I Changed My Mind on Social Media and Teen Depression • Hacker News Board

Re: I Changed My Mind on Social Media and Teen Depression

#31

Post by lolcatuser » Thu, Mar 02, 2023, 9:05 PM UTC

theandrewbailey wrote: post #23

Qwertysjsjs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see woke as tolerance, open to each other and acceptance. Yes it's over done sometimes but it's hard to see how he would connect wokeness with depression. Or does people understand under wokeness something different than I do? Like great that black kids get heroes in cinema!

I see woke as being viscerally intolerant not only of differing opinions, but also of the people who have them.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_tolerance

Too often I hear people complain that they're being oppressed for their "differing opinions." A tolerable opinion is something like "my favorite color is blue," not "gay people shouldn't exist." If your opinion revolves around the intolerance of other opinions, then I'm not going to be tolerant towards that.

Re: I Changed My Mind on Social Media and Teen Depression

#32

Post by akomtu » Thu, Mar 02, 2023, 9:13 PM UTC

Qwertysjsjs wrote: post #15

mock-possum wrote: post #5

> A final reason I didn’t want to believe in the social media hypothesis was that I’d much rather blame wokeness … it’s annoying to me that intellectuals won’t even consider the possibility that radical new ideas about race and sex might be to blame, and the fact that the most liberal demographics, that is women and LGBT adolescents, are having the most mental problems indicates that there is something to the theory…

I see woke as tolerance, open to each other and acceptance. Yes it's over done sometimes but it's hard to see how he would connect wokeness with depression. Or does people understand under wokeness something different than I do? Like great that black kids get heroes in cinema!

Wokeness was meant to be that: being awake to social problems. And just like many noble beginnings before, this too got co-opted by nefarious actors who substituted ideals with divisive lies. For example, they've turned the concept of seven rays, symbolized by a rainbow, into a cult of skin and genitals. This happened because the founders of the movement didn't define principles that would quickly identify and weed out selfish grifters.

Re: I Changed My Mind on Social Media and Teen Depression

#33

Post by expazl » Fri, Mar 10, 2023, 11:08 PM UTC

joenot443 wrote: post #30

expazl wrote: post #24

If the sharp rise since 2012 in female teenage depression in USA is caused by social media. Why isn't the same sharp rise seen in Europe, where female teenagers also use social media?

Suicide rates amongst female European teenagers are rising as well. I'd encourage you to consult the literature before making assertions like that. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00431-021-04240-7

I had consulted the literature, though I'll take note of bringing along the references. I admit that I am only looking at my own small corner of the world, Denmark. But still, It seems odd to me that our country would for some reason be immune to the evils of social media if that is indeed the root cause of these rises. For references: Stable suicide attempt rates in the period:

https://psykiatrifonden.dk/files/styles/common_04/public/med...

Mænd=Men, Kvinder=Woman, I Alt= Total

And falling suicide attempt rates over the same period:

https://psykiatrifonden.dk/files/styles/common_04/public/med...

Statistics are from the Danish Psychiatry foundation.

Re: I Changed My Mind on Social Media and Teen Depression

#34

Post by expazl » Fri, Mar 10, 2023, 11:23 PM UTC

joenot443 wrote: post #30

expazl wrote: post #24

If the sharp rise since 2012 in female teenage depression in USA is caused by social media. Why isn't the same sharp rise seen in Europe, where female teenagers also use social media?

Suicide rates amongst female European teenagers are rising as well. I'd encourage you to consult the literature before making assertions like that. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00431-021-04240-7

I'd encourage you to consult the literature you link before making assertions like that.

If you review the article you linked you'll see that female suicide in Sweden is actually lower in 2018 than it was in 2009. So it' doesn't match the same rise since 2012 seen in America.

https://media.springernature.com/lw685/springer-static/image...

And sure you can fit an overall rise across all the years, but it's clear from inspecting the curve that this is not a strong correlation, and in fact if you remove the years prior to 2008 that should be irrelevant for the changes due to social media since 2012, then there is no upwards trend. So what is actually seen is likely better explained by relation to the general economic prosperity prior to 2008 and downturn after than anything related to social media.