Sixth Form Students Make E-Tox Pledge

A number of our Upper Sixth students have pledged to have a social media e-tox this week.

Members of U6JLS led three excellent assemblies last week about their pledge to raise money for Papyrus by being sponsored to give up social media for a week. While Bablake has been very much a leader in promoting responsible and positive use of social media, as with all new technologies or innovations, recognising there can be ill effects, there has been a national media focus in the last week on the negatives of social platforms.

Essena O'Neill, an Australian teenager with over half a million Instagram followers, has highlighted the commercial aspects of her feed and, after deleting over 2000 of her posts, has been promoting life without constant social media validation. A recent study in Denmark concluded that life without Facebook made users happier and more satisfied with their lives, and in The Guardian on Sat 21st November, Zoe Williams wrote about her own test of this theory to see whether life without the internet and social media were any better.

Mr Mark Woodward (Head of Careers), who populates most of Bablake's official social media channels, commented: 'I was tempted to join U6JLS and other pupils who have joined this week's e-tox, until assessing the consequences of being unable to maintain our Bablake news channels and promotion for several exciting initiatives coming up in the next fortnight. I have also become very used to daily updates via social channels for maintaining my awareness of world events and local opportunities for our students. I will be fascinated to hear how our students on e-tox fare, while hoping they conclude that use in moderation and honest posting are the correct way to use social media for the best. '