School children react to the UK social media ban for under-16s live on BBC News: Reporter: “What was your screen time?” Student: “Nine hours.” Reporter: “You’re going to have a lot more time to fill. What will you do?” Student: “Stare at a wall.”
Posted by Logical-Flow-6703
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I’m a teacher and my school district banned phones last year(?) I think. A decent amount of our students have zero self-soothing hobbies. They don’t even listen to music or watch shows in a normal way, they just kinda…shut off. This is how I’ve always interpreted the “Gen Z stare” discourse, it’s not the “omg you idiot” customer service stare, it’s when you ask a kid “how was your day?” and they start buffering in real-time.
We’re trying to teach them hobbies and life skills in the classroom, but many students just refuse to engage. It’s sad, and I hope they eventually pick up on the necessity of doing things for their own.
Look I’m all for kids using social media less. But the control should be exerted from the parents, not the government, that shit is always just a Trojan horse for some type of restriction and/or surveillance
I feel bad for the young humans, because their parents absolutely failed them. They don’t know any better, and learning to try to live a world without the digital pacifiers their inept parents have given them since they are toddlers (in a lot of cases) is a hard lesson to learn.
Give the young ones some grace, and positivity that they can do this, because they are the ones paying the price.
I am a middle school educator and trying to undo that damage is half my job.
“Stare at a wall” sounds funny, but with what I’ve seen and heard with kids/teenagers nowadays, she is very likely dead serious. It’s kind of sad how with the current generation of kids, they have no idea what they actually like to do.
I remember being bored and my parents telling me to find something to do. Which then ensued to imaginary friends, toys, general mischief outside. It’s just so hard to wrap my head around kids growing up with social media as the default. I feel so, so bad for them. It truly isn’t their fault.
So Isabella is pretty clearly taking the piss with her “stare at a wall” comment but the internet has inexplicably decided she’s being dead serious.
my exact thinking was, well we as a society have [pushed/priced kids out of third spaces](https://x.com/loopzoooop/status/2066495460865352059?s=20) so of course they retreated to social media which is both accessible and specifically DESIGNED by the technocrats to be highly addictive.
https://preview.redd.it/84c33wfu8o7h1.png?width=742&format=png&auto=webp&s=551a646110f854354f202c6891f7a9c02f6e8db9
I grew up in the Chicago suburbs with friends who were also not allowed to do much outside our subdivision. We do joke that we spent our teenage years staring at the white walls.
This is about younger generations using social media to dismantle the lies society has tried to uphold over the last 70 years
This is not for the safety of children. Yes, it will definitely help them stay safer in a few ways, but the overarching goal is not to help children.
Helping children is just a way that they frame bipartisan policies to get them pushed through.
I just find it infuriating that parents let it come to this. I have a “tween” and they don’t stare at screens all day because we a) never let them and b) encouraged them to have hobbies. They love reading, art etc and do sports/dance a few times a week.
So many teens and early 20s kids just never developed hobbies. I can’t imagine a life where I didn’t grow up reading, writing and listening to music after school each day (sub for playing soccer, martial arts, board games or whatever hobbies kids can have) . It’s so sad.
Bans without any offering of an alternative are the most senseless option ever. This must feel like an unjust punishment without any offer to solve the real problem. And the children are not the problem. The problem is a society that does not fund any educational or recreational support for children. Of course they will feel bleak and helpless.
Sincerely
Skeletor 💜
i hope people realize that the crucial issue here is that everyone in the UK now, regardless of age, will have to submit government identification in order to use the internet. this is a moral panic, “think of the children” trojan horse to harvest everyone’s data and remove anonymity from internet use. this is what we need to be talking about. child safety is a smokescreen.
As someone who began with the birth social media at the end of college (myspace was a booking tool for my band) life was better and easier using it because it was still a controlled medium with invite only and users being college level. Yes, we had aol chatrooms icq, irc, but back then everyone was a stranger for the most part but we were not uploading photos or geo locating ourselves with every post like people do these days. I applaud the UK for this. If the US would do this as well. My kids don’t have socials and I prevent them from access to all the garbage apps/games, they are creative and have hobbies. Our rule is they can have social media when they go off to college. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of fights about it with my eldest about to be a teen, but I laid out pretty straight up how social media has become and to avoid it like drugs or sketchy people.
If parents would actually parent and not use devices as clutches to not be active with their children, life would be better for our future generations. Social media can be used as a tool (reddit being the best research device of user experiences ever on things) but a majority of non-tech use it for slop and doom scrolling garbage
Edit: yes I know kids are sneaky, it’s a good thing I monitor their activity and apps via my network when they are in my home. Outside of the house, I just have to trust them or find a monitoring thing on traffic for the cell phone I’m about to get the kid.
There’s a great episode of the Tech Won’t Save Us podcast about how these social media bans are great in theory but not in practice (the one with guest Cam Wilson from December 2025)
Aqui no Brasil fizeram o mesmo e pouco tempo depois começou a surgir vídeos das crianças e adolescentes fazendo atividades em grupo que elas não faziam, aí depois perguntaram se elas tinham gostado e quase todas disseram que sim.
Generations from now people are going to look back at the 2000 to 2040 period as one where people became paralyzed from fear. It’s not children’s fault that they have less children spaces or aren’t as encouraged to play outside anymore. Years of crime mystery shows and fear mongering has paralyzed parents from letting go, and letting their kids go out and have fun. Also as others have said people are now less welcoming to groups of kids hanging out and loitering. They don’t have the same freedom that many of us did for better or worse.
Surprised to see so many people missing the point here. This proposal has absolutely zero to do with “protecting the kids” and everything to do with requiring every adult in the country to submit their biometric data and government identification in order to use the internet. Palantir are frothing at the mouth.
I’m very thankful to have spent my childhood without social media & smart phones, even though it took over the world during my teenage years.
Made my first Facebook account at 13, and got an HTC Droid at 14. I’ve spent half of my life with these products & platforms essentially.
…..now as a digitally burnt out adult, I can say with confidence that it has grown far too excessive and all-consuming.
I find staring at walls to be very therapeutic.
Labour losing the next election any% speedrun, which is more alarming when one considers that the fascists will likely win and do to Britain what a certain orange man is doing to America right now.
There’s so many reasons why we’ve ended up like this:
– Kids spend much less time outside. Parents are afraid to let their kids play outside without adult supervision bc of murders, kidnappings and accidents. Naturally they think their child is safe up in their room playing Roblox or watching Youtube.
– Covid. These teens were little kids back then and they literally couldn’t go play outside even if they wanted to.
– Parents who don’t know better is obviously one of the key reasons.
– Socio-economic status. Many lower income parents can’t afford hobbies for their kids.
– Lack of third places. If there aren’t any free or affordable youth community spaces etc. many people can’t afford to hang outside their homes.
– Smartphones are basically essential for everyone over a certain age. Also there’s stuff like tracking apps that dumb phones usually don’t have, that many parents use to keep track of their kids.
I hate seeing people blame these kids/young adults for their addiction, the blame isn’t on them!!
Honestly, staring at a wall is underrated.
The irony of this girl going viral for a segment about keeping her OFF social media. Proof that it’s the adults that are more dangerous.
Remember all the crazy shit we got into as kids, welcome back to that. I had friends that would just burn things for fun. We have just invited that back into our lives. Without an outlet set up to occupy their time, we are certainly asking for it.
I hope this won’t stifle their creativity in video/visual media creation
I know I shouldn’t be, but Im always so shocked at how many parents dont utilize parental controls on their kids devices. I control my kids phone, when she can use it, what she can use it for, and for how long- both the amount of time per day in general AND the amount of time per app. All just with the built-in Google/Android parental control features. What I mean by this is- my kid has it set up where during school hours, her phone is scheduled to be a brick that can only call me, dad, or 911. Its so easy! Imagine if we all just did our jobs as parents.
Parents have failed children. And this is a sign of it. If the government basically says you fucked up, we are gonna have to do it for you.
Yet people will still give 5 year olds iPads 10 hours a day with 0 intervention.
As expected, another terrible move from Keir Starmer
Why don’t we punish the corporations that are pushing these rage filled algorithms and intentionally trying to get kids addicted to social media so their profits go up? Is Elon ever going to punished for the CSAM machine on Twitter? Or are we going to continue to blame regular people and punish them instead?
You know how you stop this madness? Regulate the corporations and punish them for manipulating and abusing children for profit
