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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

#371

Post by ageofwant »

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #185
lumberjack wrote: post #62

Too quick to blame, "the screen". Is it really just the existence of social media that caused this, or is it maybe a change of culture that emerged with the spread of the Internet and social media? For example, today a child from a religious community might encounter atheism at 12 or 13 whereas previously they would encounter it when they went off to college. Maybe that child happens to be suffering from depression a…

So religious people never get depressed? What a stupid argument! Believing that some (unproven and nonexistent) entity is going to solve all your problems is completely delusional.

You are delusional if you claim you have evidence for everything you believe. You believe facts from sources you trust. And no human today has the capacity to independently verify what it believes to be True.

You live your live by faith, just like everybody else.

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

#372

Post by gkya »

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…

The usual fallacy of "I don't experience it, so how come others do?"

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

#373

Post by doktrin »

abusoufiyan wrote: post #333
newfoundglory wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yea. The housing market is super fucked up, that’s what’s wrong.

I guess but why would teenagers of all people care about this? You don't need a house. Many of the kids I knew growing up lived in apartments. If they lived in a house they could inherit it from their parents. Why is the housing market something children worry about?

> You don't need a house. Many of the kids I knew growing up lived in apartments.

Apartments are part of the housing market

> If they lived in a house they could inherit it from their parents.

Teenagers probably want to move out of their parents home (be it a house or apartment).

> Why is the housing market something children worry about?

See above : teenagers often want and look forward to independence, and housing is 100% central to that goal. Their future horizon may be a little shallower than that of the average adult, but they do have a horizon - i.e short term goals that they want to achieve.

At least for me, that meant figuring out how I was going to actually live on my own come 18. You can bet I was worried about housing prices (even if my immediate goal was to rent).

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

#374

Post by spuz »

gkya wrote: post #372
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…

The usual fallacy of "I don't experience it, so how come others do?"

That's not a fallacy, it's just a question.

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

#375

Post by doktrin »

malux85 wrote: post #107
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 see this in the students I mentor. Every single one of them cannot focus on a single task for longer than 60 seconds, which is severely hampering their ability to think deeply about abstract programming and data science problems. It's very frustrating, but they just cannot stop checking their phones for updates

> It's very frustrating, but they just cannot stop checking their phones for updates

I feel the same way about myself, sometimes, but instead I just open a browser window and start typing news.... (not always HN, but often)

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

#376

Post by spuz »

Razengan wrote: post #164

I think the "likely culprit" is, as it has always been, just the "human condition." The coming into an unknown world, ignorant of everything, constantly reconciling conflicting ideas, nagged by a sense of ultimate pointlessness, and the dread of inevitable mortality. However we may try to pooh-pooh these things away, they've been an incurable source of unhappiness since time immemorial. Humans cannot be truly happy u…

That may be the underlying cause of some suicides but it doesn't explain why depression and suicides have increased for teenagers in the last 5 years. Also, if we need distraction to survive the ultimate meaninglessness of life as you claim then why would technology make depression worse instead of better?

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

#377

Post by Const-me »

matte_black wrote: post #286
malux85 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comp-Sci/Electrical Engineers - I've never seen any of them without a smartphone, or even heard them talk about their friends switching. Sounds like a good idea though :)

I would try switching to a flip phone but the problem is I want a cool modern flip phone not something that looks vintage.

I actually prefer vintage design (e.g. Nokia 8210, designed by Kenzo), but unfortunately these old phones aren't compatible enough, 2G networks are phased out and are already switched off in many places.

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

#378

Post by throwaway2801 »

abusoufiyan wrote: post #341
throwaway2801 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> having discovered atheism at such a tender age , they are left hopeless and desolate . (emphasis mine) What?? As if atheists were monsters. As an atheist (more agnostic actually - I cannot be sure no gods exist), your answer feels interesting but also surprising, very saddening and actually chocking. Let's not make atheists look like evil people who make children depressed. This is not OK. I never needed to have an…

>Let's not make atheists look like evil people who make children depressed. This is not OK. That's not what he's doing at all. But it is also true that religion is largely the underpinning of morality for most people in the world and early exposure to the idea that morality is relative and malleable and that actually the only real motivator is self-preservation is probably unhealthy for adolescents. >Solving my probl…

Parts of my problems are others problems, that is not mutually exclusive.

Actually, one could argue that at the end of the day, any action is egoist at some level, even charity (my experience is that this argument leads to interesting discussions were people try to define things).

Also, I know that religion is linked to charity, but I don't see why would one need religion to help other people. I'm doing it pretty often actually, at my level.

Why should I need faith in anything to help someone? How an atheist would be unable to help anybody?

So,

> I don't see where you can pull that out of atheism.

I would say that beliefs (atheism is a form of belief, for some definition of atheism) and helping people are orthogonal notions. As an agnostic, linking those things feel absurd (in the mathematical definition of absurd, not in the definition of "stupid").

P.S.: I don't feel I said anything stupid. Let's use real arguments. If you think I said something wrong, feel free to argue about it. I'll be glad to recognize that I was wrong or to further argue.

Edit: I would say that one acts according to what drives their life. This can be faith. Or something else. Or a mix of things.

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

#379

Post by jlcummings »

lsc wrote: post #356
madaxe_again wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>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. If that were true, the sports stars would not have been popular

Everyone loves a winner, on some level. But are sports stars generally popular with the public or among their peers, or teammates?

Michael Jordan, was/is endured to the public for his talent and work ethic, but I don’t believe he was adored quite the same by teammates or opponents.

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

#380

Post by tonyedgecombe »

matte_black wrote: post #286
malux85 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Comp-Sci/Electrical Engineers - I've never seen any of them without a smartphone, or even heard them talk about their friends switching. Sounds like a good idea though :)

I would try switching to a flip phone but the problem is I want a cool modern flip phone not something that looks vintage.

That's another problem in itself.
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