Social media and smartphones are often blamed for damaging our mental health, especially when it comes to teenagers. It's even led to the federal government to consider a crack down on young people's access to platforms, with an age verification trial in the works. If this story has raised issues for you, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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00:00 On a 10 degree morning in Charleville, 18-year-old Jordi is serving coffee to a sleepy town.
00:10 Charleville is its own world.
00:12 But in Jordi's pocket, there's another.
00:17 It's like a second world really.
00:18 Like, you have reality and then you have social media.
00:21 Like two extremely different things.
00:24 I'm on it five and a half hours a day.
00:28 So it's a lot less than what it used to be.
00:32 In high school, Jordi's daily screen time peaked at seven or eight hours, mostly on
00:36 TikTok and Snapchat.
00:38 And there's a reason she cut back.
00:40 Things like growing up, I've always been a bigger girl.
00:44 Just seeing stuff on social media and thinking, "Oh, am I not good enough?
00:49 Do I have to look like that?"
00:51 There was also around-the-clock bullying.
00:55 A group of boys at my school had tagged me in a TikTok telling me to go kill myself.
01:00 So yeah, that for me, it was just so heartbreaking.
01:03 And still, putting down the phone felt impossible.
01:06 It was like that fear of missing out, I guess.
01:08 You have to be on social media to know everything.
01:15 What does social media do to your mental health?
01:17 Honestly, it's kind of depressing because you're just like consuming...
01:20 I think because I know I'm consuming just mindless shit.
01:23 Mindless content is distracting, mesmerising.
01:26 Just scrolling and scrolling and look at the time and realise it's been five hours.
01:28 I got rid of Snapchat, Instagram, everything TikTok.
01:31 I think it makes me feel happy because I can socialise with my friends and watch funny
01:36 videos.
01:37 It'll make you insecure.
01:38 It'll make you want more.
01:39 Always wanting more isn't always better.
01:40 It can ruin you.
01:43 Teen mental health has deteriorated in the last two decades.
01:46 There's a lot of questions that parents have about this.
01:48 Dr Eliza Werner-Seidler is researching how tech affects young people's mental health.
01:54 What we know about the link is there's a link.
01:56 And that's pretty much what we know.
01:59 In other words, more screen time might be causing worse mental health or it might be
02:04 the other way around.
02:06 Thousands of researchers around the world are trying to find the answer by focusing
02:10 on how teenagers spend their time online.
02:13 Because doom-scrolling perfect bodies on TikTok might not be the same as connecting with friends
02:18 via a game or chat.
02:19 It matters what people do and how they do it and how long for and with whom.
02:24 Of course, there is already a wealth of data on the subject.
02:27 It's just not in the hands of researchers.
02:30 The big tech companies have all of this information.
02:32 If they were to share it with academics and scientists, we would be able to learn so much
02:37 more so much more quickly.
02:39 All the major platforms have safety policies in place designed to protect young people.
02:44 So rental controls, avenues to report inappropriate content and seek help, customisable settings
02:50 and age limits, even if they're rarely enforced.
02:53 It's their way of trying to undo the perception that social media companies routinely put
02:58 profit ahead of safety.
03:00 These companies are infamous for ignoring their own internal research on risks.
03:06 Reset Tech is an internet research group that wants to see tougher rules for social media
03:11 companies, especially when it comes to the dangers of the technology itself.
03:15 The key law, the Online Safety Act, is currently up for review.
03:19 I've never seen the appetite as strong as it is right now for government to legislate
03:26 in this domain.
03:28 Jordi is all for stronger rules.
03:30 More so now than when her mum forced her to cut back her screen time last year.
03:35 I'm thankful every day that my mum did what she did.
03:37 If you had a big switch and you could switch off social media, not just for yourself but
03:42 for everyone, would you do it?
03:45 I think I would because there is so much more to this world, even if it was for a week,
03:50 just so people could have that taste of what it would be like without social media.
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