Myths and the Real Issues 

When people talk about social media, we often hear the same comforting myths.

The first myth is that “advancements in technology are inevitable. That technology just happens.” It doesn’t. It’s designed by people, people who are businessmen and most times, those people are designing for profit.

The second myth is that “innovation always equals progress.”

But progress for who? The loneliness, misinformation, and anxiety we see online aren’t accidents. They are predictable outcomes of platforms built to capture attention.

The third myth is that “humans are vulnerable and helpless in the growing age of AI and social media.” We’re not. That urge to keep scrolling isn’t a personal flaw – it’s the result of systems designed to keep us hooked.

And yet, that’s exactly what we’re made to believe.

It’s easy to think we just lack self-discipline, but these platforms are built to study our habits and keep us engaged for as long as possible.

We need to recognise that that doesn’t make us powerless; it just means the responsibility shouldn’t fall entirely on individuals when the system itself is designed to make “just putting the phone down” difficult.

Once we see through those myths, the real issues come into focus:

Polarisation, where outrage spreads faster than understanding.

Truth, where misinformation becomes profitable.

And the business model itself, where our attention becomes the product being sold.

These aren’t glitches in the system. They are the system.

Changing Spaces and Our School Survey 

To see how deep this goes, we need to think about how our social spaces have changed.

In the past, information lived in physical places – schools, and homes. You could step away from it. You could find quiet, reflection, even disagreement that felt private.

Now, our world is digital and endless. There is no real “offline.” Every conversation, photo, and opinion sits in the same giant space, or bubble as Baroness Kidron touched on.

And that constant availability makes real togetherness, real solidarity, harder for us to sustain.

To understand this here at school, we ran a survey with our teachers to see how they interact with social media.

The results were revealing. While some teachers actively use platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok, 1 in 4 reported saying they didn’t use any.

This raised a question for us: if digital spaces are where so much of human connection happens, can someone who isn’t immersed in them truly understand their effects? It reminded us of our lecture at LSE. Many of the speakers were much older, academics who may have never been fully immersed in the digital worlds that shape our lives. They spoke with authority about social media and solidarity- but can someone really critique a system they are barely a part of?

Our survey and this observation together show a clash: social media is shaping everyone, but our voices, the ones most immersed in it, aren’t always the ones guiding the conversation.

Even within our school, you can see the pull to connect digitally and the simultaneous need to step back. These patterns highlight just how complex our relationship with these platforms has become.

In short, our survey reflects a larger truth: digital spaces are shaping relationships for everyone and understanding that is critical if we want solidarity to survive.

Our Take

So where do we stand?

Although it may seem so, we certainly don’t think social media is all bad. It has given people voices, helped movements grow, and connected communities all around the world.

But it’s also not neutral.

Every scroll, every like, every comment is part of a system designed to capture attention, not nurture wellbeing.

When companies talk about “freedom to innovate” or “freedom to connect” through social media, it sounds so positive. But behind those words is an economy built on engagement, not empathy.

That’s the challenge of our generation.

If solidarity – our ability to care for one another – is being eroded by systems that profit from division, then we must ask:

What kind of technology do we want shaping our future?

Because to reiterate, technology doesn’t just happen, we don’t have to let technology just happen to us passively. It was built, so it certainly can be rebuilt.

We can choose to question, to redesign, and to demand something better:

Technologies that bring people together rather than pulling them apart.

So maybe the real test for our generation isn’t this dramatic, exaggerated idea of whether we can “survive” social media, but whether we can rebuild it so that solidarity can survive too.