I was waiting for a friend to show up at a café so tired that I was staring aimlessly ahead of me. I was jolted out of this state by a teenage girl approaching the table in front of me, already with two other girls seated at it.
They greeted her while hardly looking up from their phones, and when she sat down, she started scrolling on her device, too. They ignored each other entirely and played on their phones for at least the next 5 minutes until my friend arrived. It was honestly very troubling to witness but unsurprising, given recent survey results.
According to a study carried out by the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), which surveyed over 280,000 children aged 11, 13 and 15 across 44 countries, Maltese teenagers ranked the second highest out of the 44 countries for addiction-like social media use with girls scoring higher than boys.
In Malta, 28% of 13-year-old and 24% of 15-year-old females showed problematic social media use, compared to 14% and 13% of males. Mercifully, these numbers dropped to 18% of girls and 11% of boys for the 11-year-old demographic.
So, what can be done to change these numbers? The reality is that most Maltese teenagers have nothing to do and nowhere to go, and they turn to social media to fill up their time.
Not only were they born on a small island where everyone makes it their business to get into other people’s business (which social media allows you to do from the comfort of your own sofa), but there are very few places catered towards teen needs. While there were many youth groups dotted around the island in the past, the enthusiasm for these kinds of gatherings has dwindled.
Once filled with laughter, the streets of my adolescence are now only full of traffic. One of my friends literally has to pay her teenage son to meet with friends because he would rather stay at home and play on his computer, and she’s worried about his mental health and dwindling social skills.
The answer lies in looking at the data, then taking it to the people it concerns and asking them what they want to see and do more of.
Maybe if there were more open spaces and money was poured into building proper areas for young teens to relax and recreate, we would have less anxious adolescents who are not so closed off.
We are not taking care of our future. Sooner or later, we’ll pay the price.