Educator and speaker Laura Lawrence returned to Humboldt with updated information but the same critical message around the perils of the online world for youth. Lawrence presented her findings and observations at the Uniplex on Tuesday, April 8 at the invitation of the Saskatchewan Association of Social Workers and Safe Communities Humboldt, with support from the City of Humboldt.
Lawrence has become a familiar face in the area having presented to students, parents and educators in Humboldt, Lake Lenore, Muenster, Bruno and other communities. While the mission remains to raise awareness of the pitfalls and outright dangers of over engagement and unsupervised use of the internet by youth, the data and the stories shift. Sadly, the situation is not getting better.
She’s labelled the talk “Technoference,” an uncovered term which refers to the interference of technology in the social, emotional and cognitive development of young people. Lawrence comes armed with stories, some of them personal, demonstrating the tragic impact of unbridled online content on young people, including the loss of life by suicide.
Lawrence proclaims that she is not anti-tech given its pervasive nature, but she is deeply opposed to the unregulated deluge of content that washes over our kids. The stats are startling, Lawrence reported. An average content consumer can scroll up to a kilometre a day on a phone device, spend 40 hours a week on devices. and pick up their smart phone 1008 times a week. It speaks to the addictive nature of tech content.
Much of that content is unsafe, with kids themselves admitting “nothing is safe online,” when queried about their habits and content consumption. Social media has created an environment where communication is dangerous at worst and toxically polarizing at best, Lawrence cautions.
“What we see on social media is the more polar a post is, the more interaction and engagement it gets. It sparks curiosity and heat. What the algorithm does is send the post out to more and more users. It’s a double-edged sword; what is happening in a lot of these social media spaces, good bad or otherwise, is that the content is not easily controllable and the messages that are being sent out, especially to vulnerable youth, can compromise their mental well-being.”
For kids as young as four, increasingly exposed to screen or device time, the technoference gets in the way of establishing normal neural pathways, and it robs children of the social connections that tend to lead to healthy modes of personal interaction and communication. Lawrence says the scenario continues into adolescence and adulthood, where couples will sit together silently in a coffee shop, each scrolling through their own digital headspaces with no attempt at real world interaction or communication.
Kids aren’t ever bored these days, she says, and boredom is the catalyst to seek out new activities, new real-world engagements and friends, or new avenues to explore. Those are all important in stimulating creativity and problem-solving mechanisms.
Even in spaces that are targeted and designed for kids, youth can be exposed to pornography, racism, acts of violence, and suggestive ideation toward self-harm. One of the most insidious is Roblox, an open-world digital sandbox that touts creativity, but can harbour predators in its chat features. TikTok, Snapchat, and communication tools like What’s App can be equally harmful, she warns. Kids just aren’t equipped to navigate those perils.
“Research shows that their pre-front cortex doesn’t fully develop until they are 21 to 25 years old, so that’s why I say there are so many trap doors and hidden grenades for kids online because the internet is a completely unregulated space. There are zero guard rails for kids on any of these apps.”
She cautions that even in the face of massive litigation following tragedies linked to their services, tech companies do little to right the problems or self-regulate. In fact, the biggest tech giants spend millions of dollars annually to keep themselves off the regulatory and statutory radar. Some even claim that American First Amendment Rights to freedom of speech, offering a haven for participants to do whatever they want.
The genie is out of the bottle with technology, she admits, and it will take a concerted effort by large groups of people to roll back the undesirable effects, if that’s even possible. She does provide some solid tips that parents can employ to help kids re-establish connection with real world engagement to bolster mental wellness and promote healthy social and cognitive development.
“The answer is honestly reconnection to engage our kids in the real world. The more time our kids can spend building authentic connections with real people and peers, the better off they are. It’s how kids are wired by design – to play, to be curious, to be in the real world. Having phone free nights as a family is one way.”
One of the most critical elements is to ensure that kids don’t have access to their phones in their bedrooms at night. Young people can spend countless hours online at night which can unregulated sleep patterns and provide plenty of time for exposure to potential content harms and predatory behaviours by others they may engage with.
“More board games, more outside play, and the younger the child, the more they should be playing.”
Lawrence continues her work through her non-profit organization Youth Matters, which organizes Teen Talk Tuesdays and parental support programs. Undoubtedly, Lawrence will continue her crusade in area communities and schools. Be sure to take the opportunity to hear her sobering message, presented in a dynamic, engaging and interactive presentation.