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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

#161

Post by gilbetron »

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…

As a personal anecdote through the pandemic and election, I've found out several things: 1. Twitter, for me, is incredibly detrimental to my mental health. I felt the need to check it until the inauguration, but took several breaks and was shocked how much better I felt. Now I think I might just stay away from it almost entirely. 2. Facebook, on the other hand, has been generally good for me, since I got rid of toxic people and just kept lightly in touch with a small set (maybe 20) of people that I enjoy interacting with. My enjoyment of it has improved, although I'd still rather have a different way of doing it. Plus, it is only 15 minutes per day or so, so it's benefit to my life is minimal. 3. Reddit. Generally still like it, although much less so since there has been a drop in quality contributors, an increase in politics, and generally less fun overall. But as long as I stay away from contentious subreddits, I like reading it. It is more of a time sink than a mental health drain (although that's related, too) 4. Hacker News: I've grown to greatly appreciate the strict moderation and find it is a great example of a "good" social site. It adds value, but it isn't a time sink.

As for mass media, it is far too driven by reaction, and I mostly avoid all of it. In-depth general media, and focused media are more interesting. The Economist is generally great, for instance, because most everything is in depth. I've recently taken to reading a shipping news site, and that is interesting because I can hear more pertinent information about, say covid, because they aren't reporting about covid, but reporting the effects of covid.

Mostly I think we need more education and training for our population on handling media. Too many people seem to take whatever the read as truth and insert it directly into their brain without an skepticism or critical thought. I hate that. Everyone should have a "news vestibule" in their brain where new information must sit and be verified before they allow it into their mind as a whole.

Lastly, I'm now much more inclined to pay for content than I was 5 years ago.

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

#162

Post by kreeben »

Zelphyr wrote: post #82
kreeben wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Social media damages everyone's mental health It may seem that way but don't believe it's 100% accurate. Mental pressure built up within yourself, whatever is their cause, get somewhat released after a good cry. Afterwards you feel a little bit refreshed. You feel a little bit less sad. The anger within you is not as prominent. Lashing out on people, starting flame wars in your favorite online forum, screaming, ye…

I think about the times I've lashed out, screamed and yelled at someone and you know what? It felt pretty good. At first. Then I felt worse. WAY worse because I knew I had hurt the person I had yelled at. So I think you're right that while it is a release, it's an anti-productive one. One analogy I saw once likened it to having a balloon. You forgot to take out the trash this morning--the balloon got blown up a littl…

I suppose you're right. Lashing out is not a slow release of the pressure within that will save you from popping your balloon, it's the pop itself.

Not all people have set up a structure in their lives that allow them to slowly release that pressure. We do not all have people in our lives that we can talk to about our feelings. Social media might help these folks.

If I were to lash out at you during lunch or while we're in meeting, people would probably ask me to calm down and say "hey dude, what's going on, you're acting irrational, where is this anger coming from?" and "can we help you in some way, so that you won't feel the need to be so aggressive?"

Social media, however, has not only made flame wars easier to achieve, it has also made it much easier to ignore any concern we might have for the lasher-outers, the people who are clearly in need of some love and affection. In social media, we burn these people by stripping them of their karma.

I find poorly designed karma systems, not social media, to be at fault.

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

#163

Post by hollerith »

hiimtroymclure wrote: post #160

I left all social media just after xmas after I couldn't take the constant flood of politics. I miss the memes but overall i've loved my decision. Ill never go back

"Constant flood of politics" also describes HN between late Dec and now IME. Have you considered leaving HN over it? (I have.)

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

#164

Post by bccdee »

simias wrote: post #65
titzer wrote: post #24

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 th…

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…

Eh. Responsible consumption of media isn't something we're magically endowed with when we turn 18. It's a skill like any other. Obviously there's a point at which children are too underdeveloped to be responsible about media consumption, but teenagers aren't idiots. If a youtube video is feeding them bullshit, they'll usually be able to tell. Not all teenagers are that savvy, mind you, but we've learned in recent years that not all adults are either.

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

#165

Post by Existenceblinks »

titzer wrote: post #24

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 th…

This problem has been said again and again for almost a decade. Are we still "studying" it? I guess it's more obvious than studying criminal thinking. Not more complicated than Mindhunter sort of thing, yet there's no feasible action?

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

#166

Post by _pmf_ »

titzer wrote: post #24

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 th…

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

So, it will destroy the youth like books, radio, rock music, rap music, Michael Jackson, TV and masturbation?

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

#167

Post by Zelphyr »

mumblemumble wrote: post #118
Zelphyr wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

So, it's not that opportunities to socialize don't exist. It's that an ever increasing number of them are being mediated through social media. Which means that the list of non-social-media options in one's community likely caters to an ever decreasing variety of interests.

Everybody at my Jiu-Jitsu academy knows I don't have social media. Until COVID that was never really a problem.

After the first shutdown lifted somewhat, the health department mandates requires us to be part of small "pods" to help contain any spread (as an aside, that has worked surprisingly well considering how close in contact people are) We're also restricted to a limited number days we can train so pod members have to coordinate with each other the classes we're planning to attend so that we don't show up and be the only guy or gal in our pod that night.

You know how we invariably coordinate? Email or text. Primarily email in fact. It wasn't planned or dictated by anyone. It just worked out that way.

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

#168

Post by dfmooreqqq »

I wish there was more on the different types/uses of social media. Twitter != Facebook != Goodreads != HN and so on. Even within different social media there is varying uses - using FB groups to find affinity groups like Woodworkers or a shared hobby and more is very different than just doom scrolling the news feed. I didn't get through to the actual report (just the linked article), so maybe there is more there.

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

#169

Post by cpach »

II2II wrote: post #151
xxpor wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This, I believe, is the largest difference between today and twenty years ago.

That, and the pervasiveness of social media. Myspace, for example, was huge. But unlike today’s social media, maybe 25% of your AFK circles would hang out there, not 95% like today.

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

#170

Post by Minor49er »

duxup wrote: post #71

I'm trying to teach my 10 year old son. He's not on social media, but does play games online with others. I'm working really hard to enforce a sort of "If it isn't positive, you don't feel good about it... time to not do it for a while / find another game / people to play with." I'm trying to teach him to evaluate and shape his own experiences online and make choices based on that.

Do you use any sort of parental control software/hardware to keep him off of social media? Or is it just a rule?
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