There has been a lot of discussion this week about whether we should stop the young from watching things on social media. I wonder if the readers of this blog are not prone to spending too much of their time reading a finfluencer. In general, are you reading watching and listening to your  colleagues and “wannabe colleagues” on social media?

You are reading this blog and the next item is the blog of Darren and Nico, it could be argued that you are spending too much time on your phone or laptop (or desktop or tablet),

This blog publishes to Linkedin ,X  (twitter) , Facebook and BlueSky. I have those I respect who go nowhere near them all and there is particular reservation about X (Steve Webb nearly influenced me off it).

It is clear that young people are more vulnerable to social media as it has been used A Newscast  program, available on BBC’s social media channel explores the subject

Today, its presenters hear from Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly took her own life in 2017.

An inquest found social media content contributed “more than minimally” to Molly’s death. Since then Ian has campaigned for greater safety online. So why is Ian opposed to a ban for under 16s?

Laura and Paddy (the hosts of this podcast) discuss the arguments for and against, and why there seems to be increasing support for the idea in British politics. They also look at what’s happened in Australia, which introduced a ban last year. introduced a ban, Kemi Badenoch has come out to say that if she were in government the Conservative party would follow suit.

Since then, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said “all options are on the table”  with regards the restriction of the use of social media, both by those who put stuff on and those who imbibe.

Like most people, there are places on social media I will not go and I haven’t followed Steve Webb, mainly because I think that if we go on losing voices like mine, then X becomes the place for a certain type of voice that should be balanced. I no longer get into arguments on twitter and I suspect that the arguments are now anything but liberal (in any sense of that word).

As far as children go, I do not have immediate concern. I am aware that there is no longer “watch with mother”, a program I grew up with 60 years ago. Instead there is a lot of watch without mother because kids are smarter than parents and given access to the web will find a way. Do I see a way of stopping children getting on the web – restricting but not stopping the web’s use, is my best answer.

And you – you are still reading if you’ve got this far and you almost certainly are not young. Social media is replacing for you news papers, terrestrial TV and perhaps those social events that you grew up. Today is a Sunday, will you go to a church, will you go out to lunch , go to a sporting event? Or will you do a web-version? Has the social media you used replaced social events?

I suspect the biggest casualty in terms of revenues is television, the time we spent on TV is now partially spent on social media. Time spent on radio and reading papers is not generating the advertising revenue it did, instead money that is being made comes from the influence that social media has.

Last week, someone who is evidently rather better at many aspects of pensions than me, referred to my skills as a “finfluencer“, which is a word that I have just added to my online dictionary! Am I offering you a safer place to spend your time, is Nico or Darren or were the social media specialists on BBC? Are we redefining our boundaries so we live a safer way or are we throwing our portals (eyes and ears) open to pernicious ideas and views?

I am pretty sure that none of those mentioned above are generating income directly.

Am I really a finfluencer and has that word become useable of me because I learned it and used it on this blog? Is this Government’s financial influence responsible?

We have to think about the responsibility of our statements – we all do – even the DWP.

Ian Russell lost his daughter but uses social media to explain its dark side. His way of speaking on the subject shows that it can do good as well as bad.He is an influencer on influence.

It seems harder in these days of long darkness and good reasons not to go outside, to avoid the web. I should say “thank you” for reading me this far (people do) but I’m not sure that you hang on my words by way of influence. I hope you take a step back and wonder if spending time reading me isn’t time not spent reading , listening to or watching something better. But more challengingly, I hope that you consider the time you spend in direct conversation with those you love , including possibly your God, superior to this conversation.

Have a fulfilling Sunday (or whenever you get to read this blog). The original blog about VFM #142 can be found here. It uses the same images as this one, but in an attempt to finfluence you to my point of view!