The story takes place in the United States, but, in reality, it interests far beyond, social networks, Facebook, Twitter, and other Instagram eating up the available time of millions of teenagers on the planet.
Hence the initiative of Lorna Klefsaas, mother of four children in Motley, Minnesota, who decided in 2016 to make a deal with her younger brother. Her son, Sivert, was celebrating his 12th birthday and she made him an offer: if, until he was 18, he didn’t subscribe to any social network, she would give him $1,800 on D-Day. “AT At the time, the sum seemed enormous to mehe told CNN, I thought that with this I could buy a house! So I accepted.“And he held on.
Six years later, Sivert has just turned 18 and his mother gave him the promised $1,800, with a healthy dose of pride. “What made me challenge himshe explains, is to see his three big sisters, my own daughters, completely addicted to Instagram and Snapchat, they were obsessed with the comments, the reactions, to the point of making them sick. It influenced their mood, often depressed them, so I said to myself ‘we’ll see if Sivert can do without it’.” Not only did he do very well, but his social life did not suffer at all. Quite the contrary. “I never thought of cracking, he said. To tell the truth, it has above all become a kind of pride, my little specificity with my friends, it has given me a unique status in my group..”
If someone said they’d pay you $1,800 to stay off social media for six years, would you do it? Could you? https://t.co/QhQDczrrZG
— CNN (@CNN) February 23, 2022
He adds that, in any case, even without having an account, we cannot escape what is happening on social networks, everyone has always told him what was going on there, exchanges, controversies, dramas sometimes. As for the benefits of exercise, he thinks that unlike his friends, he knows how to concentrate better, faster, for longer, and that he doesn’t have a self-esteem problem either. Ironically, he just opened an account on Instagram. And with his 1,800 dollars, he plans to buy a flat screen.
Still, Lorna Klefsaas’s initiative has fascinated the newspapers, including references such as the washington post, but also inspired a lot of discussions… on social networks between distraught parents. Proof that everyone is more or less confronted with this same problem of addiction, of dependence on “I love” and to the little hearts of Instagram. Hence the question: and we, mature and enlightened adults, could we do without it for six years?