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

The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

afterbabel.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 937 posts

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#111

Post by corethree »

AnarchismIsCool wrote: post #95

I think all the social media stuff is missing the mark. It's 100% bad but it's just trash filling the hole society is making. Looking top down at the problem, humans need self actualization or propose to be happy. Originally we evolved to live in medium sized social groups that worked together to ensure their survival, we took care of each other and that was what drove our purpose, or rather why that need evolved, it…

I think you're right. But society has been this way from way Before the mental illness epidemic. Evidence points to the fact that the structure of society is not causative of a new trend we are seeing.

That being said I do think you're right. It's just that there's two underlying trends here of "mental illness". The one your addressing has been longer term and more pervasive while the recent trend is, as stated, a new trend and seemingly caused by social media.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#112

Post by somenameforme »

romwell wrote: post #71

There's that, there's also a better understanding of mental illness, so less if it goes unrecognized, undiagnosed, and unrated. Growing up, I was an intelligent kid (if a bit shy) who just needed to be more organized . Today, I'm an AuDHD[1] adult who just needs to have others to have different expectations in some cases, and just benefits from having access to Adderall for some of the others. In college, I was just…

By most of every possible measure, the world was far more messed up in the past. You speak of things like nuclear war causing anxiety, yet 70 years ago kids would regularly have nuclear attack drills (akin to our fire drills) while watching videos about how to respond to nuclear attacks, and people building nuclear shelters may have been eccentric, but nothing beyond that. Go further back and we get WW2, WW1, Great Depression, Civil War, and so on endlessly. These are all events that make any of our big-event concerns today look trivial.

Basically, I don't think you can attribute the skyrocketing rate of various forms of mental illness to better diagnoses. And if big-event stressors (as opposed to things like internet) were the main cause, we should be having far better outcomes than in the past.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#113

Post by afterburner »

samr71 wrote: post #12
usr1106 wrote: post #8

Few deny that a drinking age is necessary. We also need a smart phone age. It's quite obvious that many teens are addicted to their phones and the mostly useless content they consume there.

I deny a drinking age is necessary. From what it sounds like, the kids should be out there drinking more!

Do you associate doing fun stuff with drinking?

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#114

Post by irrational »

alienicecream wrote: post #102
303uru wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So quick to blame social media, even the article just waves it's hand and makes the assumption. Why not declining social mobility? Why not climate change anxiety? Why not late stage capitalism? Nah, it's always easy to blame Tik Tok as if the chosen release isn't indicative of something much greater going on.

Yeah that's what the kids are thinking about, late-stage capitalism and declining social mobility.

I’m in my 50s and I’m not even thinking about those things.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#116

Post by mnsc »

ta8645 wrote: post #50
elzbardico wrote: post #39

People blame social media, but they never ask why social media is like that. I think that the cultural changes that lead to that have been running for far more time than people give credit for, and that social media is just the proverbial canary on the mine that made things explicit. Those changes are multi-generational changes, and more probably there are a multitude of factors behind it. Family structure, economy f…

[flagged]

Hello from socialist Sweden. For generations we have looked to the government to solve a lot of our problems. Can't remember any mental illness epidemic when I was a teen though.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#117

Post by sublinear »

corethree wrote: post #111
AnarchismIsCool wrote: post #95

I think all the social media stuff is missing the mark. It's 100% bad but it's just trash filling the hole society is making. Looking top down at the problem, humans need self actualization or propose to be happy. Originally we evolved to live in medium sized social groups that worked together to ensure their survival, we took care of each other and that was what drove our purpose, or rather why that need evolved, it…

I think you're right. But society has been this way from way Before the mental illness epidemic. Evidence points to the fact that the structure of society is not causative of a new trend we are seeing. That being said I do think you're right. It's just that there's two underlying trends here of "mental illness". The one your addressing has been longer term and more pervasive while the recent trend is, as stated, a ne…

> society has been this way from way Before the mental illness epidemic.

Definitely agree.

> Evidence points to the fact that the structure of society is not causative of a new trend we are seeing.

Trends can't exist without metrics. What's recent are the observations of the behaviors and new politics and moved goalposts, not the behaviors themselves.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#118

Post by deadbabe »

I think it sucks to be a kid today. You learn too much too fast now, there’s no magic or wonder to life, no theorizing about how things work or asking someone, just google it or watch a TikTok. And sometimes what you learn is just plain wrong, but you may never truly know it.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#119

Post by nihonthrowaway »

mnsc wrote: post #116
ta8645 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Hello from socialist Sweden. For generations we have looked to the government to solve a lot of our problems. Can't remember any mental illness epidemic when I was a teen though.

Malmo has some now

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#120

Post by j4yav »

elzbardico wrote: post #39

People blame social media, but they never ask why social media is like that. I think that the cultural changes that lead to that have been running for far more time than people give credit for, and that social media is just the proverbial canary on the mine that made things explicit. Those changes are multi-generational changes, and more probably there are a multitude of factors behind it. Family structure, economy f…

Social media is like that because a dopamine slot machine is about the best way to get people wired up ton stare at their phones all day, which it turns out is profitable for the people making the slot machine.
Post reply on HN