I find it fascinating how--according to these comments--easy it is to identify a single culprit, the all-mighty smartphone. Seems like gaslighting. Don't get me wrong, Always-Online is likely a contributing factor, but I highly doubt it is the root cause. I cant help but think of Smith: "it is purpose that defines, purpose that binds us", that purpose is something that we--in our modern society--lack more day by day. In essence, nobody needs nobody else anymore, because frankly, we dont need each other for survival anymore. Individualism is advanced enough to have destroyed most need for sticking together. And in a sense, that isn't only a bad thing. I remember "communities" I was forced into which I am very happy to have left behind. All humans are not nice to be around.
The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
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Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#292The increase in depression numbers might be a rational reaction to the current environment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Never_to_Have_Been
Depression is not a rational response though, is it? It's an irrational response that persists even when there is no reason to be unhappy. That's why I give little credence to ideas like those in your link. I don't consider the worldview of depressed people to be valuable to my own life experience.
Sure it is. "Depression" might just be our perception of the biological phenomenon where an individual decides to spare the group's resources and thereby increasing the chances of the group. First by becoming tired (saving resources, biding time), cutting off contacts, and finally disappearing if nothing changes in the environment.
Self-sacrifice occurs in animals too. From what I've seen, it isn't controversial.
Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are quick to blame social media because there are exceedingly plausible mechanisms by which social media could cause such a phenomenon, and there is tremendous profit in doing so and not just of the money variety. State level actors run secret influence campaigns on facebook, and more recently, just create and control whole social media platforms without oversight. The time for skepticism about the scale of th…
What about the public influence campaigns that are ran openly on television? How well have we managed to quantify the effect that has on the public? They also take place without any oversight.
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Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#294If you want to posit an explanation for this phenomenon, you have to be able to explain two things: what changed abruptly in the early/mid 2010s?, and why did it uniquely affect teen girls? Many of the reactions I've seen over the years to these authors' work focuses on some particular frustrations or complaints about American society, the economy, our culture, and so on. The problem with these theories is that none…
Social media created a perpetual church gossip culture where every action and statement is endlessly evaluated by the peanut gallery, while also creating a land rush for finding new moral angles to exploit for social status. Naturally, this catty culture will affect females more and teen girls in particular.
Why specifically social media? It's a function of communication efficiency. It's why church is associated with this sort of cattiness, everyone knows everyone and is brought together regularly to provide a venue to trade gossip. It also supplies the moral standard by which everyone is evaluated and one's social status is tied to how well one appears to meet this standard. The cattiness is just status games playing out given these constraints.
Why 2010? It's when the "always online" culture went from niche nerd to ubiquitous.
Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m amazed that I had to read so many comments complaining about social media before I hit this one. How have so few failed to consider the idea that young people might be correctly anxious and worried about the future which looks, in many ways, pretty grim.
How did the future looked like for a kid living through 1929’s crisis? A world in between wars. Or living through the Cold War and the possibility of a nuclear extinction of humans? Despair and hope have always been cyclical and yet we always think we’re “doomed” when living through hard times.
The doomsday clock is closer to midnight than it’s ever been https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/ and now we avoid another 1929 by inflating away the gains of the middle class and siphoning value off to the 1%
Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#296Few 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.
Adults don't seem to know any better. It's going to take more than age restrictions to halt -- let alone reverse -- the damage.
Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
More likely the libertine social movements of the sixties leading to a breakdown of social standards and family life.
While it may be taboo to say so, I believe this is a strong factor. Most changes in life have tradeoffs, winners and losers. Divorce may be great for the general happiness of the adults involved, but despite all boomer rationalizations in the line "I can raise happy kids if I am not absolutely happy", it generally sucks for kids.
> While it may be taboo to say so
What does that even mean?
You just said it, and it's also been said by countless people ever since the aforementioned 60s.
It's not taboo, it's trite.
Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#298The answer you're looking for is that woke culture arrived. Your God is not dead, you've just abandoned him (again). Social media is obviously a catalyst for patterns of communicated harm that have always been around. The communists have been unraveling the nucleus of family and faith, to be replaced with isolated rage and hate, with government to provide 'proxy support', whereas once was family. We've been divided i…
This is satire right?
partly ;) I do seriously wonder if our brains are just overloaded, the rest was various conspiracies I come across (what gave it away, the communists?)
Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#299I first blame firstly parenting. People give their child an iPad and walk away.
I second blame introductions to education as a toddler. When you are a toddler and inspired to learn you grow and don't stop.
I third blame the use of social and personal ideals over community and connectivity.
I fourth blame the lack of independence given to a child to make mistakes and learn.
I fifth blame the lack of analogue input in a child's life. Interacting with physical objects can not be replaced with pads a person swipes on.
I sixth blame short form media. It is addicting way to consume information. It is also unfortunately a very unproductive way to consume information.
I seventh blame the lack of censorship information has on the web to dictate whether or not something provided is informative or brain mush. Like the difference between Smarter Every Day vs some stuff Logan Paul posts. I am not opposed to free speech but it is obvious that giving youth the ability to listen to factually incorrect people is bad.
I eighth blame social media it isn't as bad as the rest. It used be terrible, however parental controls in place very safe.
Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)
#300I first blame firstly parenting. People give their child an iPad and walk away. I second blame introductions to education as a toddler. When you are a toddler and inspired to learn you grow and don't stop. I third blame the use of social and personal ideals over community and connectivity. I fourth blame the lack of independence given to a child to make mistakes and learn. I fifth blame the lack of analogue input in…
> I first blame firstly parenting. People give their child an iPad and walk away.
were parents any better 50 years ago? There were no ipads but fathers were much less involved in child rearing. Also - beating up kids was routine.
> I second blame introductions to education as a toddler. When you are a toddler and inspired to learn you grow and don't stop.
Again , what changed since 2008? Why is this worse now?