By PETER AUSTIN
I am encouraged to see that despite the anticipated challenges, Australia has gone ahead with addressing problems associated with one troubling aspect of our online lives: social media.
The social media ban they initiated may be difficult for some young people, who have suggested social connection is an important consideration and a benefit of social media. I do not see the benefit justifying the cost. One aspect we have become accustomed to if not addicted to is fast access that is broad-sweeping and provides an efficient task-completion experience, and we now often rely on that efficiency to get through busy days. With virtually every aspect of our lives connected to our devices we may be overlooking the treasure we are providing those who analyze data and set algorithms. It will be interesting to watch and see if social media companies are as addicted to the data at stake as their targets, and how they react.
I wonder if a second internet with no money or data collection for profit might be a starting point. We can put education, health care, news, governance and other aspects of life we wish to leave off of our smartphones on the present internet, and it would be more suitable for younger Canadians. Let us mandate a “dumb phone” be manufactured that is better than a flip phone, one that isn’t engineered to redirect you back to a smartphone because texting is not part of a flip phone’s design. A phone with less focus on data collection and not connected to accounts that sell data, one that is safer for developing minds and stubborn old ones too. Some payphones would help. Where did they all go?
The ability to study children’s mental health as they navigate the ban may reveal some things that adults fear may affect them too and may lead to a relaxation of the ban. The examination of a major change of use with addictive social media applications is an opportunity to look at the overall role of how our online lives impact real-world lives and challenges . . . for all ages!
If your roommate acted like a cell phone, constantly making recommendations, updating you and keeping track of everything you did and sharing it while making noise and requiring energy constantly, you would not want to live with them, so why do you? Is it convenience or dependence?
Spend some time with our youth and offer them some information human to human. Show them how to find information in other ways. Have talking circles to share experiences that are tech-free. Use airplane mode, leave your phones in another room and try to find some aspects of your life that can be shifted from devices.
“Throw another smartphone on the barbie, mate” might be a good symbol for change! Disclaimer, cooking smartphones is dangerous, as is cooking our brains with algorithms!
The writer is a Salt Spring resident.