FLIGHT CREWS: A GUIDE TO SAFEGUARDING YOUR KIDS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Being a pilot, flight attendant, or frequent flyer comes with a unique set of challenges. Unlike many professions, these roles involve extended periods away from home, loved ones, and family. This distance often means parenting takes on a digital dimension. How do you mitigate the complexities of social media when you're trying to protect your children from its potential pitfalls?
While there are many positive aspects to social media, flight crews face a daunting task when it comes to protecting their children to the dangers online. You're competing with an army of sophisticated advertisers who are constantly vying for the attention of your children and teens. And with your busy schedules and frequent travel, finding time to monitor their online activity can feel nearly impossible, especially when you are flying over the vast oceans at 35000 feet and disconnected. It’s an aspect of the lifestyle that presents worries and concerns for many.
Social media algorithms are incredibly effective at capturing and holding attention.
“The real debate should be about free will, and we feel it right now, because we are being programmed. We are being programmed based on what we say we are interested in. And we are told through these discovery mechanisms what is interesting, and as we engage and interact with this content, the algorithm continues to build more and more of this bias. The algorithm, even if it’s open source, is effectively a black box; you cannot predict 100% of the time how it’s going to work, what it is going to show you. And it can be moved and changed at any time. And because people become so dependent upon it, it’s actually changing and impacting the agency we have, the free agency we have. And I think the only answer to this is not to work harder in open-sourcing algorithms, or making them more explainable, or why they are doing it, but to give people choice, but to give people choice of what algorithm they want to use from a party that they trust.”? - Twitter founder Jack Dorsey
They're constantly learning and adapting, using powerful technology to predict and target users, making it difficult to break free from the cycle of screen addiction. Not only are children struggling with screen addiction, but many parents themselves are falling prey to it as well, seeking distraction and escape online. This can make it harder to break the cycle and establish healthy boundaries. Studies show that even pilots themselves are susceptible to screen addiction, likely due to the nature of their profession and the constant use of screens both on and off duty.
One study assessed the prevalence and network structure of internet addiction, depression and sleep quality problems in a sample of 7055 commercial airline pilots..
What did they find?
Internet addiction, depression and sleep quality were common among airline pilots. The prevalence of internet addiction was 8.0 % (95 % CI: 7.3-8.6 %), while the rates of depression and poor sleep quality were 23.3 % (95 % CI: 22.3-24.2 %) and 33.0 % (95 % CI: 31.9-34.1 %), respectively. [1]
If we can barely help ourselves, how can we help and protect our children?
This is a problem with far-reaching consequences, impacting not only the wellbeing of children but also the mental health of families and individuals.
What can flight crews do to protect their children in this digital age?
Stay informed about the tactics used by social media companies to target young users. Read up, research and gain a fuller understanding of how algorithms work and how they influence behavior. I have provided a list of useful resources for you at the end of this article. These algorithms are becoming more and more sophisticated to the point that they are taking away our agency to act and think independently. Weare essentially being programmed as mentioned in the quote from Dorsey.
Establishing clear boundaries for our children is great in theory, but what happens as you kiss your kids goodbye and head off for a 12-hour flight to return in three or four days? You may be relying on childcare from family members, and another parent who themselves may be busy with their own duty and busy work schedules. Try to set clear rules for screen time, content access, and online interactions. Implement parental controls and monitor online activity. However, as a parent I know full well these have been ineffectual measures, as kids are far more sophisticated at getting around these settings. It's a fallacy to think that you can simply change settings on devices and that will solve the problem while you are away on flight duties, it simply does not work.
What tends to work more effectively is building strong relationships with them to foster trust and responsibility as well as educating them on how to make better decisions.? Talk openly and frequently to your children about the dangers of social media, while also discussing the positive aspects. Encourage open communication and try to get them to come to you if they encounter any issues.
It may help you to connect with other parents, educators, and experts who can provide guidance and resources and keep an eye out for any issues that may be propping up. your partner or husband or wife, may be trusted with this task in your absence. Knowing they are supervising it well and effectively will bring you peace of mind. Any parent knows that the wellbeing of your children is vital for your own wellbeing. Knowing what signs to watch out for is also an important skill. I have found that schools are particularly good at noting behavior and emotional changes in the students. It can manifest simply in children becoming withdrawn, or combative without clear causation in the educator’s mind. Peer pressure and social connection and acceptance criteria often prohibit children and young adults from speaking up and seeking help. They would rather it just go away, occasionally it does, and often it does not.
Encourage your children to engage in face-to-face interactions, participate in community activities, and cultivate meaningful relationships offline. I find it great to get them involved in things like learning music and in sports. Too many parents find the path of least resistance with the digital babysitter giving in due to the peace and quiet it provides for a short while. But with excessive use, screentime and dopamine depletion eventually lead to outbursts and behavioral crisis, the last thing you need to be dealing with just prior to your flight duties or the night before an early departure.
How social media is Bifurcating Our Attention from Reality
Social media, for all its benefits, can create a dangerous disconnect between our online and offline experiences. This bifurcation of our attention can have unseen consequences.
Social media often presents a curated, idealized version of reality. We see highlights, carefully crafted images, and selective narratives. This creates a false sense of how people live, what they achieve, and how they feel. This can lead to feelings of inadequacy, comparison, and dissatisfaction with our own lives. The constant stream of notifications, likes, and comments can be highly addictive. Social media platforms are designed to keep us engaged and scrolling, offering dopamine hits every time we interact. There are even signs of likes snobbery or strategic liking, for example those who will only like content from those whom they think can benefit them in some way. This whole lack of authenticity and addiction to online apps can lead to neglecting real-life responsibilities and opportunities and withdrawing from genuine human interaction.
Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler says smartphones and apps are harvesting our personal data — and that of our kids — on a scale that would shock most users. By the time a child is 13, he writes, online advertising firms have collected an average of 72 million data points about that individual. [8]
The Washinton post also report that your kids’ apps are spying on them and sending their data to advertisers [9]
This situation creates echo chambers and algorithms personalize our social media feeds, showing us content aligned with our existing beliefs and interests. This can create filter bubbles where we are exposed only to information that reinforces our existing biases, preventing exposure to different perspectives and critical thinking. None of us want to have our kids constantly exposed to this.
The excessive use of these apps and social media can result in a diminished focus and attention span. ?The constant bombardment of stimuli on social media can fragment our attention. We struggle to focus on tasks for extended periods, leading to decreased productivity and difficulty engaging in deep thought.
These addictions to online apps can tend to replace real-world interactions, leading to a decline in essential social skills like empathy, communication, and non-verbal cues and can create a sense of urgency and instant gratification, leading to a distorted perception of time. Our children become fixated on the immediate and neglect long-term goals and commitments such as homework or study.
Then of course there is the old psychological concept of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), Constantly observing others' seemingly perfect lives on social media can induce anxiety in the kids and cause a sense of missing out on experiences.
Defined as a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent, FoMO is characterized by the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing. The present research presents three studies conducted to advance an empirically based understanding of the fear of missing out phenomenon. [2]
This can lead to an unhealthy desire to constantly chase fleeting moments of happiness. Much has been said about Dopamine and Dopamine depletion, and the effects are very concerning. It’s the same issue suffered by gambling addicts who keep pumping money into the one-armed bandit machines in casinos because the machine throws up close enough to desired outcomes, and they keep going for the next hit. ?One often enters Instagram for example feeling quite good about themselves only to leave it an hour later feeling unfulfilled and sad.
Like you do in any of your flight environments cultivate self-awareness and teach your children how to also develop that skill through practice. ?Teach them to pay attention to how social media makes you feel and adjust your usage accordingly.?
Protecting Our Kids in a World of 8-Second Attention Spans, don’t let them turn your children into Goldfish
We've all heard the joke about goldfish having short attention spans, but a recent study revealed a shocking truth: the average human attention span now sits at a mere eight seconds – even shorter than the famed goldfish's nine. [3]
The digital world, with its constant stream of notifications, social media updates, and flashing screens, is rewiring our brains, shortening our attention spans, and making it harder than ever to focus.? Kids are constantly switching between tasks, unable to sit still and engage with one thing for any length of time. It's not just about playing video games; it's about struggling to read a book, follow a conversation, or complete schoolwork.
This is the real challenge aircrew parents face, protecting our children from the digital distractions that are eroding their ability to focus and learn.
Social media use may have negative implications for everyday memory through emotional well-being. Prior correlational as well as experimental research has shown greater social media use has been linked to lower happiness through technostress (i.e., technology-specific stress; Brooks, 2015), greater negative affect (Bennett et al., 2019), and worse overall mood (Sagiaglou & Greitemeyer, 2014). [4]
What can Aviation Professionals do about it?
First, you need to be mindful of our own screen time and demonstrate healthy habits before lecturing the children. When home from duty time away, consciously put down your phone, engage in activities that require focus, and show your kids that it's possible to disconnect from the digital world. Mealtimes for example, may become screen free zones, all devices off or stowed in a designated place. Talk to your children or teens weekly about how social media platforms work so they feel safe telling you about their experiences without judgment. I found that engaging in non-judgmental conversation where they feel psychologically safe to discuss even negative experiences online is very important. They need to be able to trust that when they confide in you that the situation will not explode into a whole thing, that you will be able to talk about it and get past it without serious drama. ?Talk to your kids about the importance of focused attention and promote activities that require concentration, like reading, playing board games, or engaging in creative pursuits.
It's not about eliminating technology entirely; it's about finding a healthy balance. It’s important to teach our kids to be mindful consumers of the digital world, empowering them to navigate distractions and cultivate the attention span needed to succeed in their lives, both online and off.
How Alcohol Ads Are Targeting Our Kids on Social Media
We've all scrolled through our social media feeds, bombarded with ads for everything from clothes to cars.
It's happening more than you might think. Alcohol companies are increasingly using social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to market their products. They say that the feeds are age related, however we all know that kids can more than easily update settings or open alternative accounts we don’t know about. The checks are minimal or nonexistent. ?It’s beyond easy for them to get access to adult content. The average teenager sees thousands of alcohol ads each year, with some companies even using dark ads that only they can see, making it harder to track.
These ads don't just promote the product; they promote a lifestyle. They often associate alcohol with fun, friendship, success, and even attractiveness. This can be dangerous for young people who may not yet have the experience or knowledge to understand the potential risks of alcohol misuse.
Celebrities Cashing in on these loopholes.
Celebrity alcohol brands and endorsements are making hundreds of millions by providing alternative communication channels for alcohol and beverage companies.
Alcoholic beverage companies and groups are now heavily utilizing celebrities and influencers to reach younger audiences. Think of the sponsored posts where a popular singer or actor nonchalantly sips on a certain brand of beer, or the influencer sipping a gin cocktail at a glamorous party, subtly promoting a particular liquor. It’s becoming farcically common, it’s in your face everywhere online. When our kids view these posts, they don’t realize that they are carefully branded and planned marketing posts. If you read the comments sections, people simply lap it up and it works. I take no issue with successful people making money, however, when it comes to repeatedly exposing our minors to images of their heroes consuming and pushing these brands, it causes pause for a rethink. It’s relentless and becoming more so. Advertising standards around the world have restricted advertising of a certain nature, yet there is a whole celebrity endorsement industry pushing alcohol products to their millions and millions of followers through these loopholes. The thing is it's working, and we are all falling for it like lemmings over a cognitive cliff. From actors, to comedians, MMA fighters to Wrestlers pushing their Gins, Whiskeys, and Tequilas ever more aggressively. The practice is becoming so common, that reality trumps satire. It’s business, big business and the cliches and humor can hardly keep up with it.
These endorsements can be incredibly powerful too. Young people often look up to these figures and seeing them associated with alcohol can make it seem more acceptable and even desirable. I had to review the settings on my daughters’ device as she showed me her favorite artist climbing the stairs of a private jet. There it was, the carefully positioned Tequila bottle, turned at just the right angle to see the branding and make the mental association between that lifestyle, the success and the Tequila brand.
And it's not just about the images. Companies are also leveraging user-generated content, encouraging people to post pictures of themselves enjoying their products. This seemingly organic content can be just as influential as a celebrity endorsement, especially when it comes from friends or people they follow.
While there are voluntary advertising codes that aim to protect young people, they're often ignored. The focus on responsible drinking can be misleading, as the emphasis on moderation can make it seem casual, light drinking is the norm.
Social networking sites (SNS) are especially attractive for adolescents, but it has also been shown that these users can suffer from negative psychological consequences when using these sites excessively. [5]
If you're constantly bombarded with images of people having a good time while holding a drink, it's easy to see how someone might start to associate alcohol with positive feelings. It forms subconscious associations that affect our present and future behaviors.
What can we do?
Start and maintain open conversations with your sons and daughters about alcohol and how it's portrayed in media, especially social media. Help them understand the difference between reality and marketing. They may not realize the deception being carried out by that celebrity who keeps placing the tequila in each post, that seems natural, but was carefully coordinated, crafted and curated in boardrooms, with marketing executives and corporations.
The more we know about the tactics used by alcohol companies, the better equipped we are to protect our kids.
领英推荐
Social media can be a powerful tool, but it also has a dark side. When it comes to alcohol, we need to be proactive in protecting them from the subtle but potentially damaging influence of advertising, especially when it comes to the use of celebrities and influencers.
We often equate money with ultimate power, but time and attention are far more valuable. While money might be represented by paper or digital numbers, your time and attention are the most precious resources you possess. They hold the power to shape consumer behavior, influence the values of our children, and even create lifelong habits and your life experiences. Social media companies are acutely aware of this, and they're leveraging this knowledge to their advantage. With the emergence and the success of such networks, a significant part of people’s social life has relocated to an online context. [6]
For certain products, targeting children at the right age can create loyal customers for life. Anyone with children will know that they invest heavily in what’s termed Social Capital. Among young adults, relationships with peers are important both for generating offline benefits, commonly referred to as social capital, and for psychosocial development. Social capital is an elastic construct used to describe the benefits one receives from one's relationships with other people (Lin, 1999). [7]
When you find yourself out of pocket buying those jeans with holes in them or those shoes that you just don’t understand, you discover what investing in our children’s social capital is. Online, it’s even more prevalent as they try to carefully craft their personal brands to fit in with their desired social groups.
This can be positive in the right context, like building a passionate for sports, but it can also be incredibly harmful. Think about the impact of early exposure to vaping, nicotine, or alcohol, ads forming lasting associations in their minds and potentially leading to lifelong addictions. They simply may not calculate that the celebrity advertisers are contributing to a correspondence bias and earning enormous amounts of money doing so.
With the advent of generative AI, authentic online reality will become more difficult to discern. The world of the fake, bogus and fallacy will blend into the outer thresholds of our credibility, and we will be left with a difficult time indeed defining truth. The problem with this is that it can distort our sons’ and daughters’ perception of reality, and can deftly normalize ideas, concepts and behaviors that are way out of line with what we as parents want for them.
Children are exposed to other dangers too. There is a myriad of issues they can encounter online, people who might bully, intimidate or frighten, people posing behind fake profiles for mischief-making, sexual grooming and stalking, blackmail and extortion, identity theft and hacking. They may be at risk of viewing disturbing images, violence, and videos and images of a sexual and graphic nature. It never ends.
Flight crews and aviation professionals carry a heavy responsibility, balancing safety, work, and personal life. But navigating the digital landscape adds another layer of complexity, especially when it comes to parenting. We can't afford to ignore the insidious ways social media exploits our time and attention, preying on our children, families, and loved ones. It's time to reclaim these precious resources and protect our kids from the harmful influences that can shape their lives without us even realizing it.
Aircrew in particular face unique challenges in managing their children's social media use due to frequent absences and limited contact. The distance can make it difficult to monitor online activities, leading to a sense of "out of sight, out of mind." Understanding the risks of cyberbullying, online predators, inappropriate content, privacy concerns, and addiction is crucial. Online support from family, friends, school counselors, mental health professionals, and online safety experts can provide valuable assistance. Safeguarding children in the digital world requires a team effort involving parents, caregivers, and communities.
By
Noel Cox
Principal Aviation Consultant at avcox
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References
1. ?????????? Sun HL, Chen P, Zhang Q, Si TL, Li YZ, Zhu HY, Zhang E, Chen M, Zhang J, Su Z, Cheung T, Ungvari GS, Jackson T, Xiang YT, Xiang M. Prevalence and network analysis of internet addiction, depression and their associations with sleep quality among commercial airline pilots: A national survey in China. J Affect Disord. 2024 Jul 1;356:597-603. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.03.022. Epub 2024 Mar 12. PMID: 38484881.
2.? ???????? https://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/
3. ?????????? Andrew K. Przybylski, Kou Murayama, Cody R. DeHaan, Valerie Gladwell,
Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out,
Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 29, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 1841-1848,
??????????????? SSN 0747-5632, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.014.
4. ?????????? Sharifian N, Zahodne LB. Daily associations between social media use and memory failures: the mediating role of negative affect. J Gen Psychol. 2021 Jan-Mar;148(1):67-83. doi: 10.1080/00221309.2020.1743228. Epub 2020 Apr 11. PMID: 32281502; PMCID: PMC8074877.
Brooks S (2015). Does personal social media usage affect efficiency and well-being? Computers in Human Behavior, 46, 26–37. 10.1016/j.chb.2014.12.053
Bennett BL, Whisenhunt BL, Hudson DL, Wagner AF, Latner JD, Stefano EC & Beauchamp MT (2019). Examining the impact of social media on mood and body dissatisfaction using ecological momentary assessment. Journal of American College Health. 10.1080/07448481.2019.1583236
5. ?????????? Oberst U, Wegmann E, Stodt B, Brand M, & Chamarro A (2017). Negative consequences from heavy social networking in adolescents: The mediating role of fear of missing out. Journal of Adolescence, 55, 51–60. 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.12.008
6. ?????????? Sagioglou C & Greitemeyer T (2014). Facebook’s emotional consequences: Why facebook causes a decrease in mood and why people still use it. Computers in Human Behavior, 35, 359–363. 10.1016/j.chb.2014.03.003
7. ?????????? Steinfield C, Ellison NB, & Lampe C (2008). Social capital, self-esteem, and use of online social network sites: A longitudinal analysis. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 29, 434–445. 10.1016/j.appdev.2008.07.002
8. ?????????? https://www.npr.org/2022/06/16/1105212701/users-beware-apps-are-using-a-loophole-in-privacy-law-to-track-kids-phones
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Further resources for aircrews to get assistance.
UNICEF
DIGITAL EUROPE PROGRAMME, EUROPEAN COMMISSION
CYBERSAFE KIDS IRELAND
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION CONSUMER ADVICE
NSPCC
UK Government Keeping Children Safe Online
ESAFETY COMMISSIONER AUSTRALIA
SCHOOL SAFETY
META TOOLS
GOOGLE TOOLS