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Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

bbc.com

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Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#21

Post by NalNezumi »

croes wrote: post #12
twiss wrote: post #4

Loneliness damages peoples' mental health, too. Is there some chance that, for mental health, the ordering goes "in-person interaction > social media interaction > no interaction at all"? Then of course if you compare social media interaction with in-person interaction you may conclude that social media = bad, but the causality may (in part) be the other way around, as the article says: > “Those who feel worse may tu…

You can't order it by the type of interaction. "I used to think that the worst thing in life was to end up alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone." What makes social media so bad is that hundreds, thousands and more from all over the world can attack you. In-person thats seldom the case. On the other hand, you can more easily ignore online comments than real life…

>ou can more easily ignore online comments than real life comments.

Not always the case I don't think(your over all point still stands though). An anectodtal example, I've been thrown some racial & very insensitive slurs at sports bar/convenience store late night, but seeing the person/the state the person throwing the slur is in (intoxicated) can make it way easier to just brush it off. Being thrown an insult in say, StackOverflow by someone that have provable trackrecord of excellence can be quite more demoralizing.

The absence/existence of additional information about the person throwing the slur can make the whole difference, and that can exist/not exist on both internet and real life.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#22

Post by watwut »

thick wrote: post #10

"Social Media" seems to be a scapegoat for the underlying causes: children are in particular affected by this because they haven't had years/decades to build up mental disorders yet where they justify it to themselves that it's "okay", and the unfairness in the world through the lens of social media, taking the emotional toll head on. Children are very sensitive to their status in society, but we forget this because…

> Children are very sensitive to their status in society, but we forget this because we grew out of that. Those of us on the successful side of things anyway.

We don't outgrow that. Adults are very status conscious too.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#23

Post by mikece »

If you have not seen it, the documentary "The Social Dilemma" (currently only available on Netflix) goes over this in detail, with first-hand accounts from the people who created the "addiction algorithms"... as well as references to research on how self-harm and suicide attempts in teens and pre-teens has skyrocketed since the advent of social media.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#24

Post by titzer »

Social media (and the attention economy) are worse for young brains than drugs.

If you came up with a substance that caused young people by the millions to become totally addicted, cost them multiple hours per day, pushed them into depression and suicide, and contributed to inactivity, obesity, loss of attention span, and overall ennui, it would be banned almost immediately.

Heck, if you proposed a tracking system that kept track of kids' whereabouts, social connections, and required them to post identifying information and photos, as well as gather their interests and political leanings, it'd be illegal.

The fact that we allowed companies to do these two things together while making money off it is absolutely astounding to me.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#25

Post by samsquire »

INTPenis wrote: post #6

Don't mean to sound deep and profound here but I think life in general damages your mental health. Social media just brings it to you in a superficial format. But I do also believe those little notifications can be addictive.

Modern life is indeed terrible. Being depressed sucks.

I think there is a missing institution that should exist to protect people from market effects.

The raw edge of the market is driving a wedge into people's lives. People need to be protected but they're just a few decisions away from loss.

Society doesn't do enough for the losers of the world, it's a winner take all system.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#26

Post by a_wild_dandan »

sillyquiet wrote: post #5

Social media as it exists currently is like being surrounded 24/7 by nattering, gossiping, scatterbrains playing an eternal game of brinksmanship and striving at one-upping each other. So yeah, I can intuitively believe this study.

It jives with my perspective too, but I can't help also feeling like that's an "old man yells at cloud" viewpoint. The way kids use social media today is fundamentally different to my experience. Like the way my parents viewed IRC usage as an outlet for kidnapping or whatever. Kids grew up immersed in social media, and probably use it for rich and important social interactions that are alien to me. I view social media as a largely performative, toxic space and I've quit most of it. But newer generations might see a lot of value that I don't. (And that's not helped by constantly seeing articles about cyberbullying, depressive correlation articles like OP, etc.)

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#28

Post by tgv »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #15

There are entire subreddits dedicated to mocking this point, like /r/PhonesAreBad, and /r/InsaneParents. I doubt half the screenshots they post of text message conversations are even real -- but the point gets across. Phones are the most wonderful thing that keep us connected to each other, and only crude luddites living in the dark ages who don't understand the benefit they provide would take them away from a kid do…

It's an addiction. People leaving the circle are directly taking away the addict's stimulus.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#29

Post by pmiller2 »

bjt2n3904 wrote: post #15

There are entire subreddits dedicated to mocking this point, like /r/PhonesAreBad, and /r/InsaneParents. I doubt half the screenshots they post of text message conversations are even real -- but the point gets across. Phones are the most wonderful thing that keep us connected to each other, and only crude luddites living in the dark ages who don't understand the benefit they provide would take them away from a kid do…

There’s a subreddit about how phones are bad that most people probably access on their phones? I think my head just exploded.

Re: Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

#30

Post by jancsika »

thick wrote: post #10

"Social Media" seems to be a scapegoat for the underlying causes: children are in particular affected by this because they haven't had years/decades to build up mental disorders yet where they justify it to themselves that it's "okay", and the unfairness in the world through the lens of social media, taking the emotional toll head on. Children are very sensitive to their status in society, but we forget this because…

Somehow in your contrarian riff you end up agreeing with the research, at least in part.

If social media does indeed lead to less exercise as research suggests-- which, as you explicitly agree would make things worse-- it is a boogeyman.

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