One way to think about some of this stuff is that "the society has changed too much too quickly for our biology to catch up".
Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
111–120 of 230 posts
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#112There is more social isolation, less meaningful relationships, less sex, debt, overwork, medication and a DDoS on your attention via YouTube, Netflix, CNN, foxnews. It's not just social media and not just teens.
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or, perhaps they are being inspired. Planning their own art or adventure. If you're sitting on a train, why not? (Is reading a book equally objectionable, or is going to a museum?) It's rather offensive to judge people about whom you know nothing. (As is quoting President Trump as if he is an authority on anything.)
The issue is that social media is bad for mental health. That means that excessive social media time can be a problem and is more objectionable that reading a book and likely also worse than watching TV or playing video games. I think if everyone was reading or doing something similarly benign on their phones it would be much less of an issue.
> That means that excessive social media time can be a problem and is more objectionable that reading a book and likely also worse than watching TV or playing video games.
That’s a rather serious claim to make without a source to back it up. What makes you think that reading is more “benign” than social media?
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you a FB employee or something? Sounds like you're making an ad sales pitch.
But their point still stands-it’s entirely possible to use Instagram in a “positive” way.
I think that's an idealized view. My opinion is that it does more harm than good. On a large scale, at least. Individually, sure, there are some people who can handle it, but it's mostly a net-negative for the world.
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#115Did this trend start with social media? We are doing lots of stuff to teenagers these days that we didnt do before. They are beholden to expectations far narrower than we were. We treat them as adults in school (by making them responsible for their own performance through grading and measuring) from a very young age, yet we don't really cut the umbelical cord (grant them autonomy) until they're in their twenties. Soc…
I think more dangerous than social media is the omnipresence of image recording devices. When I made a mistake as a teenager, people might laugh at me for a day or two, sooner or later it was forgotten. Today's teenager make a mistake and if they are unlucky, their shame gets immediately exposed to the whole world, forever. I think this has to contribute a lot to today's anxiousness of teenagers - who hasn't been cau…
Hopefully “don’t take pictures/videos of your peers/friends without their (implied) permission” becomes a more widely distributed social more for the next generation. Can’t believe it isn’t already.
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you expand on this? I don't really understand how x lead to y as i don't have much idea about social media addiction at all or its effects.
We moved to a new city. I work full time (from home) as a SWE. She is a stay at home mom. She met new people on IG in our new city, made friends. I thought it was great. My wife has a hole deep inside her from years of childhood abuse. She has no career, is early 20s like myself, and has yet to figure herself out. As the months went by, she filled that hole more and more with her connections on IG and less with our f…
I feel for you, that is a tough situation to be in. Having been in an emotionally abusive relationship myself, which sounds like what yours has developed into, I can kind of relate. I was neither married nor have children, and it was still very hard to disentangle myself from someone who was using me for stability. As others have said, you should probably talk to a lawyer since a child is involved. I also highly recommend finding a counselor or therapist if you haven’t already. This is deep emotional stuff, and it is hard to work through, and there are people who are trained to help you heal.
As someone who is living a non~monogamous lifestyle, I want to chime in about that aspect. When two people are in a monogamous relationship and one person decides/discovers that they want to open it up, they don’t get to just do that to their partner. It is still not consensual if they never got informed, non-coerced consent. It needs to involve lots of talking (much more than simply saying “I’m doing this now”), it may need to involve marriage counseling, and it absolutely needs to be done with love. The label “polyamory” in particular designates multiple meaningful, loving relationships, I.e. not just bringing people home, especially if you as her first partner aren’t cool with it. That ain’t polyamory, or any kind of consensual non~monogamy, because her actions are not taking your well-being into account, so if she’s calling it that then she’s fooling herself. (This still applies even if you agreed to try it out and it became clear that it didn’t work for you and you told her as much.)
Opening up an existing relationship is not an easy change to make, and it requires both partners to be on board, and it is absolutely fine for you to know that that’s not your relationship style and that you don’t want to continue a relationship with someone who has decided that it is hers. There is no need to feel bad about discovering that you are incompatible with each other and going your separate ways. I’m sorry that she didn’t know or care enough to handle the situation constructively though, that’s extra pain that could have been avoided.
It’s a shitty situation but you can bounce back from it. I was 29 when I got out of my bad relationship. That was 6 or 7 years ago now and I’ve been enjoying life more than ever! Just make sure to spend time taking care of yourself, and don’t be afraid to ask people for help when you need it. Best of luck to you.
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
You realize back in the older days people did the exact same thing with books and newspapers? At least with phones we can talk with people we’re meeting up with.
It's slightly different, because at least things like books and newspapers carry a tiny bit of intellectualism. You at least need to be able to read and comprehend language. IG, on the other hand, is literally just pictures: you don't even need to be able to comprehend any language to use it.
It seems like you think art has no "intellectualism". IG is a great way to see contemporary fashion and art around the world in real time.
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#118I think it takes a tiny bit of courage to look around the room, to have thoughts in public, and to have an image of "I'm not constantly busy". There are millions of George Costanzas, who are constantly acting busy in and high demand, not because they don't want more work, but.. well I don't know why. Maybe they actually ARE busy with social media, but I always look at them like they're pretenders.
Being free is better than acting busy.
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's slightly different, because at least things like books and newspapers carry a tiny bit of intellectualism. You at least need to be able to read and comprehend language. IG, on the other hand, is literally just pictures: you don't even need to be able to comprehend any language to use it.
It seems like you think art has no "intellectualism". IG is a great way to see contemporary fashion and art around the world in real time.
Pictures of food, dogs, and people lounging on some old guy's yacht who they met through tinder doesn't really count as intellectual art.
Also merely photographing someone else's art doesn't quite count as being an artist. That's just cheap mimicry.
Re: Teenagers are growing more anxious and depressed
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
But their point still stands-it’s entirely possible to use Instagram in a “positive” way.
I think that's an idealized view. My opinion is that it does more harm than good. On a large scale, at least. Individually, sure, there are some people who can handle it, but it's mostly a net-negative for the world.
I'd like to see the data, personally. I'm sure there have been plenty of studies of how social media affects society, but do we have much of a consensus?