Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

I’m a slave to social media and it drives me nuts.   I feel compelled to have Twitter and Facebook for work. Instagram for socialising. I wisely never touch TikTok because from all accounts, that’s the most addictive platform of the lot. But if I have to battle to stop myself from reflexively picking up my phone and checking the ‘gram, I can’t imagine how hard it is for the generations who’ve never known a world without smart phones.  Australia looks set to forge ahead with a ban on social media for young people. The South Australian government will ban it for kids under 14 and put the onus on the platforms to use age verification tools in making sure younger kids aren’t setting up accounts. 14 and 15 years olds will need explicit parental permission to access the likes of Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and X.   But is that excessive? Is social media really comparable to booze or tobacco? And if it’s causing harm, is it really the state’s job to step in?   I’m a huge fan of the work of U.S Social Psychologist Jo