The Digital Era at SXSW: The Good, Bad and Beautiful

Austin, TX — Coming from the teen perspective, I must confess that I was a little apprehensive listening to a panel of adults talk about Teens, Screens, and Wellbeing: Supporting Youth in the Digital Age at SXSW. In my experience, when adults speak on teens and social media, it can be summarized in a few words: Bad. Delete. Ban it.

For this panel, nothing could have been further from the truth. 

The panel began with a video made by the YR Media community. Students were asked the guiding question: How does tech affect your well-being — for better or for worse?

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The young people in the video mentioned the good and bad of group chats, loving the community, hating the post-send anxiety, and the difficulty in communication.

Scarlett Nolan, a participant in the production, said, “I communicate with people differently (through social media)... It’s not as easy as (adults) think.”

After the video concluded, YR Media’s CEO Kyra Kyles commented on the use of social media, “Nuance is required. We have to work on creating layers.”

The conversation moved to the way adults interact with teens when thinking about phones and technology. The panel’s moderator Kelsey Noonan, who is the Strategy Leader at Pivotal Ventures, drew a sharp contrast using a headline from a century ago on the harm of radio talk shows and the way we talk about phones now — which showed that no matter what the innovation is, users are generally scared of it.

Phones are ultimately a tool sometimes used for bad, but also commonly used for good. All too often, this technological tool can be blamed for things it has nothing to do with, which can be invalidating for teens.

Dr. Emily Weinstein of Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving mentioned: “A teen in (the Center for Digital Thriving) research told us, ‘The hardest part about growing up with today’s technology is my mom blaming everything on my phone,’” she said. “It can feel to teens so minimizing when we act like the phone is the cause for everything wrong for them.”

On the flipside, we, as a society, must acknowledge the negative roles social media is playing in growing up.

One of the speakers, Katya Hancock, is the Executive Director at Young Futures, which is an organization created with the aim of making it easier to grow up in a digital world.

Hancock mentioned her belief that one of the key problems with this digital world is loneliness. 

“Loneliness is a huge issue in our society,” she said. “We are much more isolated as a culture in America than ever before … What does that mean for teens?” She later added, “Kids are very connected (on socials) … but that doesn’t mean they’re having meaningful social connections.”

One experiment conducted by BBC found that 40% of all young people ages 16-24 said they often or very often felt lonely. This phenomenon is called the Loneliness Epidemic for a reason. Though in many ways the  entire world is more connected each day than ever before, we still feel emotionally far apart.

Many professionals will preach that worsening body image and cyberbullying are some of the biggest problems with social media — and that is absolutely true. But one overlooked issue is how accessible we are at all times. At any hour of the day, you may receive a text from your friend saying, I need your help. I’m really upset. 

Dr. Weinstein put this into words perfectly, “(Teens) have to pit desire for self-care against the desire to care for friends.” 

This panel was, in a word, enlightening. It defied expectations and exponentially increased my hope for healthy safeguards for teens in a digital age. 

“We can’t go back to the pre-tech era … We can’t just shut the gate to technology,” Kyles stressed. “We have to create a space to come up with solutions together.”

Emmie Wolf-Dubin (she/her) is a high school student in Nashville who covers anything from entertainment to politics. Follow her on Instagram: @redheadwd07. 

Edited by NaTyshca Pickett