New report on how social media negatively impacts kids
Taking a closer look at the impact of social media on our youth is what a new report by Jennifer Siebel Newsom is doing, and her findings are alarming.
Access to 24/7 technology is causing our kids to suffer and the First Partner in the state of California is working to make sure the mobile phone is a force for good.
The report, called Shared Experiences, is a call to action.
It explores teens' complex relationships with social media as it looks at the landscape of current research interspersed with genuine reflections from female teen participants.
It's a culmination of a two-year project from the California Partners Project and the "We Hear You" campaign, which created a youth ambassador program to provide leadership training and space for young women to connect around shared experiences on social media.
First Partner Siebel Newsom said, "Our kids are growing up in a world surrounded by technology 24/7, and they are suffering. Social media can fuel sadness, anxiety, and shame – displacing sleep, movement, and real-life connection, and it is exacerbating an alarming youth mental health crisis. As First Partner and co-founder of the California Partners Project, it is my aim to ensure that media and technology are used as a force for good in the lives of young adults, if at all."
Shared Experiences offers four main recommendations for improving youth mental health online, which are:
- better online safeguards,
- expanded media literacy programs,
- investment in diverse young women as tech leaders and creators, and
- inclusive research to gain more insight into the impact of social media on young people.
The California Partners Project promotes gender equality across the state and the mental, behavioral, and physical well-being of California's children.