Spare us the mindfulness gimmicks TikTok, you’re fooling no one - Ismail Mulla

TikTok is to introduce something called the ‘Wind Down tool’, which will automatically turn on if a user under the age of 16 is on the app after 10pm, interrupting the ‘For You’ feed with a full screen takeover and playing calming music.

It’s the equivalent of playing classical music at bus stations to stop the youths from hanging around and causing mischief.

The question is, why don’t parents do something about their child’s preoccupation with social media? Perhaps thrust a book in their hands, go out together for a walk in the park, enjoy a meal together without phones - touch grass as the saying goes.

But then again a lot of parents are preoccupied with their own social media following.

I mean we’ve just had ‘dress my child up as my favourite superhero day’, sorry I meant World Book Day. That was more illustrative than Elmer the Patchwork Elephant as to where a lot of parents’ heads are at - buried in their screens.

The real elephant in the room is of course that they can’t get away from their screens and neither can their children. It’s the opioid for this generation.

That is why the new parental control tools being introduced by TikTok, including a feature called Time Away, enabling parents to block teenagers from TikTok during specific times, such as family meals, school, at night or during a holiday, is going to be useless.

We’re all dancing to the tune of the social media companies. A tune that sounds very much like a cash register ringing, for these businesses at least.

Surely the irony of a mindfulness tool for teenagers after a day of being bombarded with all sorts of brain rotting content is not lost on others? It strikes of ‘we’re going to hook you onto our platform, monetising your presence, get rich ourselves, potentially destroy your mental health, but here’s a slice of mindfulness’. Perhaps they could wheel out Mr Motivator like they used to on GMTV.

Val Richey, TikTok’s global head of outreach and partnerships, trust and safety, said the platform wanted to offer “ongoing support” to teenage wellbeing.

He added: “That means exploring new ways to help guide teens in developing healthy digital habits. It can’t just be about block and prevent. It has to be about education and development.

“The idea is based on some research that we’ve reviewed around meditation being helpful in improving sleep quality, and certainly, I think there’s a lot of people who that will resonate with.

"We really want to push the envelope a little bit and try being creative – it’s not something that we’ve seen before.”

Controlling how much time children spend on social media being a revolutionary act? Knock me down with a feather. Some of us used to have these controls imposed upon us by sensible parents who would give you a clip around the ear if you wasted your days away on social media.

This sums up the prevailing attitude of social media companies. Everything is ‘creative’ and ‘innovative’. It’s hubris on their part. Next we’ll have Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg telling the world that they’ve invented water. The tragic thing is that their acolytes will lap it up. They’ll believe anything they say. Everyone is wrapped up in their own (virtual) reality. Facts are no longer sacred.

If social media companies genuinely cared about the wellbeing of people, they would not be pushing back against regulation. If anything, they would be calling for greater regulation to ensure that children in particular are protected.

Social media was sold to content creators as this grand stage for them to exhibit their wares on. No one said who would pay the piper or indeed who the piper was. Now with artificial intelligence (AI) they’re threatening to cut out the true creatives completely.

So spare us the buckets of water, there’s nothing left to save.