I have mixed feelings on social media for young people. When I was growing up it actually helped me immensely as it let me connect with like minded people and e

I have mixed feelings on social media for young people. When I was growing up it actually helped me immensely as it let me connect with like minded people and escape the local echo chamber (I don't mean to disparage my childhood community, but I definitely didn't fit in). I feel that I was able to develop emotional intelligence in a way that my schooling environment could not provide, so there are some upsides. However, there was definitely a period of time where I would have benefited from using social media less and giving it less importance in my day. In some senses, it felt like a responsibility, whereas now I treat it like an elective leisure activity. I believe that social media access should be introduced in late teens, when the ability to discern and self regulate what an 'elective leisure activity' is. As an aside, I also think that critical thinking skills should be in the curriculum for at least 2 years before a kid gets a smart phone, but that's unfortunately up to the discretion of parents, regardless of competence.