https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/facebook-knows-instagram-is-harmful-to-young-women-but-doesnt-care

I’m old-fashioned. I believe it is 100% my job to look out for my kids, but social media has become such a common element of our lives that some lawmakers have already discussed considering it a utility.

That would def be a game-changer for dissidents like me who axed my ties to Big Tech over a year ago. I was sick of the internet drama, the twitter Mobs, the Facebook Fights, and the Plastic Instagram people. Leaving my audiences on each platform behind was an experiment for my career. Would my book sales go down? Would people still care about me? How would I stay up to date on everything my friends ate and how many teeth their children lost?

Magically it was the best thing I ever did. I feel so free. My book sales didn’t wane, I have better connections with my closest friends and fam because, and best of all I’m not annoyed by those crappy 1st Day of School Pictures we all roll our eyes at after scrolling through 500 of them.

My eldest is 11. I let her get a cellphone because not everyone has a landline anymore and if she goes to a friend’s house i want her to be prepared for an emergency. I’m not worried about her getting a Goodreads account, or maybe going on Pinterest someday. I kept those and barely use them except for fun now and then.

But we keep having the social media talk. The one parents need to get used to. Discussing if and when to join, internet safety and watching out for predators posing as kids, that kind of crap.

“In my day” we just had to avoid creepy vans, now kids and their parents have a lot more to worry about. Not only can internet stalkers find people in real life and use what they post to harm them, we also need to be conscious of the psychological repercussions of internet screen time and social media.

My daughters know I don’t want them on Instagram until they’re 18. They also understand my hatred of Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube. (Yep, not a fan of censorship, this is no secret)

But I want to be reasonable and understanding. I don’t want to set my homeschooled kids up for social leprosy. I know there will come a time when compromises will have to be made. Maybe at 16 or 17 instead of 18. IDK.

What does make me–and should make all women, young and old–feel better is that no matter how many “hot” Instagram models post “sexy” selfies of their tits online, pictures of food always have more likes and comments. haha

I showed this to my eldest before I canned Instagram from my list of the few social media platforms I use and we laughed so hard. You’d have some chick making duck lips and sticking out her booty with 16K likes or something insane, then I’d look up lasagna pics and they’d have over 1 million hahaha

That laugh is great for body image and mental health.

Remember, beauty ages but lasagna is forever.

So yeah, if you want to read more about the negative mental health effects of Instagram found in Facebook’s own studies (that they are ignoring), read my latest article for Evie: https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/facebook-knows-instagram-is-harmful-to-young-women-but-doesnt-care