people against each other happens online. Many people will unfortunately be familiar with how excessive social media use and chronically online behaviour has altered the personalities and behaviours of people they know. This too is a public health issue and a serious mental and emotional health issue.
[ Justine McCarthy: We need to talk about why we’re all so angryOpens in new window ]
So absolutely, let’s protect children and young people. Let’s do whatever we can to ensure they do not have to walk down the regrettable path that so many adults have, when social media platforms were sold to us as exciting “tools”, with unfettered access, no concept of “screen time”, and all the naivety of the explorer who accidentally falls into a volcano. It’s one thing to instruct children to dump their phones. It’s another thing for adults everywhere to practise what we’re preaching to those coming up behind us. That too needs a public health response. I’m not sure how that takes form beyond digital detoxes, burner phones and cancelling social media accounts. Perhaps all three are a start. I think many of us yearn to have our less-addled brains back, whatever that takes.