Here is a poem by Steph, one of our Children and Young Peoples Wellbeing Ambassador about social media.
I hear my phone ping
Someone’s just posted a new selfie
With filters and photoshop taking up more room than their own face
Sure they’re smiling, but make no mistake
The life they illustrate
On their social platform
Doesn’t match their day-to-day reality
I hear my phone ping
Some new beef has started
And now everyone is at each other’s throats in the comment section
But what those hyper-typing savages are really on the hunt for is attention
That’s all most of us look for
A place to be seen
A place to be heard
A place to call home
Somewhere we can control the way others see us
After a few clicks here
And few more there
You can go from Billy-no-mates
To Billy-with-hundreds-of-mates
And in some ways it’s fantastic and freeing
But in others it’s toxicating
With the line between the two moving more hysterically
Than the tasmanian devil after 5 cups of coffee
I hear my phone ping
But when I check it
The lock screen is deserted of notifications
And now I’m full of worry
That my last status
Was too lame
Or weird
Or stupid
And now everyone hates me
I hear my phone ping
And with red roar eyes
And a tired mind
I sit and wonder
How have we got here?
Forced in tight phone chains
