Episode 3: Teenagers, Social Media & The Axe Effect

Claire Coady, the Founder of the Attention Practice, and journalist and broadcaster James Wickham discuss how teenagers are coping with the social media age, and the affect it’s having on their attention spans.

Included are references to 90s lads and girls mags, prohibition and Mean Girls.

Show notes:

From 02:00-ish: BBC News: Australia is banning social media for teens. How will it work? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyp9d3ddqyo  

CORRECTION: YouTube is included in the ban, as is Twitch. Roblox and Discord are proactively introducing age verification in case they are included.

From 12:14 onwards: Internet Matters: Informed or Overwhelmed? Understanding the impact of news on children’s (11-17s’) well-being https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/research/impact-online-news-childrens-wellbeing/ 

76% of children and young people are exposed to news at least once a week. Majority in social media, but overwhelming trust in traditional media organisations. 

Other sources:

04:03: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16591/9781802063271 

05:42: Queen Bees and Wannabes by Rosalind Wiseman https://uk.bookshop.org/a/16591/9780749924379 

07:41: Dr Karen Nelson-Field, Erica Riebe, Kellie Newstead - The Emotions that Drive Viral Video (2013) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1441358213000220 

08:18: Ofcom - UK child internet users (aged 8-14) spend an average of 2 hours and 59 minutes online every day (2025): https://www.ofcom.org.uk/media-use-and-attitudes/media-habits-children/top-trends-from-our-latest-look-at-uk-childrens-online-lives 

09:14: Helicopter parenting - good BBC Radio 4 piece on it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3qg0ZrxRs3jgXLSpNwvht0y/are-you-over-parenting-your-children 

Related story: Did the phone ban in schools work? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6rljz5w0zo 

A pandemic-era article on gaming online with friends being a lifeline: https://www.bbc.co.uk/worklife/article/20201215-how-online-gaming-has-become-a-social-lifeline