The noticeable jump in the number of teenage fishermen wetting a line and enjoying sunshine with their mates around Sydney in recent times is hard to have missed.

Born out of the FishTok craze, its popularity among young men has continued to grow after the social media ban forced kids into a much-needed rethink of how they spend their free time.

Head down to your local jetty on a Saturday morning and you’ll find them, 15-year-olds with rods, bait, and no shortage of conversation taking place over a blaring bluetooth speaker, while others kick a footy in the local park, play some basketball or ride their bikes.

Against all odds, they look like they’re enjoying themselves. Their feed is now replaced by a decent-sized flathead instead of Instagram. And the pay-off for their mental health is obvious.

Which begs the question: If banning social media for our kids has meant they rediscover the Great Outdoors and each other, why are the rest of us still glued to our screens? The average Aussie aged over 16 is spending a staggering 41 hours every week consuming online media. That is more than a full-time job.

Adults on social media are being bullied by trolls and bots, duped by conspiracy theorists and numbed from real life. Social media corporations have created a global online cesspit and it’s making them a fortune.

We love to tell our kids about the “good old days” of our own childhoods. But they are exquisitely good at detecting hypocrisy. Instead of nostalgia, our children simply need a model of how to live well, which begins by having meaningful connections without a screen.

We’ve been given a rare chance to reset what we actually want our homes to feel like and what we’re prepared to do to get there. The quality of our relationships and the time we invest in them is the single most powerful determinant of mental wellbeing.

The kids have already looked up and they like what they see. It’s time we did the same.

This article was first published in The Sunday Telegraph March 29, 2026