“Put down that phone,” the three daughters of the Commission’s digital chief Margrethe Vestager tell their mum — and she’s listening.
Vestager told POLITICO’s Tech & AI Summit that she’s less of a social media enthusiast than she used to be. The Commission’s top official for digital affairs is pretty tech-savvy and has a large following on platforms such as Instagram (81,600 followers) and X (formerly Twitter; 314,100 followers).
But she’s trying to spend less time on her phone, she admitted, nudged by the younger generation.
“I have taken, you know, the advice of my children. I have three daughters, and they just say: put down that phone, mum,” she said.
When asked if her kids don’t use their phones as much, the 56-year-old quipped: “They don’t.”
She went on to lay out how social media platforms’ ability to easily reach people is now engulfed by concerns around online safety and addiction.
“I was one of the first Danish politicians on Twitter, because it was new and we had no money and you could get to people,” she said.
But her children and others of their age have a different view.
“They’ve been like: so what? It’s not safe, it’s stealing my time. I want to be with people. Put down that phone.”
Another EU commissioner, Věra Jourová, deleted her Facebook account in 2017, saying it was “full of hatred.”
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