Is the digital age here to stay ??

[BlueDressontheLine]

Please tell me at some point they'll be a backlash! Im desperate for social media to be banned for under 16s! Im not that old but I find life so sad now. I can remember before mobiles etc. Now its like no one can have a conversation and doesn't want to do anything!

Yes, of course it is.

Of course.

Even if it was banned it would be almost impossible to enforce

Yes it’s here to stay. How is a ban for under 16s going to technically be achieved?

It's here to stay OP.
Plenty of people do things and enjoy conversation, you just need to avoid the people who don't if they don't make you happy.

Yup and it will evolve and grow in ways we can't imagine yet

Hard to reverse it, I fear

It is depressing in many respects OP. Social media is to blame for an awful lot of unhinged thought and behaviour. I also believe the digital age has increased isolation as well as diminishing conversational skills and to an extent initiative. There might be some push back amongst up-coming generations who for example think how nice it would be to have in person work colleagues or maybe go out and dance in a night club. But otherwise I'm afraid it's all here to stay and with the rise of AI even more so.

The genie is out of the bottle now. Its going to be very difficult,if not impossible to put back.

The primary and secondary schools in my area have all pledged to ban smartphones in school from next year onwards, with the incoming years each year expected not to have a smart phone at all (instead of just 'not with them at school').

A growing number of parents at my primary school are not getting their kids phones at all which was normal as recently as last year.
Those who are getting phones are getting brick phones and are saying No to social media.

I think this is the extent of the pushback; whilst I'd like more protections for kids ultimately it's up to parents to enforce and the ones who wouldn't want to give phones/SM will deny their kids anyway.

I have given our DD a second hand brick phone for contacting us when it is needed.
She doesn't have any friends on there yet and so doesn't need it at all.
The longer we can go without adding other numbers the better.

I really really hope I can hold off on social media until at least 14 - I expect I'll cave for WhatsApp but won't let her have snap or tik til etc

With the ability to generate huge amounts of AI content the internet may become so full of samey AI slop that proper lose trust and interest. The world wide web may become boring and people revert to real, in person, interaction.

Australia have banned social media for under 16s. I wonder how theyre enforcing it and if it's making a difference. I would have never coped in school now!!!