Social media can just be iMessage though, group chats with friends, I don’t see any thing that a phone can’t do that Facebook can in terms of being required for social life.

Posting of events that you do with your friends or events that happen to you that you want all your friends to see is something you do on Social Media Platforms that will not translate well on Messaging Platforms. If your child were going to Disney world and they wanted their friends to see , they would probably posit it on Snapchat instead of a group chat that I doubt has everyone they interact with on Snapchat (especially if some of their friends have android devices)

100% agree. When they're really young it's almost trivial to control their online habits. But they definitely hit an "age" where peer pressure and the want to fit-in becomes the all consuming incentive to be part of these social media networks. We'd managed to avoid the whole cell phone thing until our son was 13, which was some kind of miracle since I've been seeing cell phones on kids desks as young as 1st grade for years now.

It's definitely an easier said than done scenario.