TikTok and Teens: Guest Column
Congress is considering banning the Chinese government-controlled social media platform TikTok. For some, this ban is about national security. For others, it’s about the safety and sanity of our children.
Today, nearly half of all teens use social media “almost constantly.” Sixty-three percent of them use TikTok, making it the second most used social media platform behind YouTube.
Some claim that banning TikTok could lead to catastrophic consequences for teens’ mental health. For many teens, according to one Twitter user, “TikTok is their identity.” In other words, they’re addicted, so losing it could lead to mental distress.
Such an abrupt shift may certainly cause distress, but social media has long fueled anxiety and depression. As Jean Twenge has noted, teens who spend more time behind screens are at a higher risk for depression.
Thankfully, teens are more than their online personas, likes, follows, or friends. They are embodied persons whose happiness and wholeness depend on living in the real world. Any effort to help them do that is a step in the right direction.
Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.
Hillary Clinton Endorses Arkansas Abortion Amendment
Last week former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton endorsed a proposal to write abortion into the Arkansas Constitution.
Arkansans for Limited Government is working to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the November ballot.
The measure would write abortion into the state constitution, and it would prevent the Arkansas Legislature from restricting abortion during the first five months of pregnancy — allowing thousands of elective abortions every year and paving the way for taxpayer-funded abortions in Arkansas.
On Friday Hillary Clinton issued statements on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook asking people to support the Arkansas Abortion Amendment. Clinton’s statement said,
People everywhere deserve the ability to make deeply personal decisions about their health for themselves.
Today, you can help women in Arkansas exercise their reproductive rights by supporting the Arkansas Abortion Amendment.
Join me in standing with them.
Clinton’s endorsement comes as opposition to the amendment continues to swell in Arkansas.
Abortion supporters have until July 5 to collect the nearly 91,000 petition signatures necessary to place their measures on the ballot.
You can download a copy of the abortion amendment here.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.