Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

theconversation.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 456 posts

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

#321

Post by madaxe_again »

lsc wrote: post #279
rorykoehler wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's a very common experience I'm actually surprised to hear that it's ever any other way. That's a western thing. In the east being smart is cool.

>That's a western thing. In the east being smart is cool. I thought it was an exclusive school thing. The Americans I know who went to exclusive high schools seem to have had very different experiences. I even know several people (who went to a 'special' highschool for 'gifted' children) who claimed that they enjoyed high school more than college.

Nope. I was educated mostly at public (private) school in the UK, and spent a year at a private school in the US.

I was ruthlessly mocked until I learned to dissemble, to not put my hand up to answer a question, to be publicly told off by teachers for not handing in work.

The reason is simple - if you make others feel inferior, by being better at anything in any way than them, they hate and envy you.

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

#323

Post by dzjkb »

c8d3f7b49897918 wrote: post #298
thinkloop wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nihilism can be liberating and a source of joy. Why does there have to be "meaning", whatever that is? Perhaps the issue is that we don't prepare young people properly for it and have an over-reliance on "god". Realizing that you can live your life as you wish is amazing.

> Realizing that you can live your life as you wish is amazing. You aren't taking nihilism seriously enough.

Care to elaborate instead of repeating yourself?

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

#324

Post by alain_gilbert »

lsc wrote: post #279
rorykoehler wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That's a very common experience I'm actually surprised to hear that it's ever any other way. That's a western thing. In the east being smart is cool.

>That's a western thing. In the east being smart is cool. I thought it was an exclusive school thing. The Americans I know who went to exclusive high schools seem to have had very different experiences. I even know several people (who went to a 'special' highschool for 'gifted' children) who claimed that they enjoyed high school more than college.

I agree with this.

I went to a private high school. I was not a gifted student in any way. I was actually denied by the school but my parents begged the principal so they give me a chance to study there (I learned these details years later). And it was actually a very enjoyable experience. Being smart was not something you hide. The sporty guys were the most popular like many other places, but there was no bullying because of your geekness.

I did one year of public high school (which I failed) before I went to private school. And the experience was a total different world.

(from Quebec->Canada)

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

#325

Post by Rapzid »

leetcrew wrote: post #50
matwood wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no benefit to the student No benefit? Maybe you mean that you prefer an Android tablet? I didn't have a computer until I was 18. The internet wasn't much of a thing until I got to college. Every day I think about how amazing it would have been to have access to so much free information when I was a kid.

I spent much of my teenage years playing video games, building/overclocking computers, flashing roms on my phones, and devouring wikipedia. my parents were concerned that I was spending too much time online but I'm glad they didn't try to intervene. I was learning tons and by the time I got to college pretty much everything in the CS degree was trivially easy for me (except some of the formal math stuff). on the flip…

I guess nothing has changed much haha. I was a teenager in the late 90s and early 00s; none of that existed. The only kids using computers then were interested in games, hacking on them, or using them for some productivity task.

How many people are interested in how cars work vs just use them to get around? Computing is just ubiquitous now but people who really care about how they work are still a small minority.

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

#326

Post by throwaway2801 »

xupybd wrote: post #276
throwaway2801 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(edit: I read your answer again. It made me smile. Original text:) Maybe you are right, and xupybd too. This is why I still think my parent had an interesting and insightful answer. I actually wanted to understand that this way, but was put off by the "at such a tender age". This does not look neutral to me. "at this stage of life" or "at this young age" would not have triggered this in me. Unfortunately, written tex…

Just to add some potential insight. One of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity is that all people are in trouble/broken/sinners/in need of saving. So when you say they feel sorry for you that is actually part of the belief system. Even if you think you're okay they do not. It's not a matter of you being successful or not, but your moral standing before God. So regardless of your point of view they're always going…

Thank you for your definitely insightful answer. Yes, now that you say it, they both tried to save me for these reasons. This makes sense. I guess there is no way such a person and I can really agree on this.

Though this is positive for me: they tried to save me because they liked me. I guess.

Unfortunately, it seems like I'm doomed. I cannot imagine that God (if exists) made us broken by default, defective by design. Why would Him, since he is good?

This is kind of depressing when you think about it and this is the opposite of what I think about humanity: I think most people are fine by default (even though I've already been assaulted).

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

#327

Post by ben_w »

blibble wrote: post #166
peoplewindow wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either that or they don't believe you will really move, or they believe that with a different job you would stay.

that vote was 18 months ago if he's still looking after that long in this market they're probably right

I started looking seriously about 5 months ago. I moved back to the UK one month ago.

And, hard as moving is, I see no future for me in the UK, only a dead parent.

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

#328

Post by djaychela »

cteague wrote: post #100

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.

Until September, I was teaching A-level at 2 schools in the UK, and had been since 2002. Over the last 3-4 years, the ability of students to apply themselves and concentrate (independent of their ability) seemed to drop away completely. Obviously purely anecdotal, but my teaching experience became much worse in that time period; I'm glad to not be doing it any more, which is sad because it's something I actually love doing when it goes well.

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

#329

Post by KozmoNau7 »

jraby3 wrote: post #318
lsc wrote: post #67

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…

I'm not on social media aside from Reddit. But what I notice with my wife and others is a simple reason why I dislike it. If you have 400 friends, and they each only take one vacation a year, that means 8x per week, you're looking at other people taking a vacation. Even if you travel 4x per year, you'll still feel like you never do anything and everyone else is always celebrating their life. I realize this is a simpl…

I specifically cut out Reddit entirely. Subreddits quickly end up being insular groupthink echo chambers, thanks to the voting system and biased moderators.

The noise:content ratio is simply skewed way towards pointless noise. It's not worth it.

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

#330

Post by abusoufiyan »

mathgenius wrote: post #320
cteague wrote: post #100

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.

I agree with this. It's not about "jealousy" towards your friends on fb. It's about feeding the attention-monkey. And the more you feed that monkey the more it wants. Healthy brains spend time (much time) prior to attention, just being . I like to go on long walks and practice breathing. Dissolving mind and attention leads to great clarity, when the thoughts are needed. Society as a whole does not seem to recognize t…

>Healthy brains spend time (much time) prior to attention, just being. I like to go on long walks and practice breathing. Dissolving mind and attention leads to great clarity, when the thoughts are needed.

Yes, there is a reason practices like meditation, physical movements during prayer (yoga, Jewish and Islamic practices of prayer), etc. have lasted thousands of years. The screens are not the first attention-jackers to come around and they won't be the last.

Post reply on HN