Why Utah Is So Aggressive Against Social Media

Utah Governor Spencer Cox recently announced that the state of Utah is suing TikTok for its marketing techniques aimed toward children to get them addicted to the social media platform.

This is not the first time Utah has been against exposing minors to the negative side effects of social media, but this is certainly the most aggressive it’s been.

Many Utah residents have been limiting their children’s social media time in response to the state’s stance on the matter, but why is Utah so aggressive about social media protection?

To answer this question, I would highly suggest you go watch “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix. It’s a documentary with fictional elements that’s meant to show the negative implications social media can have on a child’s mind.

If there is one thing that most can agree on, is that social media can be addictive, REALLY addictive.

It can be particularly rough on adolescents as they make their way through high school. If there is one thing that can cause serious self-doubt during puberty, it’s seeing “picture perfect” lives on a social media page as you scroll endlessly through your feed.

When I was in high school, Instagram was really starting to take off, and if you weren’t on Instagram, you were a loser. Once I got an Instagram account, I found no such vindication or comradery with my friends and peers. All I found was a sense of jealousy that would build inside me as I saw countless smiling faces.

“Why am I not like that?” That’s something that countless teens think to themselves as they continue to compart themselves to fictional expectations.

I say fictional because a social media post is nothing more than a snapshot of someone’s life. That snapshot has been carefully curated to perfectly show how trendy or popular one is, but most of the time, it’s nothing more than that.

Again, I would heavily recommend giving “The Social Dilemma” a watch. It provides a pretty solid case for why Utah is pushing this social media agenda so hard.