Following this week’s landmark settlement involving Meta social media addiction, WDBO’s Katie Coronado spoke with Central Florida pediatric neuropsychologist Dr. Juliana Sanchez Bloom about what parents should watch for in their own children when social media and the use of technology becomes a problem.
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“Short form videos actually really degrades attention span, so there’s a big difference between watching a long form movie or even an educational video on Youtube, that is, 20 minutes, 40 minutes, versus watching a :45 second reel,” explains Bloom.
READ: Meta reaches $17 billion settlement with states in landmark trial over teen social media addiction
She also says parents should pay attention to changes in behavior and whether social media use begins interfering with sleep, school, family relationships or other everyday activities. She explains parents should provide structure but also empathy if this is something they enjoy.
“I think parents should focus on helping their kids build a healthy relationship with technology,” Bloom says.
While Bloom acknowledges that there are benefits to using technology, she says “the Meta lawsuit puts into relief that high use of screens is significantly impacting our children and adolescents in terms of their mental health but also their learning, their attention and their social relationships.”
The conversation comes after Meta agreed Wednesday to pay up to $18 billion and implement stronger child-safety measures on Facebook and Instagram, resolving claims from nearly every state that accused the company of designing features that could encourage addictive behavior among young users.
Listen to the full conversation with Dr Bloom here:
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