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

Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

theguardian.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 108 posts

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#51

Post by rchaud »

maven29 wrote: post #36

It would be more productive to stop prodding at the symptoms and instead consider looking into potential root causes like car dependency and commercialization or erosion of third places. Kids aren't just staring at a glowing rectangle due to some unexplainable pharmacological effect it may possess, they just crave human connection and sense of belonging just like everyone else. Using medical terms to dehumanize them…

The root cause is that social media apps are designed to be addictive whereas other software is not. This was encouraged by all the SV cheerleaders (remember Nir Eyal's "Hooked" being a must-read for all product bros?), before it was clear that Facebook and others conduct significant levels of experimentation to extend screen use time.

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#52

Post by tenebrisalietum »

reedf1 wrote: post #48
tenebrisalietum wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overdramatic. Social media may be bad but it is not like heroin or ecstasy. Engaging in moral panics, on the other hand, seems to provide a high to some individuals just like heroin or ecstasy. Let's regulate them instead.

Are there no valid moral panics? Are you a moral anti-realist?

Panic is uncontrolled activity done in response to a threat. If any productive action happens in a panic, it is by chance. Chance, therefore, moral panic is a poor way to actually solve a problem or improve ones life. Opportunistic entites may utilize moral panic toward political goals in the same way as boogeymen or scapegoats. One might think this validates moral panic, but I don't see it as translating to obeying the will of the people (or equivalent constituency) because things done out of panic are not a sign of consent.

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#53

Post by tenebrisalietum »

ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #37
tenebrisalietum wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Overdramatic. Social media may be bad but it is not like heroin or ecstasy. Engaging in moral panics, on the other hand, seems to provide a high to some individuals just like heroin or ecstasy. Let's regulate them instead.

There's already evidence of the harm caused to teenagers' self esteem due to endless comparisons with peers over social media. This leads to many types of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders etc. Considering that we're exposing almost the entire teenage population to these harmful effects, it's hardly overdramatic.

Heroin physically alters brain chemistry. It's worse.

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#54

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #53
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's already evidence of the harm caused to teenagers' self esteem due to endless comparisons with peers over social media. This leads to many types of mental illness such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders etc. Considering that we're exposing almost the entire teenage population to these harmful effects, it's hardly overdramatic.

Heroin physically alters brain chemistry. It's worse.

Mental illnesses also physically alter brain chemistry and anorexia is arguably far more damaging than heroin. Someone can remain addicted to heroin/opiates for decades whilst still being part of society (it tends to be either impurities or inconsistent quality of heroin that causes deaths). It's unlikely that someone will continue suffering from anorexia for a decade.

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#55

Post by reedf1 »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #52
reedf1 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there no valid moral panics? Are you a moral anti-realist?

Panic is uncontrolled activity done in response to a threat. If any productive action happens in a panic, it is by chance. Chance, therefore, moral panic is a poor way to actually solve a problem or improve ones life. Opportunistic entites may utilize moral panic toward political goals in the same way as boogeymen or scapegoats. One might think this validates moral panic, but I don't see it as translating to obeying…

You are being selectively pedantic; a hallmark of bad faith engagement.

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#56

Post by vidarh »

amenhotep wrote: post #50
i_am_jl wrote: post #11

>‘We’re not saying the people who say they feel addicted are addicted,’ said Georgia Turner, a graduate student leading the analysis Is it common to question the validity of self-identified addictions to other substances or behaviors? Is it common for people who aren't gambling addicts to say things like "I feel like I'm addicted to gambling"? I suppose that the lead on the study doesn't want to overstate their findi…

Social media addiction is a meme (in the technical, mind virus sense), gambling addiction isn't. I don't know if this is what the study authors were thinking, but I see it as a bit like not taking people's word for it that they're gluten intolerant. It is a real thing and people do know that they have it, but also it's a trendy thing and there are a lot of people trying to convince you that you have it when actually…

I don't think there'd be a problem taking their word for it if the questions asked were the right ones.

Asking people if they feel like they're addicted to social media without framing exactly what you mean by addicted (and for that matter what you include in social media) might both overcount and undercount.

Have everyone who answered answered on the basis that they see this "addiction" as a problem, or a negative, and something they genuinely find hard to stop (as opposed to not really wanting to do anything about)? On the opposite end, are the ones who disagree counting forums like Reddit, or HN? Discord servers? Are they talking mostly about one one-on-one contact with friends on, say, Snapchat, that they're "addicted to" because it's social contact they enjoy, or depression-boosting, compulsive voyeueristic doom scrolling that they're addicted to in a downright harmful way?

It's a start, and little more, to ask that first question that pretty much only tells us that there is something of sufficient magnitude to probe further. To start with, the respondents appear to not have said whether or not their "addiction" is something that causes negative effects on their life or not.

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#57

Post by Der_Einzige »

maven29 wrote: post #36

It would be more productive to stop prodding at the symptoms and instead consider looking into potential root causes like car dependency and commercialization or erosion of third places. Kids aren't just staring at a glowing rectangle due to some unexplainable pharmacological effect it may possess, they just crave human connection and sense of belonging just like everyone else. Using medical terms to dehumanize them…

Places with far weaker car culture and world class mass transit and which have stronger "third places" culture are still phone and social media addicted. See Singapore, Japan, or South Korea as an example of this.

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#58

Post by andy_ppp »

SirMaster wrote: post #38
andy_ppp wrote: post #6

Can we switch social media off for 8 hours per day, 9-5pm maybe. I think it would make everyone happier and I bet nobody would miss it.

Plenty of people use it responsibly. Why should they be punished just because some people can't seem to control their behavior?

That’s good because a quick poll where I am everyone says they would like to reduce social media usage!

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#59

Post by KineticLensman »

jclardy wrote: post #29
flfdslkfdsla wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is troubling just how many intelligent, educated parents I see are perfectly happy to give children and babies a tablet or phone to placate them. On the other hand, have you thought about the difficulties of handling this as a principled parent? You can either turn your child into a social pariah during key developmental years, or spend hours of your and their lives trying to regulate a device that is designed to…

I think the problem likely goes deeper - most of the parents are likely smartphone addicted already, so they see no issue with it. Or they may see the issue with their child's usage of a phone, but they justify their own constant need for using a phone with it being "for work" or what have you and the child is just following in their example as they constantly see them pulling out their phone. I'm not a parent yet, a…

I recently saw my niece with her six month old child. Obviously the baby doesn't have a phone yet, but they seemed fascinated by their mum's obvious interest in her phone.

Re: Almost half of British teens feel addicted to social media – study

#60

Post by [deleted] »

tenebrisalietum wrote: post #28
reedf1 wrote: post #7

When did we lose the moral authority to make things illegal for minors? I believe in 50-100 years it will be a worldwide scandal that these skinner boxes were ever given to children let alone adults. AI optimised attention slideshow that likely drains you neurochemically and disrupts your reward circuitry the same way heroin or ecstasy does? On paper this shit should clearly be regulated.

Overdramatic. Social media may be bad but it is not like heroin or ecstasy. Engaging in moral panics, on the other hand, seems to provide a high to some individuals just like heroin or ecstasy. Let's regulate them instead.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN