Socialite Paris Hilton recently reflected on the negative impact that social media can have on young minds, noting that she hopes her children don’t grow up to be as addicted to smartphones and their interactive apps as she is.
The 43-year-old businesswoman shared her thoughts on the prevalence of social media use among kids during a recent summit called “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation,” held on March 25 at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, People reported.
According to the event’s website, the annual gathering is “expressly designed to equip creators of television—including writers, artists, producers, and executives—for the year ahead by connecting creators of popular culture with leading changemakers to engage in critical discourse on the most urgent issues of our time.”
While speaking on a panel titled “To Suffer Alone,” which also featured U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, Ms. Hilton shared her hopes and desires for her children’s futures.
The Hilton heiress shares 14-month-old son Phoenix and four-month-old daughter London with her husband, author Carter Reum. The couple, who wed in the fall of 2021, welcomed their kids via surrogate in January 2023 and November 2023, respectively.
“I just want my children just to feel just so loved and seen and want to be that next generation of someone that brings positivity to the world and just to have big hearts and big loving,” she said. “That’s something that’s really important to me.”
Ms. Hilton also mentioned that she wants her kids “to live a world outside of social media” and not be on their phones “all the time.”
“So I feel that’s really taken a lot from children. Kids are not going outside anymore and playing as much because everyone’s just so busy on their phones,” she explained. “So, hopefully, my kids won’t be as addicted to social media as I am.”
‘Cruel and Hateful’ Comments
Ms. Hilton has previously touched upon the negative aspects of social media, including the barrage of criticism she’s received online since becoming a mother.Last fall, the media personality responded to the “cruel and hateful” Instagram users who mocked her son’s physical appearance after she posted a photo of herself holding her then-nine-month-old. “My precious angel baby Phoenix’s first time in NYC,” she captioned alongside the Oct. 19 post.
The picture drew a slew of hurtful comments from users about the size of Phoenix’s head, from someone questioning whether or not he had hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain, to another likening him to Stewie Griffin, a fictional character from the animated series “Family Guy.”
Ms. Hilton subsequently issued a lengthy statement to her Instagram stories.
“Living life in the spotlight, comments are inevitable, but targeting my child, or anyone else’s for that matter, is unacceptable. This hurts my heart more deeply than words can describe,” she wrote at the time.
“I’ve worked hard to cultivate an environment that is all about love, respect, and acceptance, and I expect the same in return. If I don’t post my baby, people assume I’m not a great mother and if I do post him, there are some people who are cruel and hateful,” she continued.
“I’m a proud working mom and my baby is perfectly healthy, adorable and angelic,” she concluded in part. “It’s hard to fathom that there are people in the world who would target such innocence. I hope that people can treat one another with more kindness and empathy.”
Social Media and Mental Health
According to a 2023 study by Washington-based analytics firm Gallup, which surveyed over 1,500 adolescents, a little over half of American teenagers spend more than four hours on social media daily. The amount of time spent on apps was higher among girls, who spent an hour more online than their male counterparts, on average.In addition to the risk of cyberbullying and online trolling, other drawbacks of social media use have been widely reported, particularly among young girls. These include depression, body image issues, low self-esteem, and sleep disturbances, among others. A 2019 study published in The Lancet Discovery Science found a correlation between increased social media use and a higher occurrence of these issues among 14-year-old girls.
Similarly, a study published in JAMA Psychiatry the same year found that spending less than an hour on social media per day affected the emotional state of adolescents in the United States.
Researchers indicated those between the ages of 12 and 15 who spent just 30 minutes on apps had an increased risk of internalizing problems compared to those who didn’t use social media.
Moreover, the study found that those who were active on social media for more than three hours per day were at a “heightened risk for mental health problems.”
