THE NON-REBEL GENERATION - A CHAT WITH DR. DAVID MACKAY

I though there won’t be any shocking news regarding social media as we live with it closely every day. However David, a psychologist and RMIT university counsellor , surprised me with what he has found!

David & our "Social Media Overdrive" team

The Generation Say 'No Rebel, No Adventures, No Sex'

Our generation might think the smartphones makes us less likely to be the ideal image of the previous generation, however, it changes us less likely to be the ideal self. Can you image how a teen can live without hanging out with friends, hasn’t (or even thought of ) stolen their parents’ car and have a wild trip, hasn’t held someone’s hand and kiss him or her? No rebel, no adventures, no sex! The smartphones generation doesn’t value independence or freedom much like their previous generation, they prevent to grow up and take responsibilities of adulthood. However, they don’t feel happy for their lives. The survey proved that the teenagers are more likely to feel lonely after release of iPhone (Twenge 2017). Smartphones have stolen all our time which we were used to enjoy experience and explore the outside world.

A causal talk with a causal footwear style lol

Time to Wake Up

It is always a challenge for us to realise and admit ourselves be addicted to something. Social Media addiction is especially unobvious to find out. Fortunately David gave us some hints to check if we have troubles with too much screen time:

1) Have you argued with your friends, family, boyfriends or girlfriends regularly because you prefer to spent time with your phones rather than having gathering or even a talk with them?

2) Have you felt that you don’t have enough sleep?

3) Have you reduced activities those were used to make you feel good about yourself?

Goal for Us

even Facebook help us to limit our screen time, why should we say no?

If you have three “yes” for the questions above as me, then better listen to David! Firstly, we have to set limit for ourselves. David mentioned based on a study, happiness grows up in the first 30 minutes of screen time and it started to drop afterwards. Probably 30 minutes per day will be the perfect target for us. Go to Facebook and Instagram time limit setting tool and give ourselves a new challenge (ABC 2018) ! Secondly, we have to rethink what kind of need or purpose we want to get from social media. Stop feeding ourselves junk food of brain. Have some meaningful content instead, um...like our blog post and video with David, which won't go beyond your daily screen time limit (lol): https://s3621687.wixsite.com/socialmediaoverdrive/videos

Reference

ABC 2018, 'Facebook, Instagram to Allow Users to Set a Limit on How Much Time They Spend Scrolling', ABC, blog post, 2 August, viewed 18 October 2018, <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-02/facebook-instagram-to-introduce-time-limits/10064598>.

Twenge, J M 2017, 'Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?', The Atlantic, viewed 18 October 2018, <https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/>.

Image: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-02/facebook-instagram-to-introduce-time-limits/10064598