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Friday, August 31, 2018

Logged off: meet the teens who refuse to use social media

For 17-year-old Mary Amanuel, from London, it happened in Tesco. “We were in year 7,” she remembers, “and my friend had made an Instagram account. As we were buying stuff, she was counting the amounts of likes she’d got on a post. ‘Oooh, 40 likes. 42 likes.’

I just thought: ‘This is ridiculous.’”

Isabelle, an 18-year-old student from Bedfordshire who doesn’t want to disclose her surname, turned against social media when her classmates became zombified. “Everyone switched off from conversation. It became: ‘Can I have your number to text you?’ Something got lost in terms of speaking face to face. And I thought: ‘I don’t really want to be swept up in that.’” For 15-year-old Emily Sharp, from Staines in Surrey, watching bullying online was the final straw. “It wasn’t nice. That deterred me from using it.”

It is widely believed that young people are hopelessly devoted to social media. Teenagers, according to this stereotype, tweet, gram, Snap and scroll. But for every young person hunched over a screen, there are others for whom social media no longer holds such an allure. These teens are turning their backs on the technology – and there are more of them than you might think.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Listen up employers....if you find one of these kids, snatch them up in a heartbeat.

Anonymous said...

I refuse to use it also.

I am incensed that some of the comment boards out there require a log in to one of the social media data mining companies in order to post a comment.
NEVER!

Anonymous said...

I tell everyone I employ to leave their phones in their car. I actually microwaved one gals phone when she was at lunch and left it behind. I am not paying you to be connected to anything other than your tasks at hand. I don't care if your kids caught in a school shooting WHATEVER. The bathroom is not a phone booth.

Anonymous said...

Good for them.

lmclain said...

You microwaved her phone??? You're PROUD of that???
Did her husband come to her job and teach you some manners?
You can have any rules (within legal reasoning) you like, but destroying property to enforce them SHOULD have gotten a few of your fingers (or nose) broken.
You must be a pure joy to work for.
I'm guessing you deal with minimum wage employees a lot.
The ones who can't afford bail or lawyers. easy pickings, huh?

Anonymous said...

Kids under 18 have no businesss on social media anyway. I gave my kid an iPhone but told him no social media. I think he is a better kid because of it. I would also encourage all parents to unplug their kids from the slaves of technology. It will get them soon enough!