Is Your Athlete Addicted to Social Media?
LARISSA MILLS, B. A., M. Ed. Cognitive Behavioural Sports Coach & Founder of The Mental Game Academy
SIGNS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION
• Constant phone use
• Staying up late
• Lazy, anxious, irritable, depressed
• In their rooms on devices 24 / 7
• Won’ t spend time with family or friends
• Going over data limits each month
INTRODUCTION: With 25 years of experience in education and as a mother of three, I can safely say that phones should never have been invented with social media. Phones, yes! We, as adults, love them but are just as addicted as children. Once a child has one, they are sucked down the proverbial rabbit hole, never to talk to you again. By age 16, kids have been on phones 18,000 hours. This is causing gaps in their psychological, emotional, physical and academic development. As a Cognitive Behavioural Sports Specialist, I hear from parents, athletes and coaches daily that they don’ t know what to do. When I asked coaches to elaborate on this statement, I heard,“ It is like coaching robots that don’ t interact or care to learn anymore.” Or“ We can manage coaching with hormones, but not with phones,” some said. Students check their phones— even though they are banned in schools— 20 times a class. This causes disjointed learning, not continuous learning. So, why do we allow phones around sports?
Parents, coaches, physicians and educators want to ban phones for the sake of students’ mental health and the future of education. So why not set boundaries around sports?
HOW TO PREVENT ADDICTION
1. Delay, delay, delay. More parents want to delay getting their kids phones, but don’ t. Unless parents parent, children won’ t put screens down. Kids look at their phones 80 times a day on average. This is training their brain to do it and to want that dopamine.
2. Talk and set boundaries and rules for your home. Don’ t cave, ever; stick to the rules and create them as a family. Set consequences together too.
3. Routines are as healthy as love for kids. Maintain routines as best you can. First, prioritize time for homework, chores, playing outside, sports, etc. Create clear expectations so kids do things automatically. No more nagging will be needed. Well, not as much. LOL.
4. Sports, arts, music— sign them up! Keep children engaged athletically and find them a hobby. Activities are multifactorial in their development and help build socialization skills, resilience and confidence. They are invaluable.
5. Face time, not FaceTime, for family. Family dinners and family events with grandparents are a good start. However, playing cards, reading to them, hugging them and sharing affection is more important now than ever in these times of isolation. Create traditions and go on holiday.
6. Socialization. If children don’ t bond and form secure attachments to their parents, they can’ t develop the remaining psychological steps concretely. If children don’ t pass through this stage, they will have gaps in their overall development.
7. Connection. Keep kids on the main floor with you— for awareness and for protection.
8. Control Apps. Adding @ FYIplayitsafe lets parents see what their kids are doing and notifies them when something is wrong. Bullying, if they are sad, if someone asks them their name. Also, the Blue Guardian app is an additional mental health tracker that uses social media to analyze your child’ s emotional state.
The Canadian Paediatric Screen Task Force states,“ Children should use screens for one hour a day.” Some children aren’ t speaking properly by kindergarten while older children aren’ t talking to develop the linguistic part of their brains— they are texting. This is not a substitute for spoken language, says Dr. John Hutton of Cincinnati Children’ s Hospital.
Keep talking to your children and organize time to be together as a family. Make family time sacred.
Visit www. thementalgameacademy. ca for tips, strategies, podcasts, courses and videos to set up rules, expectations and guidelines for children at all ages to balance life with technology. n
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