How many times have you said something to your kids and received no response, only to have someone else say the very same thing and your kids think it was revolutionary and take immediate action? I remember when my kids were young, they listened to their friends way more than they listened to me.
The same principle holds true today. So we want those people who have our kids’ ears to be speaking truth to them. We want and hope our children are listening to people who are sharing information that is beneficial and valuable. We hope they would be listening to people like Sarah Abudakar. Sarah is a senior at Lakota West High School in Cincinnati. Sarah is part of an organization that is trying to bring awareness of how social media impacts mental health.
A global nonprofit, LogOff Movement, was created by a team of young ladies who either had an addiction to social media or became curious as to how it impacts the mental health of children and teens. Together, these young people are working to educate and promote a healthy use of social media among users. The focus isn’t to log off and put away all digital devices forever, but instead to reduce the amount of time spent on platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram.
This student-run movement is encouraging users to unfollow people who make them feel bad about themselves, follow people who make them feel good, and to change the way they view these apps so that they can use them in a more positive way. Abudakar is hoping to use the LogOff Movement to help parents and teens have meaningful and impactful conversations about healthy ways to use social media.
Hopefully, because this information is coming from their peers, more young people will listen, pay attention, and actually participate in the movement. Let’s hope so.
