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Heavy social media use associated with lower mental health in adolescents

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

#151

Post by II2II »

xxpor wrote: post #83
simias wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been a bit extreme on this but I more than ever believe that it's insane that we consider that leaving teenagers with unsupervised internet access is reasonable. Maybe I'm prude or naive but I remember vividly when I first saw a pornographic movie at like around 17. It really shook me at the time. I wasn't traumatized or anything but it made a strong impact on me. These days I expect that most teens exper…

Just wondering, how old are you? I'm 30, so myspace and Facebook showed up only once I was in high school, but everything you describe was still available on the web before social media. Shock sites were huge (goatse, tubgirl, etc), and I remember watching a beheading with a chainsaw by a Mexican cartel. And of course porn was around too. The difference with social media is the "keeping up with the Joneses" except no…

Another big difference is constant availability. A decade ago, the moment you walked away from your computer the shock sites were memories. Twenty years ago, the moment you walked away from your phone most of the social drama were memories. The most that most of us do now is stuff it into our pockets.

Aside from the psychological differences with teens, we also have to consider that they aren't being exposed to this environment "in moderation". They don't really have the opportunity to think about their responses to it.

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

#152

Post by ppf »

bnralt wrote: post #18

I'm starting to wonder if mass media in general is bad for our mental health, and if we'd be better off unplugging as much as we can from everything - social media, TV, radio, Hacker News, etc. and spending more time with our community. I suppose the problem is, most communities are completely addicted to this stuff, so we're left in a situation where it's hard for most people to unplug for any long period of time wi…

I'm on day 3 of exactly that (deleted reddit, Facebook, reddit, Whatsapp, and Signal, and switched to a dumb phone). No idea how this will pan out, but personally I feel so much better already. I am also significantly more focussed and productive, and am already able to enjoy tasks that previously seemed boring in comparison to endlessly refreshing reddit and the like. I'm also in a country that is not so steeped in technology, and thus not as far down the path of general life becoming dependnet on it.

Just think about that - you denpend on big tech for the very media through which you perform the majority of interactions with your "friends".

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

#153

Post by Ericson2314 »

Well there is the attention economy, and then there is also social media which facilitates comparison to your actual peers not mere aspirational influencer types. No doubt both are bad more mental health, but I wonder what the breakdown is. For example, maybe less Instagram more TikTok might actually be marginally good for people's mental health.

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

#154

Post by opendysphoria »

ChrisRR wrote: post #8

Social media damages everyone's mental health it seems. For some reason it seems to bring out the worst in so many people, and people think it's now acceptable to post online the awful thoughts that they would've kept to themselves

Chilling

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

#155

Post by AlwaysRock »

Zelphyr wrote: post #107
mumblemumble wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my experience. I disconnected from social media, and my social life immediately died. Friends only communicate with each other through Facebook, so I'm really only staying in regular contact with my very closest friends anymore. Most of it I don't miss, because social media has also reduced the quality of communication to the level of gossip, but what I do miss out on is any sort of invitations to social gath…

I deleted my social media almost ten years ago and I feel like I have a stronger social network now than I had before. The key thing I think I may have done differently is that I got involved in things that provided opportunities to be engaged with people. For example; I joined my local Masonic lodge and started doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Between those two things alone I find I have regular enough interactions with a…

I can echo this. I'm social media lite. I have very few social media platforms and that ones I have are limited or automated so I don't interact with them often.

I had to be deliberate about telling people I'm not going to see their post about xyz so they would have to text or call me if they want to invite me. Sure I probably miss some events but the ones I go to I know I'm wanted at.

Socializing passively at a gym or Jiu-Jitsu or some type of class is the main way I've built friend groups over the years.

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

#156

Post by sillyquiet »

a_wild_dandan wrote: post #26
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 medi…

The 'old man yells at cloud' view point is an exaggeration of a valid mode of thinking. New and different !== bad inherently, but new and different !== good either. Outsiders have a valid perspective on things too.

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

#157

Post by opendysphoria »

jameslk wrote: post #47

These studies seem to keep contradicting each other: http://www.nautil.us/blog/studies-shoot-down-techs-harmful-e... > A new study in Nature Human Behaviour, which looked at data from more than 350,000 adolescents, also found that digital tech use mattered little to kids’ well-being. The authors, Amy Orben and Przybylski, argue that prior research, which examined the impact of social media on teens and tweens, was ba…

I believe they're tracking related symptoms and disagreeing about the root cause.

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

#159

Post by whatshisface »

conradev wrote: post #149
simias wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been a bit extreme on this but I more than ever believe that it's insane that we consider that leaving teenagers with unsupervised internet access is reasonable. Maybe I'm prude or naive but I remember vividly when I first saw a pornographic movie at like around 17. It really shook me at the time. I wasn't traumatized or anything but it made a strong impact on me. These days I expect that most teens exper…

It is this weird balance because I owe literally everything I know about programming to unsupervised internet access: asking questions in IRC rooms, finding random programs on random websites, posting on obscure forums, etc. I was able to find some wonderful communities, like the iPhone jailbreaking community on IRC, which completely changed my life and put me on the path I am on now. I was also on Twitter in the ear…

To strongman the OP, would your parents have stopped you from talking about programming on IRC if they had observed it? Would you stop your kids, if you observed them? Watching your kid's internet use doesn't mean not letting them use the internet, it means applying your developed adult discernment to judge between healthy and unhealthy uses.
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