Social Media & Youth
good evening everyone so today I’m here
to talk to you about the effects of the
Internet and in particular social media
on our generation and how it shaped our
generation in more ways than we realize
so let’s begin with a quick question how
many of you check your phone first thing
in the morning when you wake up yeah
it’s almost all of us for a majority of
us the first thing that we do every
the single morning after waking up is that
we check our phones and a lot of us
the last thing that we do before
sleeping at night is also to check our
phones in fact a survey showed that 77%
of the people between the ages of 18 and
24 reach out for their phones whenever
they have any free time and I’m
definitely one of them now I thought
what’s the big deal I mean yeah I use my
phone whenever I have time how harmful
can it be maybe it I spend a total of Social Media & Youth
around 35 40 50 minutes on it well just
to check I installed an app last week
which tracks my usage of the phone and
the results were quite frankly
astounding here take a look I spent an
an hour on Chrome browsing the web spent an
an hour on Whatsapp and 55 minutes on Snapchat
and 25 minutes on Instagram in one day
so a total of roughly three and a half
hours spent in just one day
those little tidbits of time and we
think we have free time and reusing our
phones they can actually add up to a
pretty big number and the results were
similar when I asked my friends to do a
the similar test we don’t even realize what
of what a big chunk of our day we spend
on our phones now how is this relevant
why am I even talking about this well
it’s because we’ve noticed a few
interesting phenomena associated with
smartphone usage we’ve noticed that the
the average attention span of a human being
has now gone down to nine seconds just 9
seconds and why is that well some say
it’s linked to a phenomenon called
instant gratification
or instant happiness and how does that
happen Social Media & Youth
well there’s a chemical called dopamine
that’s released in the brain whenever we
experience this instant burst of
happiness when here attacks on your
phone vibrates get a notification you
get a bit excited don’t you that
momentary happiness you’re excited to
see who it is a little curious
that’s dopamine being released in your
brain dopamine by the way is the exact
the same chemical that’s released when you
drink alcohol smoke a cigarette take
drugs gamble in other words it’s it
shows highly addictive behavior
and we’re seeing similar trends for
smartphone usage in fact half of the 18
to 24-year-olds said that they check
their phones in the middle of the night
a third of UK adults check their phones
within five minutes of waking up and
this addiction of ours we really didn’t
see it everywhere brilliant graphic
showing how we’ve evolved from apes to
smartphone addicts are another brilliant
brilliant piece of art what’s the point
of being afraid of a zombie apocalypse
when you’re already a zombie on your
phone the entire time and this addiction
is no coincidence it is no surprise
because of all of these apps Facebook
Snapchat and Instagram all have very
carefully tailored algorithms which
ensure that we are hooked to our phones
why because each minute that you spend
on these apps these companies make big
money through advertising and you don’t
have to believe me hear it from Sean
Parker Sean Parker is one of the earliest
investors of Facebook said this in an
an interview he said Facebook’s earliest
the mission was how do we consume as much of
your time and conscious attention as
possible he also said we were exploiting
the vulnerability of human psychology
just think about that just let that sink
in all these apps their purpose was
never to connect you to one another it
was only to make you addicted
to make money off your backs and we can
we can see it happening all everywhere
all around us, we’re all addicted we’re
all trapped and this effects our mental
health in ways that we just don’t
realize a report showed that social
media is linked with increased rates of
anxiety depression and poor sleep it
also said that the rates of anxiety and Social Media & Youth
depression has gone up by 70 percent in
the recent past seventy percent so
social media is linked to depression and
this isn’t honestly not that surprising
because social media is great at
providing that one thing that we all
love filters and only in just those
those pictures fill up filters for our
pictures no those cute Snapchat dog
filters that we send each other I mean
something a little deeper we filter our
very lives before projecting them to the
the world we show the happiest the best
versions of ourselves sometimes fake
versions of ourselves out on social
media we don’t put up stories of our set
of us cramming the day before the exam
having nervous breakdowns we don’t do
that we show to the world that we’re
having fun we’re having a great time our
life is perfect it’s sorted now imagine
you’re bored sitting in your room and
you decide to open Snapchat see what
what people are up to and all you see
all you see are just stories of people
having a great time enjoying their lives
with their boyfriend their girlfriend
their friends their family having fun
and it’s it might just be fake it might
not necessarily be true it might be
something like this hashtag selfie
hashtag good life on the left on the
right we see the reality so when you’re
sitting alone in your room watching
other people’s stories seeing them have
watching them have fun how will that
make you feel even more alone even more
depressed and we’ve seen this happen
high rates of anxiety high rates of
depression is largely linked to social
media
sometimes when all of this depression
and anxiety builds up in the most
extreme of cases and we’ve seen this
happen in the most extreme of cases can
build up and cause irreversible harm
irreversible damage in the form of
self-harm sometimes even suicide
cases just take a moment just to Social Media & Youth
think about it forget everything else
for just a moment and think about
yourself and your relationship with
these apps are it really any more
different than being addicted to a drug
how does the drug addiction even begin
in our teenage years a person
teenagers day they’re feeling a bit
emotionally distressed a little sad
which is completely normal happens to
all of us and they’re not getting enough
support from people so they try out a
cigarette a drug maybe some alcohol and
then they like it
why because dopamine is released and
then they start depending on it it
becomes an addiction now whenever
they’re depressed or sad next they don’t
turn to a person they turn to the bottle
– drugs – cigarettes and we see a
a similar trend in our generation with
regard to social media
whenever weird we’re distressed we don’t
turn to people anymore we don’t want to
have friends or families we turn to our
phone screens and it’s a cycle you’re a
bit emotionally too distressed maybe a
little bored you check your phone you
feel better start liking it get addicted
to it and what does phone addiction do
cause depression even more depression so
it’s a continuous vicious cycle and an
the extremely dangerous cycle that so many
of us are prone to now we just can’t
leave our phones alone for even one
the moment can we take a ride on the bus on
the tube any everywhere you go everyone
will be busy on their phones we don’t
have real-life conversations with each
other anymore we don’t strike up a
conversation with a stranger on a bus
unheard of because we’re all busy just
chatting away texting away doing
something or the other on our phones and
it’s all just in this country not just
in the UK not just in the Western world
I’ve seen the same thing happen in India
as well as where I’ve lived for most of my
life
it’s becoming a global trend you go for
a meal with your friends we’ll be busy
on the phones after time this addiction
of ours to our phones is driven by
numbers the number of likes and shares
comments view that we get on our
stories and on our posts these numbers
to just keep buzzing in our head at such
a fast speed no wonder our attention
spans are so low no wonder our patience
levels have just gone down it’s all way
too fast we’re trapped in this virtual
the world we care more about our Snapchat
streaks than we do about actual
face-to-face conversations with our
friends we’ve almost forgotten that
there exists a real world outside this
land of our smartphones next slide is
true for so many of us Wi-Fi went down
for a few minutes so I had to talk to my
family, they seem like nice people if the
the reality for so many of us now when we
repeatedly prioritize this instant
gratification giving apps over our
long-term goals are something like a tug of
war situation happens where on the one hand
we have our phones which give us instant
gratification and a highly addictive
dopamine rush and on the other hand we
have our long-term goals which require
patience consistency and discipline and
what do we choose almost always our
phones our priorities in life have just
changed completely and when we
continuously do that when we continually
choose our phones over our long term
goals which require work we come up with
something called
procrastination we’ve all gone through
it remember the time when you hide an
an entire month to do that essay but you
ended up doing it the night before the
the night before the deadline remember that
the time when you had an exam to prepare for
but instead, you were on Instagram
checking out what the Kardashians are up
these days you procrastinate it you
know the exact science behind
procrastination is incredibly complex
and I won’t be getting into that but in
In most cases, it’s fueled by the fact that
we’re addicted to our devices our phones
our iPads on our lap Social Media & Youth
tops watching random YouTube cat videos
Netflix series episode after episode
season after season without realizing
how much time we’re wasting prime example
I’ve known that I have to do this TEDx
talk for the past three weeks and
whenever I start working on it four days
ago on Saturday why because until then I
was busy watching season nine of friends
on Netflix, I was constantly choosing
instant gratification over something
that was productive something that
the required actual effort now I’ve given
you enough problems and clearly we need
solutions because our generation is a bunch
of smart talented self-aware
hard-working motivated individuals are
constantly falling prey to this cycle of
Internet and Inter and instant Social Media & Youth
gratification so we need solutions and I
don’t know whose fault it is maybe it’s
our parents who gave us unfettered
unlimited and unsupervised access to the
Internet and smartphones maybe it’s
these devices that watch which are just
made to make money off of our addictions
maybe it’s us for not realizing how our
smartphone addiction is affecting our
mental health but whoever’s fault it is
it is our generation’s responsibility to
find a solution China came up with the
solution China set up 250 internet
addiction treatment camps which are
basically a military-style boot camp
where they help teenagers get free of
their internet addiction looks like something
like this now that’s a bit too drastic
for my liking, I’m not suggesting
something as rigorous as military-style
rehab all I’m saying is that it just
recognizing this just understanding the
problem realizing in the different ways
in which smartphones can affect us is
the first step towards making a positive
change then spreading this awareness to
your friends your family to pip to
people you care about and the key thing
is moderation we need to be moderate
about our usage of our phones when you
go out on the public transport go out
for a meal with your
friends on the dinner table just keep
your phones away just don’t don’t have
them on you you won’t use them another
very important thing most of us keep our
phones by our bedside where something
like this happens at 12:00 we get a text
we see where it’s who we see which from
and we spend the next three hours just
texting all our friends and then the Social Media & Youth
next morning we wake up looking like a
zombie because we haven’t had enough
sleep so don’t keep your phone by our
bedside keep it in the kitchen keep it
in the living room keep it in the
bathroom for all I care just don’t keep
them by your bedside we need to
understand that this is a seriously big
the problem we need to free ourselves from
this addiction of smartphones that’s the
the only way in which we can ever even hope
of moving towards a better future we
need to free ourselves from the shackles
of our smartphones, I’m sure we can and I
hope that we will thank you