In striking new statistics, experts warn of social media's growing grip on young people, with use among children and teens soaring by more than 200% since before COVID and showing no sign of decline.
  • Reading for fun: The proportion of children who never read for fun increased from 11% to 53%
  • Arts participation: Those who never took part in arts activities rose from 26% to 70%
  • Music: Students who never joined extracurricular music increased from 70% to 85%
  • Social media use: Daily users jumped more than 200%, from 26% to 85%, while non-users plummeted from 31% to just 3%.
  • Rooster326
    411·
    4 days ago

    Is this a big surprise?

    There are thousands of people whose entire job is to make social media as addicting as possible.

    Edit: Study also took place from 2019 to 2022. Does anyone remember any big events during that time that might idk affect that? You know like a fuckin global pandemic???

    You couldn’t go to school to play sports, art, or music even if you wanted to in 2019.

    • beetus@lemmy.world
      5·
      3 days ago

      You couldn’t go to school to play sports, art, or music even if you wanted to in 2019.

      I’m being pedantic here but the covid lockdowns were not widespread until March 2020, I’m not sure why you think kids were unable to do these things the year prior. I’m assuming you are misremembering the timeline of events or are you thinking that covid impacted modern life before March?

      The wiki page for Australia’s response (where the OP study originated) aligns with similar dates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Australia

  • Stache_@lemmy.ml
    16·
    4 days ago

    Study took place 2019 to 2022 and involved 14,000 Australian students aged 11-14

    • Pechente@feddit.org
      4·
      4 days ago

      It’s quite unfortunate that this was during the lockdown. Especially for activities that involve interacting with people in the real world, the numbers might be skewed.

      • Rimu@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
        1·
        4 days ago

        These changes have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, even three years after restrictions were lifted

  • ramble81@lemmy.zip
    8·
    3 days ago

    Doesn’t help that, at least in the US, arts and music funding is being slashed left and right in schools and programs eliminated. They always manage to find money for sports though, but there isn’t much of an overlap of kids interested in both.

    • BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 days ago

      That’s because arts and music appeal to queer kids, and we can’t have that, can we? No, only violent, toxically competitive programs are suitable for children.

  • Skavau@piefed.socialEnglish
    13·
    3 days ago

    I think there’s something pathetic about the prospect of the current bloc of tweens and teens potentially getting to the age of 18 without ever having deliberately watched a tv show or movie, without ever having deliberately listened to music, without ever having read a fictional book, without ever having made or consumed any art or even played any video games. The lack of escapism.

    People raised entirely by angry and excitable influencers telling them to be furious. People who cry about cultural erosion who apparently have zero exposure to it. I think humans need an amount of artistic and media enrichment. We need some escapism to balance us out and feed our imagination, and ask us questions - and to chill us out. Bring back the days where kids got addicted to MMOs.