Reference no: EM133299791

Case: In the last few days there has been an absolute moral panic and many of you should be ashamed of yourselves, especially you Helicopter Helen. Put the pitchforks away, put your smartphones and Google down for a minute, stop "doing your own research", and try listening for once. A ban is not going to work. There are other and better solutions. To all of those of you saying that Helicopter Helen has done some "good" research: look, I am a university Professor, I know what good research looks like, and this is not it. A few mums claim to have "done their own research". But all that means is spending five minutes looking things up on Google and getting frightened by sensationalist headlines. Helicopter Helen is exaggerating the issue about cyberbullying at the school, and it is nowhere near as bad as she makes out. It requires cool-heads and sensible reasoning. Not rabble-rousing and hollering. Research into social media is complicated and although Helicopter Helen has quoted some fancy looking stats, she has not presented them properly, and they do not tell the whole story. Handling statistics in general is a complicated affair. If Helicopter Helen and any of the other panicking parents had bothered to actually look properly - like actual researchers do - they would note that trying to work out the relationship between cyberbullying, mental health, and social media is a very nuanced issue. As this lovely article by Craig Sewall in 'The Conversation' (https://theconversation.com/flawed-data-led-to-findings-of-a-connection-between-timespent-on-devices-and-mental-health-problems-new-research-162585) notes: it is not clear what key terms like 'screen time' or 'cyberbullying' actually relate to in this area of research. Furthermore, the self-report measures these stats are derived from are questionable. And the stats themselves not only show that the impact of social media on mental health appears to vary across individuals; some longitudinal studies even have stats that show there is no problem at all. So, the issue is complex, and the stats do not actually support Helicopter Helen's misguided cause. But why is everyone so caught up on the negatives? It is a classic human response to only look at the negatives, to get hooked in by scary media headlines that are often sensationalist nonsense. You all seem to have overlooked how beneficial social media can be.

Children now have many more advantages than when we were kids. Think of the new ways of making friends and developing new friendship circles that would not otherwise exist. Look at the cool and inventive new forms of expression, which often go completely over my "boomer" head. But the kids are happy. Why would you want to ban something that can be so good for so many people? Is it because you missed out yourselves? You miserable gits. But there is another thing that Helicopter Helen and the panickers haven't figured out. Just how exactly is this ban supposed to work, hey? Just because Helicopter Helen wants to take away all her kid's devices doesn't mean she can take away my child's smartphone. History has showed us time and time again that banning things just does not work. Look at the prohibition of alcohol in the USA. That went well didn't it? And you know that Facebook is banned in China, right? Loads of people still have it there anyway. If bans did not work then, they are not going to work now. This is especially the case because our kids are digital natives. They are just going to find a way around the ban and any firewalls, etc. in about five minutes. A ban? You're dreaming. Look, I know my rant has gone on way too long. But please, Helicopter Helen and you other fanatics, consider this. Maybe there are other and better options. In places where good sex education is provided there are lower rates of teen pregnancies and lower incidences of STDs. So, you would agree that education can be a good solution to problems and harms involving young people. There are good educational resources available that Trunchball and her minions could utilise to teach about online spaces. You know, education. At a school. Who would have thought of it? Commonsense media for example. Indeed, one only has to Google "education resource social media use at school" to see that there are loads of resources available. You all like Googling and "doing your own research" so much, so why not give it a try?

Question 1. Comment on the types of argument used (e.g. inductive, deductive, abductive, analogy, causal claims), AND analyse them in the appropriate manner (e.g. weak/strong, valid/sound, etc.)

Question 2. Any problems in the arguments used (e.g. violations of rules, notable fallacies, unsupported or poorly supported claims, judgements on whether any research they've referred to is handled correctly and honestly, etc.)

Question 3. An analysis of the language, rhetoric, and possible biases used, tone and language (e.g. word choice, ambiguity, spin, jargon, certainty and doubt, etc.)