Despite the fact that there are currently few conversations at the coffee machine, it probably won't have escaped your notice that Netflix recently launched the Social Dilemma. A high-profile documentary about the negative effects of the Internet, especially social media.
The lead roles are played by mostly former employees of tech companies who voice their concerns about the dangers of, in particular, social media. In American fashion, the filmmakers manage to spread five minutes of information out over an hour and a half.
The interviews are perfectly staged, complemented by a melodramatic portrait of a family recognizably struggling with its cell phone use. To add some heaviness, the focus is particularly on the negative impact of social media on the children in the family.
Probably not really anything new for most readers. However, the documentary does make it clear once again that there is no such thing as free. One-liners like, "If you don't have to pay for a product, you are the product yourself" and "social media and drug dealers are the only ones who call their customers 'users,'" warn us of the addictive and negative effects of social media.
Admittedly, we are all a lot of time on social media (an average of one and a half hours and young people nearly two and a half hours a day). More and more young people are struggling with burnout phenomena because social media use would increase performance pressure. Young people would develop a delusion that could lead to such things as Snapchat dysmorphia (wanting to look like yourself as you can look through a Snapchat filter).
But as with all development, there are two sides to the coin. It is partly thanks to social media that we have a more transparent world in which certain things come to light more quickly. For example, the aforementioned performance pressures can be attributed in part to social media, but in proportion to the **higher expectations**of parents.
Without social media, the #metoo movement would never have had such an impact. Indeed, the concept of the hashtag never existed, or the Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral internationally on social media and raised more than $220 million in the fight against ALS. Or Sweetie; Terre Des Hommes' virtual girl caused thousands of pedophiles to be identified and prosecuted through that same social media.
Of course it is good to keep an eye on the behaviors and functionalities of social media platforms, but more important as a parent is to seize your role. Instead of blaming social media, delve into your children and what they are doing. Also online. Taking them through the risks and pointing the way, instead of just being busy.
We saw a great example of this last week at Eva Jinek at the table. Famke Louise who interprets the frustration of an entire generation that everyone initially falls over and thinks all sorts of things about (myself just as much), but in doing so becomes diametrically opposed to a solution.
You can also, like Diederik Gommers, start the conversation from respect with the result that the other person starts thinking. You can do the same with your children. So they can figure out for themselves how seriously they should take social media.
