Technology

Doing something "for the children" is more important, apparently, than doing anything useful.

It's not popular to "defend" social media these days, but plenty of studies have found that an adolescent's online life is basically a reflection of their offline life. i.e. the social media effect is being overstated due to factors largely beyond the platform's control. But if people don't want to hear that from some rando online commenter, maybe they'll listen to real scientists:

The largest independent scientific study ever conducted investigating the spread of Facebook across the globe found no evidence that the social media platform’s worldwide penetration is linked to widespread psychological harm.

https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news-events/news/no-evidence-linking-facebook-adoption-and-negative-well-being-oxford-study/

Within-person changes in self- and other oriented social media behavior were unrelated to within-person changes in symptoms of depression or anxiety two years later, and vice versa.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563223002108?via%3Dihub

Eight-in-ten teens say that what they see on social media makes them feel more connected to what’s going on in their friends’ lives, while 71% say it makes them feel like they have a place where they can show their creative side. And 67% say these platforms make them feel as if they have people who can support them through tough times.

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/11/16/connection-creativity-and-drama-teen-life-on-social-media-in-2022/

Using social media is not inherently beneficial or harmful to young people. Adolescents’ lives online both reflect and impact their offline lives. In most cases, the effects of social media are dependent on adolescents’ own personal and psychological characteristics and social circumstances—intersecting with the specific content, features, or functions that are afforded within many social media platforms. In other words, the effects of social media likely depend on what teens can do and see online, teens’ preexisting strengths or vulnerabilities, and the contexts in which they grow up.

https://www.apa.org/topics/social-media-internet/health-advisory-adolescent-social-media-use

The most recent and rigorous large-scale preregistered studies report small associations between the amount of daily digital technology usage and adolescents’ well-being that do not offer a way of distinguishing cause from effect and, as estimated, are unlikely to be of clinical or practical significance.

https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jcpp.13190

Edit: The excess data collection is a separate issue, and one that really does need to be dealt with.