This Monday, February 28, is World Day Without Facebook. Don’t worry, this day, which aims to raise awareness of Mr. Zuckerberg’s algorithm addiction, is not about TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat or even your favorite video game.
In this context, what is the relevance of this day? Especially since, despite its 2.85 billion users, Facebook is losing momentum, especially among young people.
Of course, it is always fashionable to demonize the biggest player in our digitized social lives, its echo chambers, the polarization of debates and its many deleterious effects. But when it comes to cyberaddiction among our young people, the problem comes from elsewhere, from everywhere else.
Your opinion
interests us.
Do you have an opinion to share? A text between 300 and 600 words that you would like to submit to us?
Cyberdependance
Eight years ago, Le Grand Chemin received a first request for help from a teenager with a problem of cyberaddiction. Since then, the cases have multiplied. The same goes for requests for help from parents who no longer know how to act in front of a child who neglects his sleep, who isolates himself or who enters a crisis when the Wi-Fi or the video game console is shut down. . Nevertheless, among the dozens of young people treated for cyberaddiction in our centers since 2014, in no case was Facebook the main problem.
So what do we do?
Of course, everyone’s screen time has skyrocketed with the pandemic. This finding is even more striking among young people for whom the Internet has become even more of a means of communication with their peers.
Demonizing screens, video games or social networks is certainly not the solution to protect our children from the risks of cyberaddiction (also called problematic internet use [UPI]).
The phenomenon of screens is here for good. We must be kind to our young people and supervise them, from an early age, to help them have a better balance. Being too strict is no better than being too permissive. Be nuanced and adapt the rules according to your child’s level of emotional maturity in order to gradually give him more freedom.
The key is to establish and maintain mutual trust with your child about what they do online. Being too rigid or restrictive risks breaking this bond.
Take an interest in what he does online, ask him about his favorite games, the friends he talks to or the videos that make him laugh. This dialogue will ensure that your child will not hesitate to turn to you the day they face an online threat, whether it is bullying, requests for suggestive photos or a solicitation of money in a multiplayer game, to name just a few examples.
We do not always understand the generation that follows us. As our parents did not understand those evenings spent on the telephone repeating for hours: “No, you hang up”, to our first loves.
A majority of young people use screens normally. There are periods of abuse, during spring break for example, but most will be able to regain control. But for young people unable to pick up, obsessed with their screens, Le Grand Chemin is there. So if you think your teenager needs help, don’t hesitate to contact us.
And to support the courageous young people of the Grand Chemin who put on their slippers for eight to ten weeks in order to treat their addiction or their cyberaddiction, be ready to put on your slippers, at school, at the office or at home, the next Friday, March 18 for Slipper Day.
Photo QMI Agency, Marc Vallières
Simon Cote, Director of the Le Grand Chemin Foundation