For years educators, employers and parents have shared a common worry: young people are spending more time scrolling than playing ‘IRL’. The recent UK social media ban for under-16s has ignited debate, but it presents a rare opportunity to rethink how we nurture ingenuity, resilience, and real-world problem-solving in the next generation.
At Greenpower, we've always believed that young people learn best not by watching, but by doing. And, like many parents out there, we’re hoping this policy shift could help reopen the door to exactly that.
Before the scroll: a childhood without algorithms
There was a time (not so long ago) when boredom was the beginning of everything.
Picture a Saturday afternoon in the early 1990s. No notifications. No feeds to refresh. Just hours to wait for the next mealtime and the pressing question every child eventually asked themselves: What am I going to do?
The answer was rarely obvious. And that was precisely the point.
This is the generation that grew up building dens from sofa cushions, programming BASIC on hand-me-down computers, and taking apart broken radios "just to see".
Children born before the age of Google couldn’t look everything up – they had to use their imagination, think on their feet and figure it out.
These were early lessons in physics, design and technology, teamwork, and problem-solving. They taught children to experiment, fail, adapt, and try again. In other words, they taught the foundations of STEM long before it was even a thing.
And the most valuable lesson was this: you can make things work if you keep trying.
Social media does have its positives, with YouTube and Instagram often acting as genuine learning tools. Plenty of our Greenpower participants use these platforms to showcase and celebrate their creations too. But even so, the sad reality is that it has become the default pastime for many young people, replacing hands-on exploration with passive consumption.
The endless scroll fills the very boredom that once sparked creativity.
A window of opportunity
The UK's social media ban is not without complexity. But it creates something increasingly rare in today’s connected world: space.
Space to be bored. Space to wonder. Space to experiment - and see what happens.
That space matters. The UK is facing a major STEM skills shortage, with demand for engineers and technicians rising across renewable energy, infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and emerging technologies.
We won’t close that gap by simply urging more students to “study STEM”. Curiosity has to take root much earlier, building confidence long before formal lessons begin. It’s the foundation of a future workforce capable of designing solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges.
Learning by doing: the Greenpower way
Our experience shows the power of practical learning. When students build and race electric cars, they're solving real engineering problems. They're collaborating. They're discovering that STEM is not abstract or intimidating; it's exciting, fun and deeply rewarding.
We've seen students who struggled in traditional classrooms become leaders in the workshop. We've seen young people who never considered engineering go on to apprenticeships, degrees, and careers in engineering. And we've seen how creativity flourishes when screens take a back seat.
There's something that happens when a young person holds a tool and realises… I made this. It works. I understand why it works. It’s a moment that no algorithm can replicate.
Seizing the moment to spark hands-on creativity
The social media ban isn’t a silver bullet. It comes with complexities that policymakers, educators and families will need to navigate. But it also creates a window of opportunity.
If we fill that window with meaningful, creative, hands-on experiences, we can help young people rediscover the joy of making things. And, we can nurture the next generation of engineers, innovators and problem-solvers.
Because the best ideas don't come from scrolling. They come from doing.
