The Royal Public Health Society of the United Kingdom is supporting a national boycott or cut back of social media during the month of September.
This new social movement is targeting the users of social media applications: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. The campaign known as Scroll Free September is targeting social media addicts that continuously use social media.
The National Health Service of England has supported the campaign due to the rise in young people’s mental health issues. The Royal Public Health Society sights statistics to support their new movement. According to the RSPH, “Half of users aged 18-34 think going “cold turkey” for a month would have a positive effect on their sleep and real-world relationships and almost half (47%) thought it would be beneficial to their overall mental health.”
According to rsph.org.uk , the campaign includes five alternatives to choose from for the month of September:
- Cold Turkey is giving up all social media.
- Social Butterfly is giving up social media during social events, which includes parties.
- Night Owl is giving up social media every night after 6:00 PM.
- Busy Bee is giving up social media in school or work.
- Sleeping Dog is giving up social media at bedtime.
All of these alternatives will give people a chance to reconnect with people and their daily lives.
A BBC reporter interviewed UK teenagers and adults that admit to using social media constantly. 15-year-old Rianna feels that she has to keep up with social media discussions. She suffers from phone addiction, which affects younger people as well as adults. Her 14-year-old friend Emma makes a statement about her generation. She states, “I think I do use it too much, but it’s a habit. It’s definitely distracting”.
British comedian 42-year-old Russell Kane admits that he is in counseling for Internet addiction. His response is, “I’ll throw something out there. I’ve had six counseling sessions for internet addiction… because it’s affecting my life.” These responses show how Internet and social media addiction is interfering with the lives of people of all ages.
According to BBC’s follow up article, an estimate of 300,000 people are participating in the campaign as of the first week of September. While the response has been positive, there has been some criticism. BBC reports that young people with disabilities use social media to connect with people and need to participate on a regular basis. Sky News expressed a similar concern for senior citizens. Social media helps seniors stay mentally alert and feel part of the community.
As a constant social media user, I believe that this social media cutback movement is very important. This social movement is a wake-up call to social media users who connect to social media on a constant basis. Users need to be aware of their life surroundings and interactions with other people. This campaign has motivated me to cutback on my social media usage, especially on my smart phone.
Can tech provide a solution to help limit social media screen time? One new app that promises to help is Apple’s new feature called Screen Time which allows users to monitor their time usage and set their own limits regarding social media. This is a great tool for social media users because they can be aware of how long they use these applications on a daily basis.
I support The Royal Public Health Society of the UK for their social movement that identifies social media and smart phone addiction. They are putting a stop to this growing addiction and making it clear with September’s Boycott that people need to put their phones down and escape their distractions.