Top Takeaways from Is it time to switch off social media?

BBC cyber correspondent Joe Tidy chaired a discussion on whether the sensible response to social media is simply to leave it. Dr Sophie Bishop, Mark Farid, Katy Leeson and Tulisa Contostavlos brought the perspectives of a researcher, an artist, a former agency boss and someone who has lived much of her adult life in public, and between them questioned how much control any of us still has over our own attention.

Top Takeaways

“I wouldn’t have built the career I have now if I didn’t have social media.” – Katy Leeson

“You can’t say no to them, there isn’t a choice to those things.” – Mark Farid

“It needs more balance and it needs to be in a healthier place.” – Tulisa Contostavlos

“Creative practise is really shaped by the need to create content for social media.” – Dr Sophie Bishop

“There’s a tech-lash taking place right now.” – Joe Tidy

“Greed took over from each of the platforms.” – Katy Leeson

“The attention economy with social media is not a new thing.” – Mark Farid

“The main issue is the lack of regulation on social media.” – Tulisa Contostavlos

“We have platform paradoxes… it offers creativity and pleasure yet you still get the bad stuff that you get in life.” – Dr Sophie Bishop

“TikTok came in 5 years ago and changed everything.” – Joe Tidy

Further Reading

• Ctrl+Alt+Chaos: How Teenage Hackers Hijack the Internet, Joe Tidy (Elliott & Thompson, 2025). Link
• Influencer Creep: How Optimization, Authenticity, and Self-Branding Transform Creative Culture, Sophie Bishop (University of California Press, 2025). Link
• The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt (Allen Lane, 2024). Link
• Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World, Cal Newport (Penguin, 2019). Link

Further Listening and Watching

• Cyber Hack, BBC World Service podcast, with Joe Tidy. Link
• I Shouldn’t Say This, But…, podcast hosted by Katy Leeson. Link
• The Social Dilemma, Netflix, 2020. Link
• Mark Farid Doesn’t Want You to Delete Yourself, podcast interview with Mark Farid. Link
• Seeing I and Poisonous Antidote, Mark Farid’s art projects. Link

Further Help

• Internet Matters, support for parents on children’s online safety. Link
• YoungMinds: social media and mental health, advice for young people. Link
• Ofcom: online safety, the regulator’s guidance under the Online Safety Act. Link
• Smartphone Free Childhood, parent-led UK campaign. Link