Meta recently announced an $18 billion settlement and new restrictions on their social media platforms. On The Drew Mariani Show, Drew welcomed therapist Dr. Jeffery Rubin to discuss the impact of social media on young people. 

According to the Associated Press, the settlement will add new safety features to Instagram and Facebook, “including two-hour daily time limits that can only be disabled with a parent’s permission and pauses for children.” 

Assessing the Problem 

Rubin thinks about screen addiction as a “sign of something missing.” As a result, young people are not engaged in the present moment. “They’re not developing some of the [normal] social skills,” he said, “they don’t ask questions.” 

“Character is formed by struggling honestly with difficult questions,” Rubin said. Social media “takes that away.” Rather than learning to think for oneself, people turn to Facebook groups for answers. Something Rubin calls the “herd mentality.” 

Parenting 

Rubin stressed to Drew the importance of setting boundaries, but in a “non-shaming way.” The psychologist said he would sit on the edge of the bed with his kid and ask questions. “And I’d say, tell me about it. What’s the experience like? What do you get out of it?”

On Rubin’s view, today’s parenting is a pendulum swing from a stricter style of parenting, to a looser one. “I think parents are sometimes frightened of setting limits,” he said. Without those necessary limits houses turn “child-centered” where “the kids rule.” Ultimately, that type of household isn’t good for kids, Rubin said. “It’s not useful.”

Rubin also recommends talking to children about the importance of brain development. Tell kids “these things are greater than your capacity to set limits,” he said. 

Popular social psychologist and New York University professor Jonathan Haidt recommends stricter phone usage. The author of the popular book The Anxious Generation, has called for no smartphones before high school and phone-free schools. 

Haidt, a technology skeptic, celebrated the Meta settlement. According to The New York Times, Haid said, “This is the biggest victory that there’s ever been for the reformers.”