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With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

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Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#91

Post by MBCook »

adamnemecek wrote: post #6

Im sure smartphones could be a possible factor however one must not forget how depressing the whole high school experience is. I think that the pressure has increased quite a bit. The amount of hw has also increased. I don’t think that this suicide increase has been observed in say Finland.

I wonder how much of it with smartphones and how much of it was cameraphones (which may or may not be smart).

When I was a kid you can make an idiot of yourself and nothing would happen. People would see and they may make fun of you, but that was it.

Now if you choose to make a fool of yourself (or do it accidentally) you may get your picture taken/video made and now there’s proof forever to show other people. And it can be posted online. Where people on Reddit or something else will vote it up and share it.

I imagine there’s a level of self censorship and self-consciousness the previous generations never had to apply to themselves. Having that kind of low level stress around all the time can’t be great.

And that’s not including any pressure to look GOOD on pictures taken of you/taken by you.

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#92

Post by switch007 »

Gargoyle wrote: post #42
deckard1 wrote: post #12

They did a study using Facebook. But I'm more curious about Instagram. "Look at all these rich beautiful people with millions of followers sailing around the world on their yachts." Ten minutes on Instagram is enough to fill any sane person with existential dread and bring about severe depression.

I spend about 10 minutes a day on instagram and come away thinking how amazing the world is. You have to curate your feed. Curate curate curate.

You've got to be a bit careful though. Top "influencers" hire food photographers for perfect shots, they'll pose casually in a $400 sweater etc. It's not a 100% true snapshot of real life.

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#93

Post by wutbrodo »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #16
lisper wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It might be an unconvincing piece, but it still seems like a very plausible hypothesis to me.

I've got a plausible (to me) hypothesis of my own - namely, that the "kids these days are getting worse and worse" is something people have been thoughtlessly regurgitating for as long as we have historical written records, and that new customs or technologies are easiest to blame. Today it's Facebook, previously it was TV, earlier still it was walkmans and metal bands. Hell, if I'm to believe random quotes from the…

Did you read the article? Or even the post title? No one is talking about kids getting "worse", they're talking about trying to explain an uptick in things like suicide.

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#94

Post by jeffmould »

deckard1 wrote: post #12

They did a study using Facebook. But I'm more curious about Instagram. "Look at all these rich beautiful people with millions of followers sailing around the world on their yachts." Ten minutes on Instagram is enough to fill any sane person with existential dread and bring about severe depression.

Completely agree. I also believe that YouTube can have similar results. Kids watch videos of "professional" YouTubers having nice cars, traveling all the time, living in nice homes, etc... We have had to significantly limit the amount of time our kids are exposed to YouTube (and Instagram) simply because of the "I want it now" and "I want that one" mentality it has caused on some occasions.

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#95

Post by mirekrusin »

davito88 wrote: post #20
randomdrake wrote: post #11

Study: Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time Citation: Jean M. Twenge, Thomas E. Joiner, Megan L. Rogers, Gabrielle N. Martin. Clinical Psychological Science Vol 6, Issue 1, pp. 3 - 17. November 14, 2017. Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376 DOI: 10.1177/2167702617723376 Abstract: In two na…

correlation does not imply causation

It's mentioned in the article. They refer to 3 other studies - one was based on randomly selected people who had to give up fb and they felt less depressed as a result; the other two found out that spending more time on social media led to unhappiness, while unhappiness did not lead to more social media use.

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#96

Post by katrinamo »

Gargoyle wrote: post #42
deckard1 wrote: post #12

They did a study using Facebook. But I'm more curious about Instagram. "Look at all these rich beautiful people with millions of followers sailing around the world on their yachts." Ten minutes on Instagram is enough to fill any sane person with existential dread and bring about severe depression.

I spend about 10 minutes a day on instagram and come away thinking how amazing the world is. You have to curate your feed. Curate curate curate.

Exactly. I've carefully tailored my feed so it provides me with a huge amount of dog photos. Now every time I get on there my mood is usually boosted seeing cute dog photos and videos.

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#97

Post by coldtea »

Gargoyle wrote: post #42
deckard1 wrote: post #12

They did a study using Facebook. But I'm more curious about Instagram. "Look at all these rich beautiful people with millions of followers sailing around the world on their yachts." Ten minutes on Instagram is enough to fill any sane person with existential dread and bring about severe depression.

I spend about 10 minutes a day on instagram and come away thinking how amazing the world is. You have to curate your feed. Curate curate curate.

>You have to curate your feed. Curate curate curate.

So the counter-argument is that Instagram is not so depressing provided that one uses as little Instagram as possible ("curate, curate, curate")?

That kind of proves the parent's point (which wasn't that one can't possible ever find anything non-depressing/jealousy inducing on Instagram).

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#98

Post by ams6110 »

watwut wrote: post #74
wutbrodo wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the realities of student loans, an out of reach housing market, devalued college degrees, the gig economy, promises of no retirement, etc. Have you ever met a teenager? Almost literally zero percent of them think (or need to think) about this stuff, with the possible exception of some of the very oldest teenagers (ie, people in their first or second year of college who are starting to think about the details of the…

Teenagers I do know personally talk about being worried about jobs, housing, debt and general economical problems. I never start those discussions, they do.

I worried about these things as a teen over 30 years ago. No social media then. Teens worry. It's part of the awakening of adult patterns of thought.

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#99

Post by coldtea »

katrinamo wrote: post #96
Gargoyle wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spend about 10 minutes a day on instagram and come away thinking how amazing the world is. You have to curate your feed. Curate curate curate.

Exactly. I've carefully tailored my feed so it provides me with a huge amount of dog photos. Now every time I get on there my mood is usually boosted seeing cute dog photos and videos.

That's not using Instagram in general anymore though, that's heavily censoring Instagram towards very non-typical streams.

It's as if responding to someone that said that one can never find any positive stream on Instagram, when people actually complained about what Instagram, at its majority, and as is used by most, is.

Re: With teen mental health deteriorating over five years, there’s a likely culprit

#100

Post by cteague »

Many of you are speaking about the social aspects of smartphones and social media, but I think a big issue is also the cognitive impact of short-term gratification due to internet/tech addiction. Happiness often comes from feeling competent. If teens attention spans are dwindling due to this addiction, they are going to grow up without the grit to persist and develop skills.
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