Speaking during an interview on the April 11 episode of “TODAY” with Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, actress Jennifer Garner, star of the upcoming Apple TV+ series “The Last Thing He Told Me,” explained why she won’t let her kids use social media and why her eldest is actually grateful for that.
Describing how she got them off social media without them resenting her, she said, “I just said to my kids, ‘Show me the articles that prove that social media is good for teenagers, and then we’ll have the conversation.’ Find scientific evidence that matches what I have that says that it’s not good for teenagers, then we’ll chat.”
Continuing, she said, “My eldest is grateful. It’s a long haul. I have a couple more to go, so just knock on wood. We’ll see if I really hang in there.”
Those comments came when Garner was on “TODAY” discussing her new TV project for Apple TV+, “The Last Thing He Told Me.” The show is based on a thriller novel by the same name and follows a woman who teams up with her teenage stepdaughter to find her missing husband.
Describing the storyline as being about motherhood, she said she drew on her own experiences as a mother for the role, saying, “I’m familiar. My teens are pretty great, so I can’t really toss them in there. It’s a different scenario, different friction, but I am familiar with being deeply embarrassing, yes.”
Garner isn’t the only actress to notice the problems social media is causing, particularly for kids. Penelope Cruz, during a December 2021 CBS appearance, said:
“I really see that that is protecting mental health, but I seem to be part of a minority. I feel really bad for the ones that are teenagers now. It’s almost [as] if the world was doing some kind of experiment on them. ‘Oh, let’s see what happens if you expose a 12-year-old to that much technology.’”
“There is no protection for them, for brains that are still developing and how that affects the way they see themselves, how everything related to bullying, so many things that are not the childhood that we had. [My kids] can [only] watch movies sometimes or some cartoons. How can I not let them watch movies? [Those have] been some incredible moments of happiness since I was a little girl.”
The Today website, in the context of Garner’s interview, noted that studies have shown social media can cause mental health problems for young people and that Utah is leading the charge in fighting back, saying:
In one instance, the government has already intervened when it comes to teens and social media. Last month, Utah became the first state to require parental consent for minors to use social media after Gov. Spencer Cox signed two bills into law.
The laws require all social media companies to verify the age of any Utah resident who uses their site and mandates parental consent be obtained if the user is a minor.
Numerous studies have found links between negative mental health effects in teens and an increase in social media use, including depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.
"*" indicates required fields