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Just spoke to a parent who said that his 11-year old daughter has been struggling with suicidal thoughts in part because of bullying over social media. I know that his daughter is not the only young person experiencing this kind of struggle.
When I had a hard time at school as a kid I could go home and close the door. Today your peers are right there with you in your room through your phone. I can’t imagine going through that as an eleven-year-old.
I also can’t imagine being a parent and having your daughter go through that. You would feel so helpless.
Parents are outgunned. It’s impossible to compete or insulate your kid from screens entirely. As a friend in tech said: “We have our smartest engineers turning supercomputers into slot machines and dopamine-delivery devices for teenagers.”
As President I would create a Department of the Attention Economy to get into the guts of social media apps and counterbalance their financial incentives with the mental health of our kids. We can design these apps to be healthier and less addictive.
Silicon Valley parents are among the most likely to say that their kids get zero screen time. That tells you all you really need to know.
