Before I even started reading, I knew it was going to be an attack at the phone. A few centuries ago, they'd attack books. Look back at videos from the 1950s and people didn't talk to each other on the train back then either, their noses were in books, magazines and newspapers. By the 80s, the nerdy kids had headphones and cassette players. By the 90s, people had discmans. The trouble with articles like this is they…
“And nihilism isn't a bad thing.“ Becoming unwilling to manifest any faith in anything at all is absolutely a bad thing.
That... is not what Nihilism is though?
I mean someone who is a nihilist might think that but it’s not a logical consequence of, or foundational feature of, nihilism.
This research is highly debated and is by no means a sure thing. The research so far has been correlational, inconsistent, and weak. Twenge hugely overstates the confidence we should have in the findings. See https://medium.com/@OrbenAmy/social-media-and-suicide-a-crit... and https://twitter.com/shuhbillskee/status/955070356091555840 for some critiques of the work.
When I worked for a research lab for a university attached to a hospital, facebook usage was highly correlated with diagnosed depression. it was unclear whether depressed people used facebook more, or using facebook more caused depression. the correlations with facebook usage and other illnesses was weak, but depression was not.
Tuesday, this was the theme at my toastmaster's debate club[1] - I got stuck arguing that social media doesn't make you depressed. And... my problem with my argument wasn't that it was untrue, but that it was kinda mean. I don't feel jealous of the lives of almost anyone I went to high school with; quite the opposite. A lot of them post "racist memes with spelling mistakes" - which is sad on many levels; If nothing e…
Not helpful, facilitating contempt for people is not the opposite of facilitating depression.
It's even worse when it facilitates contempt for your peer group, e.g. dumb yuppie millennial shit prejudicing interactions with the neighbors, coworkers, people that have tech jobs and live near you etc.
Before I even started reading, I knew it was going to be an attack at the phone. A few centuries ago, they'd attack books. Look back at videos from the 1950s and people didn't talk to each other on the train back then either, their noses were in books, magazines and newspapers. By the 80s, the nerdy kids had headphones and cassette players. By the 90s, people had discmans. The trouble with articles like this is they…
“And nihilism isn't a bad thing.“ Becoming unwilling to manifest any faith in anything at all is absolutely a bad thing.
Your reference to "faith in anything" is most likely referring to a central being controlling everything (see: god), as faith in something/anyone doesn't give that something meaning. Nihilism doesn't necessary refer to faith, it's typically referring to existential nihilism, or that nothing has an intrinsic meaning. Nothing comes with meaning. This isn't something to despair, you have full ability to give things meaning. What I'm getting at is more in the realm of optimistic nihilism, or that ability to give your own meaning to things, as they didn't have any intrinsic meaning to begin with. That game you're playing? Some might think of it as a waste but you gave it the meaning of happiness. That flower you're smelling didn't come with meaning by default, but you gave it the meaning of beauty. I would argue faith can be a burden more than nihilism as blind faith can lead to complacency. Again, complacency might not be the worst thing until you give that meaning.
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.
For my son (17 y.o.) it is online games and phone use in general. He has - I hope - mild depression, which - I believe - is caused by his online habits. His mom and I thought taking his PC away from him would fix it. But then he falls into school-sleep cycle, that looks like full-blown depression. Yes, his grades are affected and in not a good way. What works for now is to participate in his life with him. As of now…
> What works for now is to participate in his life with him.
Kudos to you for figuring this out. Taking the screen away without providing alternatives doesn't seem very helpful. Even if we accept the thesis that online interaction isn't deep or satisfying enough, replacing it with no interaction is still a step in the wrong direction. Anything that gets them to interact with peers or parents, be it sports or board games or shared craft projects or whatever, is going to be both more effective and easier to maintain over time.
P.S. Yes, this is even true for introverts. Even if interaction is draining and has to be limited, there's still a difference between low-quality vs. high-quality interaction.
There's a lot of discussion with social media in regards to the impact of mobile devices on children, but I think the easy access to internet porn is arguably just as harmful. There are teen boys with erectile dysfunction because of this. I wouldn't be surprised if it had broader negative psychological and social effects as well. At the same time, I don't think we really have enough information about what the impacts of this really are. I hope some more research is done on this topic.
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.
For my son (17 y.o.) it is online games and phone use in general. He has - I hope - mild depression, which - I believe - is caused by his online habits. His mom and I thought taking his PC away from him would fix it. But then he falls into school-sleep cycle, that looks like full-blown depression. Yes, his grades are affected and in not a good way. What works for now is to participate in his life with him. As of now…
Rather than taking his PC away, you might consider moving it into a shared area of the house and setting a curfew on it. My own experience with depression has led me to believe that some of it is caused by light-exposure and stimulation before sleep and that having a device-free wind-down period can help.
If the final 2 hrs before sleep were a time for non-screen activities (reading, board games or just general family talk), that might be a good compromise between letting him keep it and taking it away entirely.
Before I even started reading, I knew it was going to be an attack at the phone. A few centuries ago, they'd attack books. Look back at videos from the 1950s and people didn't talk to each other on the train back then either, their noses were in books, magazines and newspapers. By the 80s, the nerdy kids had headphones and cassette players. By the 90s, people had discmans. The trouble with articles like this is they…
>In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of U.S. teens who felt useless and joyless – classic symptoms of depression – surged 33 percent in large national surveys. Teen suicide attempts increased 23 percent. Even more troubling, the number of 13- to 18-year-olds who committed suicide jumped 31 percent.
Perhaps to a nihilist maybe that's not a bad thing, but to most that's neither good nor nihilism. This is a serious problem.
Morons - "It can't be the economy because unemployment is low and the economy is booming." Except of course that rents are far outpacing wages and most people are getting by with make work. Almost all the US jobs created since 2005 are temporary https://qz.com/851066/almost-all-the-10-million-jobs-created... I mean good lord, if I were 17 right now and knew it were only going to get worse as I got older I would be do…
Why do you think Cal State psychology professors are “rich”? Twenge has a salary of about $100,000/year. https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2016/california-s... Plus whatever she brings in by writing non-fiction books, delivering paid speeches, doing market research consulting, and maybe some summer job. That’s probably quite a bit lower than the average reader of this forum.
For my son (17 y.o.) it is online games and phone use in general. He has - I hope - mild depression, which - I believe - is caused by his online habits. His mom and I thought taking his PC away from him would fix it. But then he falls into school-sleep cycle, that looks like full-blown depression. Yes, his grades are affected and in not a good way. What works for now is to participate in his life with him. As of now…
He was playing on the computer too much so you are training him to be a pervert?
Would you please stop posting uncivil and/or unsubstantive comments to Hacker News?