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Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

jonathanhaidt.substack.com

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Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#31
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Oh my god, did you see what Stacy posted last night!" But your daughter missed it because " you didn't let her have an Instagram account!" It seems to me that such worries are well-founded. At best, she made the decision herself and still feels the pain of it.

That's letting kids parent themselves.

It's universalizing agency.

Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#32

The article promises evidence, but it starts by repeating the premise half a dozen times, then offering correlations and loose theories. If there was evidence in there, I missed it. Maybe there was. But even if there was this was a badly formatted article. Why can't people succinctly describe their thesis and then have a nice outline for the fine details on the proof? Is this not something we learn at uni, or even hi…

Ask ChatGPT to summarize the article for you?

[flagged]

Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#33

I wonder if online dating tends to lead to similar impacts to mental health for some groups of people as social media does to teen girls. Just like in Haidt's examples, it's impersonal, phone-based, leading to constant social comparison, feelings of rejection, ostracism and ghosting. I wouldn't be shocked if a few years from now research came out showing that it has similar effects to adults, but they're just better…

Anecdotal, but dating apps sure helped crush the self-esteem of my sister.

She still gets on them occasionally, because there's no alternative now.

Guys in the post-#metoo era just won't approach a girl at a bar the way they used to.

Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#34

"It also creates a trap—a collective action problem—for girls and for parents. Each girl might be worse off quitting Instagram even though all girls would be better off if everyone quit." I like this part, it is quite clear quitting social media alone is probably even worse and self-isolating than not taking part. The solution would be to address it on a societal level, but that requires pretty strong societal/politi…

No. It's not "quite clear" that "quitting social media alone is probably even worse and self-isolating than not taking part."

It's clear from my experience as a parent, and from the experience of many others, that that isn't an issue. The child may whine and throw a tantrum, but that's not a reason to let the child be the parent.

Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#35
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Oh my god, did you see what Stacy posted last night!" But your daughter missed it because " you didn't let her have an Instagram account!" It seems to me that such worries are well-founded. At best, she made the decision herself and still feels the pain of it.

[flagged]

I feel similarly to seeing parenting advice from people who clearly aren't parents.

Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#37

The article promises evidence, but it starts by repeating the premise half a dozen times, then offering correlations and loose theories. If there was evidence in there, I missed it. Maybe there was. But even if there was this was a badly formatted article. Why can't people succinctly describe their thesis and then have a nice outline for the fine details on the proof? Is this not something we learn at uni, or even hi…

Every section ends with a summary of the research discussed, and the last section discards some alternative theories and ends with the thesis of the article.

Why can't people read the article in question? Is this not something we learn at uni, or even high school?

Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#38

The article promises evidence, but it starts by repeating the premise half a dozen times, then offering correlations and loose theories. If there was evidence in there, I missed it. Maybe there was. But even if there was this was a badly formatted article. Why can't people succinctly describe their thesis and then have a nice outline for the fine details on the proof? Is this not something we learn at uni, or even hi…

It's a literature review, and no social science question is replicated 100% of the time. But here's the main question and answer:

> 5. Question 3A: Do Experiments Using Random Assignment Show a Causal Effect of Social Media Use on Mental Health?

> These experiments provide direct evidence that social media—particularly Instagram—is a cause, not just a correlate, of bad mental health, especially in teen girls and young women.

As for the thesis, it is succinctly described in the title:

> Social Media is a Major Cause of the Mental Illness Epidemic in Teen Girls.

Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#39
I am a guy but I was in middle school when FB first became popular (around the time of the recession).

I was definetly quite lucky that my dad worked in the tech industry as well and was a bit of a luddite around social media (locked down accounts and parental controls) while also maintaining a non-social media related friend group (swim team, tennis, debate, hiking, boxing). By the time I was old enough to learn how to bypass these (around 12-13) I feel I was a bit more mature and able to handle the kinds of pressures on social media.

But then again, my parents were also pretty pro-active in my life, so maybe issues caused by social media are due to lack of parental involvement leading to parents using FB/YT/IG/TikTok as a substitute for parenting.

Re: Social media is a cause, not a correlate, of mental illness in teen girls

#40
post #2

I'm still reading it, but this is great so far. As a father to four little girls, though, it makes me feel really defeated. I can already see that social media has eroded my wife's mental health. I just don't know what to do in the next few years when our girls approach the age when everyone else will get an iPhone and have an Instagram account. I want to say no, but that leads to many other issues, including what th…

Disclaimer: Not a parent, did not grow up during the era of social media (and my own childhood experiences cannot be extrapolated!)

As a kid, I was bullied, outcast, left out. Oddly enough, I don't think I was depressed. Sure, I was sad sometimes. But given that my options didn't include doing things with kids from school, I did things on my own. Fortunately for me, I also had access to a (relatively) safe outdoors to explore. Or if the weather wasn't cooperating, I would play with toys inside.

But it sounds like social isolation can lead to mental illness/depression, so I don't know if enduring that is an acceptable alternative to the near certain mental illness that being part of the internet-connected social scene seems to cause.

Should we redirect our attention to figuring out how to keep kids mentally healthy despite likely social isolation that's going to happen no matter what? Is that possible?

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