Social Media Addiction

Every few months, I am invited to appear on BBC Radio Leicester to comment on topical education matters. Yesterday (Thursday), I was asked to join a discussion on a <a href=”https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2018/jan/15/hold-app-norway-facebook-beat-smartphone-addiction”>new phone app</a> that rewards students for <u>not</u> using their mobile phone. The idea sounds extremely attractive to parents exasperated by their sons’ ability to waste time on their technology: you use the app to lock a phone down for a specified period of time, and the owner accrues points if he can resist the temptation to touch his phone. He can then exchange his points for cinema tickets and other treats. I have written previously about research on phone addiction carried out by HMC (the Headmasters’ Conference). Interestingly children complain that their parents’ addiction to their phones is just as bad as their own. Does <a href=”https://youtu.be/i9uydDEez3c”>this video</a> ring any bells?

I found the video to be extremely powerful, as it gives a good impression of the hollowness of modern existence if we allow ourselves to be governed by our electronic devices. If you are struggling with your sons’ use of technology, perhaps you might show it to them? The two things that really shock me in the video are firstly the scenes of a family, and of friends, sitting around a table ignoring one another as their virtual world overcomes reality. We mustn’t kid ourselves that this is just something for our children. Young people resent their parents’ inability to put their mobiles to one side just as we despair of them. I understand that middle-class professional parents are particularly to blame as we consult our work emails throughout the evening, as soon as we get up, and during the course of the weekend.

Secondly, there is the scene of the teenage daughter going to bed with her mobile, and then suffering disrupted sleep as she wakes up on several occasions to check her social media feeds. I am afraid that this is the reality for many young people. Just as a drug addict goes out to find his fix, a phone addict cannot resist the device at arm’s length, and the HMC Survey revealed that over a third of young people look at their phone whenever they wake up during the night. ‘Addiction’ is the correct word for such compulsive behaviour, and, as with drugs or alcohol, we have to remove the temptation and ensure that our children ‘go cold turkey’. I read in the press a few months ago about Hampton School, in South-West London, that had given all of its Sixth Form boys a free old-fashioned alarm clock, on the condition that their phones were left charging downstairs overnight! Of course, this is rather gimmicky but the gesture makes the point rather well. Although I must stress that I am not on a retainer from the UK Alarm Clock Association, this sounds like an excellent investment for the whole family, so that we can all leave our devices in a central ‘safe’ location where they do not present any temptation as we turn in each evening.

So will the mobile rewards app be the answer for our boys? I would like to see the treats being offered before I pass judgement, but I know that boys respond very positively to rewards. There is certainly nothing wrong with a rewards-based approach to promoting desirable behaviour. We tell boys when they are revising to reward themselves with half an hour of TV, or a trip out, or a piece of cake when they have successfully completed a period of focused work. In some senses, the less the monetary value of a reward the better. Younger boys love the simple rewards of colourful stickers in their exercise books. Those in the middle years become cynical and reject them, and may well be more materialistic about things. In general terms, I think, as parents, we should encourage children to choose their own rewards, so that they are motivated to work hard on their own terms: “If you get this done, we’ll get a takeaway tonight”/“we’ll watch the Leicester City match”. If an app can replicate the link between a reward and desirable, controlled behaviour, then it may well be a tool worth embracing.