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Social media does not cause depression in children

norwegianscitechnews.com

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Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#21

Post by EGreg »

0xcde4c3db wrote: post #12
EGreg wrote: post #4

Something about this doesn’t seem right Norway also has Seasonal Affective Disorder. But in the USA, all of a sudden with the rise of social media we get such huge statistics: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/us-teen-girls-considered-a... Moreover, it isn’t necessarily the AMOUNT of social media one consumes that makes one depressed. It is other factors: 1) Body image 2) Expectations 3) New norms of behavior 4) New…

I'm not sure what explanation you're proposing here. Wouldn't this just as well describe most mass media of the past ~50 years?

No, because mass media was carefully curating its images to children (eg Sesame Street, Mr Rogers, Fox Kids, Animaniacs, Batman, PG-13 etc) and its profit motive wasn’t aligned with an algorithm that is designed to get people addicted to social media. Social media totally changed the expectations for teens… just like selling in a flea market vs selling on Amazon, you’re now competing against the whole world.

Actually, there was a profit motive in children’s programming, it was for merchandise, and also had predictable results as capitalism always has:

https://www.pbs.org/video/frontline-merchants-cool/

https://www.history.com/news/action-figures-g-i-joe-star-war...

Many of the children’s shows (ahem, YuGiOh, Pokemon) were explicitly around selling shit to them, but at least it was external and not about their body image and social goals and expectations.

Actually, the best analogy I can give, in terms of destructive power, to the TikTok/Instagram effect on teen girls, was the Gangsta Rap effect on teen boys (typically Black boys because that is who was selected by the music industry to be promoted). And with the same industry always claiming there is “no effect”, while an entire generation started cussin’ and acting much more violently than their parents.

Sure, there are of course other socioeconomic factors, such as the rise of single-parent households typically without a father in the home, or both parents working long hours and neglecting the kids. That cannot be dismissed either. But that is also a result of corporations and their profit motive, selling a collective dream to adults (not children) that climbing the corporate ladder leads to better self-actualization. I was there when Sheryl Sandberg revealed her book “Lean In”, for instance, I saw firsthand the narratives that corporate america inclucates in families.

Whether it’s social media, the music industry, or corporations, they exert a huge pressure on our society and psyche. Sometimes it’s very overt:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xNzXze5Yza8

But most of the time it is simply pervasive, like “the American dream” etc.

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#22

Post by cies »

megaman821 wrote: post #7

How do people fairly evaluate the science behind social media? It seems like a topic that thoroughly infected by personal bias. It reminds me of arguments about violent video games and the rise of school violence; two events that are definitely correlated but have no direct evidence linking them to each other.

Look an "natural control groups". Violent games where also played in JP, but only in the US kids started bringing guns to school. Seems to me like a case closed.

With social media usage we see also a strong rise in asian societies wrt mental health problems especially in girls. Good to investigate further.

Also, the NRA tried to put the blame on anything except for prevalence of guns: there's money behind that narrative.

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#23

Post by [deleted] »

naasking wrote: post #14
EGreg wrote: post #4

Something about this doesn’t seem right Norway also has Seasonal Affective Disorder. But in the USA, all of a sudden with the rise of social media we get such huge statistics: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/us-teen-girls-considered-a... Moreover, it isn’t necessarily the AMOUNT of social media one consumes that makes one depressed. It is other factors: 1) Body image 2) Expectations 3) New norms of behavior 4) New…

They discuss all of these in Section 4.

[deleted]

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#24

Post by jeroenhd »

Simulacra wrote: post #3

Study of children in a single town. Everything in here runs completely contradictory to the body of science from the past decade.

I can't find any study looking for a direct link between social media use in children and depression. Most articles I can find can only find correlations, but there's no indicator of if depressed kids start to use social media more or if kids using social media become depressed.

I have found articles linking social media to worse sleep quality (and sleep quality and depression are well known to influence each other) but still no direct link.

Do you happen to know what papers prove the link between depression and social media use in children? The theory makes sense but I can't find studies that prove more than mete correlation.

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#25

Post by posix86 »

saiya-jin wrote: post #13

Yeah not buying this bullshit and half-assed study at best, you just need to look around you how negatively these things and smart phones in general affect kids when they are introduced to them too early, unsupervised, in typical leave-me-alone-for-some-time failed parenting manner. I am not claiming it outright immediately causes depression (it probably does in same vein girls' magazines set unhealthy standards on l…

> Yeah not buying this bullshit and half-assed study at best, you just need to look around you

However half-assed this study is, it's less half-assed than making any conclusion based on your anecdotal evidence. You saw 10 children, you say? Do you think that's statistically relevant?

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#26

Post by jmathai »

darthrupert wrote: post #16

I’m sorry but this is absolute fucking bullshit. Almost everybody with preteen or teenage children can perceive this, unless they had the wisdom to protect them from it.

Seems like an area where most people with a vested interest have access to ample data…and it doesn’t seem like a degree in psychology or statistics is necessary to draw conclusions - it is so obvious. Rarely will you find a parent who says - smart phones are great for pre teens. The challenge is how you manage access to them in modern society.

The research is useful to influence policy…but not really sure what else.

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#27

Post by jeroenhd »

dchung333 wrote: post #17
jeroenhd wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's unmistakable that mental health is declining across the board, but definitive proof of causation is still lacking. Social media has been omnipresent for years, it's not a new phenomenon anymore, and the continuing toll on mental health doesn't really coincide with just the introduction of social media anymore. It would be easy if we could just blame Instagram for everything, but there are much worse fact…

These issues aren't really factors in most children's lives. Many of these issues are fairly recent though mental health has seen a steep decline with the introduction of social media. But there are also things that could coincide with this such as the increase of funding and awareness of mental health. Though, that's a hard argument to make for the deep rates of change that have been occurring which often, directly…

These issues are definitely plaguing parents, and that directly affects children.

Besides, the upper age groups are definitely aware of the news and the various crises adults are dealing with.

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#28

Post by dchung333 »

jeroenhd wrote: post #27
dchung333 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These issues aren't really factors in most children's lives. Many of these issues are fairly recent though mental health has seen a steep decline with the introduction of social media. But there are also things that could coincide with this such as the increase of funding and awareness of mental health. Though, that's a hard argument to make for the deep rates of change that have been occurring which often, directly…

These issues are definitely plaguing parents, and that directly affects children. Besides, the upper age groups are definitely aware of the news and the various crises adults are dealing with.

Again, no. These issues have been on going for decades now. It doesn't have anything to do with the recent pandemic.

Platforms like Instagram are also 13 years old. Many others have come and gone.

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#29

Post by Pannoniae »

posix86 wrote: post #25
saiya-jin wrote: post #13

Yeah not buying this bullshit and half-assed study at best, you just need to look around you how negatively these things and smart phones in general affect kids when they are introduced to them too early, unsupervised, in typical leave-me-alone-for-some-time failed parenting manner. I am not claiming it outright immediately causes depression (it probably does in same vein girls' magazines set unhealthy standards on l…

> Yeah not buying this bullshit and half-assed study at best, you just need to look around you However half-assed this study is, it's less half-assed than making any conclusion based on your anecdotal evidence. You saw 10 children, you say? Do you think that's statistically relevant?

> However half-assed this study is, it's less half-assed

Without commenting on specifics, studies aren't necessarily better than anecdotal evidence. We live in an age of reproductivity crisis - most studies can't be reliably replicated. It's almost trivial to cheat with statistics - so it's not true at all that a study is infallible and must be deferred to at all times.

Re: Social media does not cause depression in children

#30

Post by EGreg »

naasking wrote: post #14
EGreg wrote: post #4

Something about this doesn’t seem right Norway also has Seasonal Affective Disorder. But in the USA, all of a sudden with the rise of social media we get such huge statistics: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/us-teen-girls-considered-a... Moreover, it isn’t necessarily the AMOUNT of social media one consumes that makes one depressed. It is other factors: 1) Body image 2) Expectations 3) New norms of behavior 4) New…

They discuss all of these in Section 4.

“Our study finds that if Kari or Knut increasingly like and post on Instagram or Snapchat, they are no more likely to develop symptoms of anxiety and depression. But that doesn’t mean that they are not having negative experiences on social media, or feeling addicted or excluded. Some youths may be particularly vulnerable, and those are the individuals we need to identify,” Steinsbekk says.

This goes against their title. I am saying somewhat similar things but expanding far beyond a paragraph that uses “weasel words” to hedge all their conclusions.

Their study at best shows that the amount of consumption of social media past a certain point isn’t correlated to the negative outcomes.

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