Social Media is Taking Its Toll and Kids Are Ditching It!

I don’t know about you, but it usually takes me under 4.7 seconds on social media to start getting frustrated. All the “fake news” and bickering (of which I am admittedly a part of), political fighting and other random nonsense takes it’s toll.

It doesn’t take much to understand some of the evils of social media, yet, we are constantly scrolling through our feeds. Is there a change on the horizon? Well, maybe!

The Harvard Business Review put out an article titled the “The Era of Antisocial Media” and this is the part that struck me:

For example, 2019 findings from Edison Research and Triton Digital show social media usage overall among Americans 12 to 34 years old across several platforms has either leveled off or is waning, while 2019 research from Global Web Index suggests that the amount of time millennial and Gen Z audiences spend on many social platforms is either flat, declining, or not rising as greatly as it has in years’ past.

Yes, indeed! It’s KIDS who are leading the pack in ditching social media for more real and meaningful personal relationships!

To understand what’s driving this shift, you need only talk to young people. They’re saying that after years spent constructing carefully curated online identities and accumulating heaps of online “friends,” they want to be themselves and make real friends based on shared interests. They’re also craving privacy, safety, and a respite from the throngs of people on social platforms — throngs that now usually include their parents.

They point out that this doesn’t mean kids are ditching technology. They still have their phones in hand, but instead of logging on to some gigantic social media platform and blasting our every thought; instead, they are congregating in smaller more intimate groups (think group texts), Facebook Groups, and others.

It’s a fascinating shift that’s taking place, all spearheaded by those dang kids!