Over 400 families joined us for this important, informative evening discussing the impact of social media on young people and society today.
Louisa Rose, the founder of Now and Beyond, the UK’s first mental health and wellbeing festival for schools, previously worked as a social media consultant during the last decade and is particularly interested in reinforcing healthy social media habits for young people. She was joined by Gabriella, aged 14 and Joshua, aged 20 who shared their own experiences.
“I had my first social media account when I was just 7 years old. Ask your kids how long they spend online each day? I know that my peers are spending hours on their device, as am I.” Gabs 14 years old.
The impact of social media on our mental health is an issue that affects adults and children alike and is now dominating all of our lives. How many of us regularly scroll Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, (even if we don’t post) and are constantly looking at news notifications and our WhatsApp groups? This is a subject that we need to acknowledge and address, and our three speakers spoke honestly and openly to the audience about their experiences. Louisa Rose of Beyond, presented shocking statistics about the numbers and ages of children accessing social media, whilst our young presenters, Josh aged 20, and Gabriella aged 14, informed us of their lived experience and how their parents could have helped them navigate social media.
The audience posed fascinating questions which were answered by our panel and can be watched in the recording below.
Beyond’s website is: https://wearebeyond.org.uk/
Some useful resources that Beyond have suggested can be found here:
https://glitchcharity.co.uk/
https://families.google.com/familylink/
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/moment-screen-time-tracker