Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 548 posts

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#121

Post by wonderwonder »

knaik94 wrote: post #110
wonderwonder wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate your viewpoint but strongly disagree. Children today suffer vastly increasing rates of depression and suicide. I link most of it to social media. My kids talk to their friends just as kids have done for generations. If social media is playing any sort of a critical role in a kids life it's because the parents are not doing it. YouTube is absolutely social media no different than Instagram or TikTok. Even…

Social media is an important way for kids to communicate to a group of people outside of their immediate friends. Kids born before broadband did not have the option to communicate in the same way, and trying to live that way now will do more harm than good. It's similar to trying to using a dumb phone that is not capable of group messaging as your only form of communication. Mental health issues are very complex and…

Respectfully, do you have kids and if so how old are they? At what age did you give them social media? Social media is absolutely just a communication platform but it allows anyone to communicate their biases and view points to your kids. It's very much not important. Kids can grow up to be well rounded and happy people without it.

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#122

Post by pixl97 »

bart_spoon wrote: post #68
KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What reasonable action could be taken on the parent side? I feel like apps should be regulated to for example, only show up to 20 videos max on tiktok per day to prevent doom scrolling. I don't think preventing kids from accessing social media entirely is viable or reasonable.

Children have been around for 7 billion years. Only the last 20 years have children grown up with social media for even part of their childhood. Do you truly believe it has now become that critical to the childhood experience? Especially given avalanche of research demonstrating its harm?

>Children have been around for 7 billion years.

[citation needed]

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#123

Post by ChicagoBoy11 »

bebop wrote: post #85
ianmcgowan wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if it's reasonable, but a very simple answer is to get your kid a feature phone, if the intent is to be able to stay in touch/emergency contact (we let our kids bike to middle school and it was nice to be in touch). We didn't get them smart phones until high school. Though if my kids are any indication, it's still 50/50 - one is on tiktok/snapchat/insta constantly, and the other could care less.

Some parents in our social circle have been getting their kids smart watches. This allows talk to text and phone calls, but pretty much no internet. These devices are also good for parental controls like allow listing phone numbers (first thing our friends son did was make crank calls :)

I frequently recommend the apple watch with cellular to families... it has nice built in support to be set up for a child, the watch form factor is nice for lots of kids (harder to lose), and you are still getting a premium product (important for the families that I work with).

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#124

Post by standardUser »

youreincorrect wrote: post #23
swader999 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isolating them from their peers can be just as mentally devastating. I don't think there is a good solution to this.

They can deal with it. In middle school, I was called a faggot, relentlessly, for not owning a Jansport backpack . I am 100% serious. They'll find friends, I'm pretty sure of it.

[flagged]

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#125

Post by hammyhavoc »

bart_spoon wrote: post #118
hammyhavoc wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could be said for teen drinking, smoking, casual sex, and drug use. Those who are dead-set on doing it will always find a way, that's the energy of teenage rebellion at work. Whilst I do agree that it's a failure to parent to a large extent, locking things behind restrictions can also make people want it more without them understanding why they're being restricted from having something that clearly makes a l…

No one is suggesting to deprive your kids of social media without explaining the dangers. But I also think its a fallacy that I see all the time when the situation is boiled down to only two options: restrictions with no justification and treating your child like an idiot pet, or explaining why its bad but not actually imposing any restrictions and letting your child choose for themselves like they are an adult (whic…

I agree. The key thing is this: people vary drastically.

What is effective in preventing x person from doing something bad for themselves isn't going to be effective on y person. This is where parenting styles must vary in order to be effective.

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#126

Post by psyfi »

dathinab wrote: post #40
swader999 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isolating them from their peers can be just as mentally devastating. I don't think there is a good solution to this.

Not sure why you are down voted but this is really a really really big issue. This is why "large scale action" e.g. from school or better regulators are needed and why parents only can act very limited. Don't force social isolation on your children just because idk. "this game is bad". Even if they social circle is "good" and doesn't start excluding or harassing them because of this (totally can happen, you can't rea…

Not allowing your children to own a phone ≠ Force social isolation.

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#127

Post by nineplay »

al_ak wrote: post #116
nineplay wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose I'd call it a video sharing platform. "Social media", to me, has an implication of media that is shared within a social circle. Facebook is social media because the intention is to share information with friends and family. No one is posting on FB hoping to have it go viral and make a pile of cash off it. TikToc is content creators sharing their videos with the whole world.

I think you're underestimating the draw of para-social relationships. That's what powers the "social media" part of TikTok. I think it would be disingenous to suggest that TikTok is anything other than social media.

I will agree if I'm in the minority on this one, but it confirms my larger point - "social media" isn't a useful term. If some apps are putting our youth at risk, tell us what those apps are. Give a top three. Help everyone out.

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#128

Post by bart_spoon »

Aromasin wrote: post #112
bart_spoon wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children have been around for 7 billion years. Only the last 20 years have children grown up with social media for even part of their childhood. Do you truly believe it has now become that critical to the childhood experience? Especially given avalanche of research demonstrating its harm?

The last 20 years haven't just seen an increase in social media usage though; it's seen a decrease in socializing between kids outside of school. It's easy to remove access to their socials. It's very hard to replace that with a function social life outside of school. That's a recipe for resentment and rebellion. That's not going to happen without input at a every level of society to bring back that mall/skate rink/p…

> it's seen a decrease in socializing between kids outside of school

Because of social media. Sports teams and after school clubs didn't go anywhere. Parks didn't go anywhere. Malls are in decline but the period of time they were an active social location was the 80s and 90s, which is a blip in the grand scheme of things. Community centers still exist, churches still exist, libraries still exist, basements and backyards and living rooms still exist. My neighborhood is full of young children who are always playing at the park, at each other's homes, at the pool. Yes, if you hand your kid a phone and a social media account to occupy their time, they will struggle to identify non-social media ways to interact with their peers. That doesn't mean those avenues no longer exist.

I agree with you that parents shouldn't be required to watch their child's every move, and I would go further and say that our modern society in general is actively working against parents ability to parent their children properly. But when it comes to social media, the facts remain: social media isn't remotely crucial for a child's growth or ability to socialize with their peers, they may in fact socialize better without it, and regardless, its extremely damaging and risky to their mental and emotional health.

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#129

Post by yung_steezy »

wonderwonder wrote: post #87
knaik94 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have the ability to help guide them through social media by helping them understand good and bad. I understand that you might have different beliefs, but social media plays a very critical role in young kids communicating with each other. Covid catalyzed them embracing social media to stay in touch. Youtube also shouldn't be considered social media.

I appreciate your viewpoint but strongly disagree. Children today suffer vastly increasing rates of depression and suicide. I link most of it to social media. My kids talk to their friends just as kids have done for generations. If social media is playing any sort of a critical role in a kids life it's because the parents are not doing it. YouTube is absolutely social media no different than Instagram or TikTok. Even…

I can appreciate that you are trying to be proactive about parenting but I disagree with your moral puritanism. Kids who are completely sheltered often don't end up as well adjusted adults in my experience.

Re: Social media can be a ‘profound risk’ to youth, surgeon general warns

#130

Post by mrguyorama »

swader999 wrote: post #21
youreincorrect wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't give your kid a smartphone or laptop without only whitelisting certain sites. If they somehow get a device without permission, it gets donated.

Isolating them from their peers can be just as mentally devastating. I don't think there is a good solution to this.

I had 14 friends on myspace back in its heyday. I could not play runescape because my computer was too old. I had dialup until 2008. It actually was not mentally devastating. Hell, I still have all those friends and we barely have a way to communicate NOW. When you go to school 8 hours of every day and see your friends, you don't really need a stupid app to interact with them. Hell, blocking out social media doesn't prevent you from texting or messaging your friends! Discord though is social media IMO, anything that forms a "group" that can have leaders and followers and bullies is social media.
Post reply on HN