Reply to Social media is designed to be addictive; known harmful. Why do your kids have it?

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Reply to "Social media is designed to be addictive; known harmful. Why do your kids have it?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are two different arguments going on in this thread, and trying to have them at the same time is not really useful.

One discussion is whether social media is, or can be, harmful to kids. And it honestly sounds like the vast majority of parents think it can be, but just disagree on (1) how harmful, (2) whether it is universally harmful, and (3) how much parents can mitigate that harm through parenting and supports. But it actually matters that most people agree it can be harmful, because that should be a shared value we could use to discuss things like delaying social media and smart phone use (something that is much more effective when parents do it en masse) and the kinds of education and supervision kids should have with it.

A separate discussion going on is who is the best parent based on their approach to social media. I'll be honest, I don't think this is ever a productive conversation, whether the metric being used is social media or kids sports or breastfeeding or private v. public or screen time or whatever. The truth is that families have vastly different resources, pressures, environments, and backgrounds, plus kids are themselves different, and I don't think it's possible to give out a Best Parent award on the basis of any of this stuff. Even if we could, what would it accomplish? In terms of doing right by our kids, we have to work within our own constraints.

Maybe we could focus on the first argument and just let go of the second. I'll start: I am definitely NOT the best parent. Take me out of the running. I still want to do right by my kid with regards to social media though.[/quote]

I'll co-sign this![/quote]

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