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

nytimes.com

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

#421

Post by nostrebored »

Jedd wrote: post #407
tantalor wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> School shootings are such a regular feature of American life... No they're not. > ...that every school holds safety drills for the risk. They also hold drills for tornado, fire, etc. These aren't regular parts of life either; they are emergencies for which people can prepare for the extremely rare chance it actually happens. We could debate the utility or practical implementation of active shooter drills compared t…

> No they're not. Yes, they are. But rather than merely gainsay, I'll support that by observing: a) here in Australia we regularly, consistently, have zero school shootings each year. Can recommend. b) you are probably misunderstanding the meaning of regular, and conflating it with frequent. Halley's Comet is regular - at once every ~76 years. But obviously not frequent. (I'd argue, as per (a), that the USA has too h…

Maybe if you had the same attitude about bus fatalities this would be grounded in reality. If we relax the rules to school bus related fatalities there are almost an order of magnitude more.

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

#422

Post by skeaker »

somethingreen wrote: post #275
zackmorris wrote: post #173

D.A.R.E. to Keep Kids Off Social Media Wages stagnated since 1980. Rents doubling every decade. Dead-end service jobs. Unpayable student loans. Social Security payments going to IOUs instead of retirements. Lying politicians and chief corporate officers making bank on the backs of the working poor. 30% credit card interest. Delaying childbirth to make rent until it's too late. GMO and processed foods poisoning giving…

The idea that any of these would normally worry an average young teen is hilarious to me. I grew up during cold war, USSR collapse, multiple wars in the region. At no point was I (or any of my peers to my knowledge) gravely concerned for our future. Because none of us yet had any idea what our normal future is supposed to look like. The only way these mild horrors get into children heads is, again, through social med…

It's really strange that your idea of a solution to the problems that you tacitly admit exist is to just not tell people about them.

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

#423

Post by mibmib »

wonderwonder wrote: post #366
verall wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mr. beast who is generally a good guy can warp and expose kids to a suddenly transexual and borderline pedophile character who abandons his wife and child Can you expand on this? Who are you talking about?

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

#424

Post by skeaker »

tyjen wrote: post #406
runarberg wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most recent IPCC report stated that we are very likely to hit 1.5° in the next five years. If all our current policies hold, and we don’t continue to increase our annual emissions we will likely be looking at 2.7° - 3.2° at the end of this century. At 3° the oceans die. I think it is safe to say that the world as we know it is very likely coming to an end between 2050 and 2100. We will be living in a far more inhospi…

Oceans will not die, their biological makeup will change and adapt to new conditions.

Sure, but the change will be slow, and humans are fast. By the time that comes through, it won't be of use to us. Even if it were fast, there's no guarantee that it will be just as useful to us after the change, or of any use at all. Just because the oceans will still technically be alive in some sense does not mean that they will be as lively or at all the same as what we have now.

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

#425

Post by Wensio »

This one is a no brainer. You can see people blatantly lie on social media about how amazing they are then run into them in the office and see them just as miserable as the rest of us. Kids are just going to believe whatever they see their favorite influencer do or whatever they say and this goes for everyone on their social media. It's just an echo chamber of anxiety, immediate dopamine release and unrealistic expecations of how the real world works. Wasn't there an article not too long ago about how they watched ONE video about suicide or something similar and tiktok just filled their page with suicide content? Anyone that gets fed the same thing over and over is eventually going to feel some sort of effect. A kid will feel the same but worse since the critial thinking skills arent all there yet.

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

#426

Post by greatwave1 »

omginternets wrote: post #143
hammyhavoc wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As neither a parent nor a teenager, I find this a weird one to leave with me. I merely repeated some valid concerns, to which you presented no solutions, just snippiness. What workarounds am I looking for? And for whom? Why aren't the people concerned looking for their own workarounds?

Your "concerns" are little more than whining about minor inconvenience. If you value convenience over the well-being of your children, you'll have a convenient life and children who are unwell. Do what you think is best, but don't pretend it's impossible to live well without social media. It's laughable. It deserves snippiness.

I don't think you really understand the extent to which restricting kids from social media can isolate them from their peers.

Even if you have a teenager who is social at school and through extracurriculars, many meaningful social interactions are happening online or through social media.

For example, almost every team/club these days has a "group chat", where kids spend time bonding outside of practice / organized events. Even if your child shows up to every organized event, they still may feel isolated due to being excluded from the conversations happening outside of practices.

Also, social media is the predominant force that is shaping Gen-Z culture. Being excluded from such a large driver of your peer's culture can definitely create feelings of isolation. Imagine if you had grown up in a household where music wasn't allowed, and how that could have made conversations with your peers more difficult. And social media is a significantly bigger cultural force than music was when you were a kid.

These are just a couple of examples, if you'd like I can list more ways that social media is semi-necessary for many kids to avoid feeling excluded.

I'm not saying this is necessarily always a bad thing (there are definitely strong arguments to be made for abstaining from some elements of society), but I would make sure you're communicating with your child and that you understand their social situation.

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

#427

Post by JoeyJoJoJr »

tantalor wrote: post #350
anigbrowl wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in approximately the same period and grim possibilities, along with local economic problems to a lesser extent, were certainly a concern for me and my peers. Other risks existed as well, kids in my neighborhood school died of drug overdoses, accidents, and medical problems. Others had to deal with poverty, abusive parents, or a family member behind bars. Back then middle aged people blamed television your a…

> School shootings are such a regular feature of American life... No they're not. > ...that every school holds safety drills for the risk. They also hold drills for tornado, fire, etc. These aren't regular parts of life either; they are emergencies for which people can prepare for the extremely rare chance it actually happens. We could debate the utility or practical implementation of active shooter drills compared t…

If you took all school shootings of all first world nations, other than USA, in the last 100 years, that number would still be eclipsed by the average number of yearly USA school shootings. Comparatively the USA is an extreme outlier, even compared to 3rd world nations.

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

#428

Post by jiggywiggy »

the_lonely_road wrote: post #396
jiggywiggy wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on. What point are you arguing? I know you are most likely anti school shootings. But whats the point of trying to deny it's impact with statistics? Whatever statistics you try to conjure. 52 in one year is way too much. And 1 in 150 kids being on a school with a school shooting is a lot.

It’s a political issue not mired in reality but instead in a desire to affect policy. They do it because it works. This discussion is an example of it’d effectiveness. People who will look to the statistics for context in other situations are quick to dismiss them here. There is no rational reason to be anymore concerned about school shootings in America than any other cause of premature death in children and quite a…

You are crazy. No healthy society has school shootings and it has no place in it. To accept anything less then a healthy and violence & gunfree place our kids can grow up in is insane.

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

#429

Post by theGnuMe »

nullsense wrote: post #420
lumb63 wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> School shootings are such a regular feature of American life […] Media certainly amplifies the awareness of problems Case in point: in 2022 there were 51 school shootings [1]. Certainly more than I’d like there to be, but in a nation with about 129,000 schools [2], I certainly wouldn’t call them a “regular feature”. If students are in school for 18 years, let’s say, to include pre-K, Kindergarten, and an undergrad…

Or, you know, compare the number of school shootings to literally any other country in the world? The fact that there are school shootings for the media to report on at all is so crazy to me.

American’s think guns keep them free. In fact they just hold them hostage.

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

#430

Post by escapedmoose »

NoImmatureAdHom wrote: post #418
kredd wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re arguing 0.7% chance of being in a school shooting shouldn’t worry a teenager, for other commentators that’s just a mind-blowing percentage. I think that’s a cultural distinction, since if that was the case, most of people I know would do anything that’s possible to avoid their child to beat that statistic.

That's a cumulative 0.7% chance over 18 (or 22?) years, or 0.035%-ish per year. Not only is that not the right way to think about things even if shootings were random, the numbers aren't correct. The Edweek numbers are doing what they were designed to do, which is mislead you and parent / grandparent. They are advocacy numbers, deliberately distorted to make things seem as bad as possible in order to drive clicks to…

What’s the actual K-12 chance though? If you’re saying that the cumulative 0.7% chance is incorrect, can you provide a more accurate figure?
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