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

theguardian.com

101–108 of 108 posts

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

#101
post #81

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.

With moral panics, the kids would never agree that video games or D&D or whatever was causing them any problems, yet with social media use most kids will agree it’s a problem, so can’t be characterised as a moral panic.

Furthermore, most people panicking about dnd and raves have exactly zero experience with either. Almost everyone has experience with social media and a lot of the criticism of it comes from things people directly observe from their own personal experiences. It’s not like this is a completely uninformed mass hallucination like the satanic panic of the 90s.

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

#102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A nail is driven out by another nail, habit is overcome by habit - Erasmus

I made a browser based strategy game that takes place over weeks. Instead of checking Facebook 3 times a day, I log into Neptune's Pride 3 times a day to chat with the other players and try and conquer the galaxy.

hah, thanks for the game. It was definitely an interesting and fun experience.

Unfortunately I've to stop because my obssesive side took over. I practically check the game every hour. I cant sleep because my mind wont stop worrying about chat/trade offers, sudden attack and which planet/tech I need to focus on.

It always popped out in my mind once in a while though. I might try it again to see if I've better control of myself.

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

#103
The first region to somehow effectively ban any access to Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and social media for people under the age of 21 will raise the first generation of young people to rule over the rest of the world's social media addicted hoi polloi.

Having a permanent public visual record of "growing up" isn't going to help people as much as their parents seem to think it will and the only viable leaders, politicians, Justices, etc. will come from this hypothetical region.

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

#104
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.

I just don't want legislation telling competent people what to do here. I want the legislation to be more analogous to child protective services.

I feel that a guardian should have a choice up until they are negligent or inhibiting (however a society deems it - specifically left as this definition).

If said guardian is able to raise a kid in a healthy environment, with a healthy relationship to technology, then I do not want to step on their toes.

I think we need to 'reverse Chesterton's fence'(?) our liberty here, let's not lose our freedom and build a restrictive fence or Berlin wall. I know many people disagree with me, but the fact that there isn't consensus here means we should tread carefully lest break some cotton mills.

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

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A nail is driven out by another nail, habit is overcome by habit - Erasmus

I made a browser based strategy game that takes place over weeks. Instead of checking Facebook 3 times a day, I log into Neptune's Pride 3 times a day to chat with the other players and try and conquer the galaxy.

Woah! I love Neptune’s Pride, thanks for the game!

While in college, I stayed at a hacker house airbnb over the summer with a bunch of newly befriended tech friends, and I got us all playing. I have fond memories of changing the trajectories of my ships as soon as people went to bed, double-crossing alliances. Good times.

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

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A conclusion that could be drawn from your statements is this: it's more okay for teenagers to use heroin instead of social media because it's safer. I think people and especially teenagers, even "chronically-online" depressed ones on social media, would laugh at this. They're wrong to do so, of course.

Comparative safety can be a surprising subject though. In general, heroin is a lot safer than alcohol, but most people wouldn't think so.

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

#107

The first region to somehow effectively ban any access to Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and social media for people under the age of 21 will raise the first generation of young people to rule over the rest of the world's social media addicted hoi polloi. Having a permanent public visual record of "growing up" isn't going to help people as much as their parents seem to think it will and the only viable leaders, politici…

Or they'll find a massive brain drain, unless you find some non-authoritarian way to leave. China probably has a lot of netizens that want to experience the rest of the Internet, or game more than two hours a night, but they won't be able to escape without the CCP threatening their families.

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

#108
post #65

Anyone heard any compelling conjectures on what the backlash for all of these studies will look like? My own are fairly milquetoast. I just hope they do better than we did with cigarettes, and the boomers did with nature.

a poor take. cigarette consumption is way, wayyyyyyy down, and is effectively gone in the first world outside of small pockets. compare to the 1950s where everyone smoked, all the time. or think about asbestos, or lead. we figured out those are bad and made drastic changes to start removing those -- and did. nature is a little harder, esp. given that the largest corps in the world + plenty of soverign wealth funds, a…

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