The Approach to Social Media Problems is Education, Not Restriction
Social media is the reality of today's youth. Why are we not treating it as such?
Social media has become a part of socializing our population. It has become embedded in our social, economic, and social institutions whether we like it or not. Instead of bans and restrictions, the best approach is to fully integrate it into the socialization network, making sure young people are raised and educated on the dangers, benefits, and ethics of interacting in the social media atmosphere.
Just over nine years ago, after having done 10 years in a maximum-security prison, I was transferred to a medium security facility and celled with a young man who was 21 years old. The young man was new to prison and had no property, so I asked him if he wanted to listen to some music using the Walkman and cassette tapes I had. He took the Walkman and opened it gently and slowly slid the tape inside. I smiled, saying, “It’s not an antique, you’re not going to break it.”
He told me he had never used one before.
This got us talking about technology, and he went on and on about the iPhone, Facebook, and all the other social media platforms. I sat quiet, listening, unable to contribute much to the conversation, then felt I had to explain my limited knowledge. I told him I had been locked up before Facebook and had never seen an iPhone except on TV and in magazines. He was shocked and asked, “What did you use?”
I laughed. “You know they had cell phones before iPhones?”
There will always be generational divides when it comes to social and technological evolution; some will criticize things they don’t understand, but it seems like these days people in their 30s and over are way too critical of the prevalence of social media and blame many of our social ills on its use, especially when it comes to young people.
There have been many attempts to curb young people’s reliance on social media and mitigate some of the ills. Australia passed a law banning people under the age of 16 from social media, and schools are creating policies to restrict phone use during school hours. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), as of 2025, over 45 states and Puerto Rico have over 300 pieces of legislation regarding children’s use of social media. However, creating restrictions and banning children from social media is the wrong approach because it ignores two things: one, young people are very tech savvy—it won’t take them very long to find workarounds and subvert these policies. Two, social media is so intertwined into our world that if the restrictions actually worked, it would set people behind in their social, economic, and cultural growth.
In a BBC News article, “‘I’ve not heard of incel before’: Teenager dissects Adolescence with his worried parents” by Anna Lamche, a teenage boy “Ben” and his parents discuss various forms of social media content and their influence on adolescent culture. At the end of the article it states, “Ben thinks what happens online is too often dismissed by adults as being irrelevant to the real world. He thinks this is a mistake; social media should be treated ‘like real-life—because it is real life.’” There is a tendency to dismiss social media and the troves of content viewed online as not reflective of reality because it doesn’t look like our point of view of reality—it doesn’t reflect how we were socialized. It is from this point of view that policies restricting adolescent phone use are made. However, this is impractical.
Social media plays a dominant role in society and culture, with 84% of 18 to 29-year-olds and 81% of those 30 to 49 using social media sites (Pew Research Center). People, especially young people, use it to socialize, view content about certain issues they face, and learn about key aspects of life, like dating—some even use it to develop or expand their brand and businesses. In Lamche’s article, when Ben’s mom asked him about where he goes to learn things like talking to girls, what to wear, or where he goes for advice, he simply replied, “online.” Whether we like it or not, social media is socializing young people; it’s where they go for answers.
In “Social media ban not practical or effective, teens say,” by Hayley Clarke for BBC News, Clarke talked about the Australian law not being the answer because “many young people would find ways around age verification methods, and a ban would stop them from accessing positive content…”. Young people, having been raised with this technology, are very adept at getting around restrictions, as can be inferred from “Ben” talking about his peers’ ability to access porn online in Lamche’s article. It’s safe to assume that young people will access the massive amounts of content no matter what we say. What is it we want them to consume?
Parents, politicians and critics of social media are quick to point out the dangers these platforms pose, yet there is a great amount of positive content. There are body-positivity influencers, and uplifting communities one can join. For example, kids who struggle with identity issues, such as gender dysphoria, can find communities that support them, and others can become business savvy and learn financial literacy. There are many benefits social media provides. There are also dangers everywhere, online and off, and trying to keep young people in this proverbial bubble means we don’t prepare them for the dangers, nor do we direct them towards the benefits—rather, we leave them to traverse the social media landscape alone. It’s like abandoning them to the streets and telling them they have to make it to adulthood by themselves.
Instead of banning and restricting young people from social media, we should teach them social etiquette and manners, how to recognize the dangers and traverse the complex online world. It’s how we socialize people in the offline world, so why can’t it work the other way around?
In A Theory of Justice, John Rawls writes, “the role of education is enabling a person to enjoy the culture of his society and to take part in its affairs, and in this way to provide for each individual a secure sense of his own worth” (Rawls, 1999, pg. 87). Education is socialization—it is to provide a person with the tools necessary to thrive in society, starting in the family unit, transitioning to society through peer-groups and schools, then into greater society and its complex situations.
There are two parts to this social education: one, an informal education—how one learns social values and culture. For example, a child may grow up in a Muslim household. However, at school, they meet friends from different religious backgrounds, where they learn and share their values. Ultimately, they will pick up new perspectives and using a blend of them navigate socially. Two, a formal education—where people learn in a structured setting. At school, one learns formal skills like reading, writing and math, allowing one to navigate complex social structures like jobs, and ultimately helping one to transition into greater society and its culture. When done right, a combination of formal and informal education creates well-adjusted adult members of society.
Education is meant to help integrate individuals into the vast social, economic and cultural institutions of the society within which they live. Yet social media has now become a staple of society and all its institutions—politicians, corporations, educational institutions, family units and individuals all use social media in one way or another; being that social media is now an integral part of our reality, shouldn’t the education of our young people reflect its inclusion?
“…[The] aim is to give all students an equal opportunity to succeed by ensuring they have a curriculum that matches the cultural reality of the print culture (and now internet culture) in the public sphere.” (Hirsche, 2020. pg. 8).
In Clarke’s article, the Youth Select Committee, a parliamentary group led by the National Youth Agency, called for “better media literacy education in schools, including about how algorithms work and how students can ‘protect themselves and distinguish fact from fiction.’ The report also called for more training and support for teachers, parents, and carers to help education young people on potential dangers of the online world.” We should listen to these recommendations because the young people of this committee understand that social media is highly embedded into their daily life and by default—is now part of their reality. If we choose to acknowledge that, the only way to move in a more positive and ethical direction is to integrate social media into the various levels of our socialization network, allowing it to become a part of our formal and informal social education, influencing more positive and ethical behavior over time.
Cited Works
Hirsch, Jr. E.O. How to Education a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation. HarperCollins Publishers, New York. 2020.
Rawls, John. A Theory of Justice. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1999.