What Next: TBD | Tech, power, and the future - Will Banning Social Media Help Kids?
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3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2023
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
A new law in Utah that goes into effect next year states that anyone under 18 needs parental permission to use social media. Is it a necessary step to protect children from harms associated with social media, or are we blunting a tool of expression for the youth?
Guest: Dr. Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at American Psychological Association
Host: Lizzie O’Leary
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So first off, why don't you just say your name and introduce yourself, tell me who you are. |
| 0:09.0 | My name is Vishal Krubasamy, I'm a high school junior right now and I'm in the Reno Nevada |
| 0:14.2 | area. |
| 0:15.2 | Vishal is 17 and he's been on social media since the winter of 2019 when he joined TikTok |
| 0:24.3 | in middle school. |
| 0:25.3 | I'm not sure if I exactly like this, but one reason why I was using TikTok is because |
| 0:29.3 | the videos are very, very good at showing you what you want to see and they're really |
| 0:34.1 | catered towards your interests. |
| 0:36.3 | So it's honestly kind of hard to get off TikTok once you start, but I think since it's |
| 0:42.1 | just so catered to you, that's what drew me in towards TikTok and I never really experienced |
| 0:46.9 | the same type of feeling when I was using Instagram or Snapchat. |
| 0:52.1 | Vishal's feed was mostly sports, basketball and football, with some memes and music thrown |
| 0:58.2 | in. |
| 0:59.2 | But earlier this year, he started to realize that he was scrolling for no particular reason. |
| 1:06.1 | And when he looked at his iPhone's screen time reports, they started to worry him. |
| 1:10.7 | There was a point where I was seeing screen time of like eight hours a day and then I would |
| 1:17.2 | go in and try and investigate it a little bit more and six of those eight hours are just |
| 1:21.8 | on TikTok. |
| 1:22.8 | So once I saw that, I realized like, I'm just spending way too much time on here. |
| 1:28.1 | And this is probably not good for my mental health. |
| 1:33.0 | What about it, mate? |
| 1:34.0 | Do you think it wasn't good for your mental health? |
... |
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