Is social media behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?

While indeed, social media and specifically content algorithms (both in the present where they decide which content people see, and in the future where they may indeed create it entirely) are certainly worthy of scrutiny with regard to many mental illnesses, and the ongoing exploitation of the attention of young people especially by figures such as Andrew Tate are doing demonstrable, objective harm to tons and tons of young kids, and the entire notion that simply by virtue of making an account a child can, by default, access the entire breadth of content available on any of these sites, for zero money, with zero notification of their parents, etc., is certainly one that IMO doesn't get nearly enough time in popular discussions as to how we've simply shotgunned all of this into the faces of kids for decades now, with precious little data about what it does to them and it's only accelerating...

THEN, when that conversation happens, it's to explain of all fucking things, anxiety and depression. Not body image issues, not rampant misogyny in young boys, not the growing slice of the crowd that "fails to launch" and remain stuck with mom and dad long after it's traditional to do so, no, none of those things, just anxiety. Anxiety which is a perfectly normal and understandable thing, IMO, to experience in a period of history that's got, in a non-exhaustive list:

- A biosphere on the brink of collapse, and no one in power taking it seriously

- War in Europe involving multiple international powers and one of the larger nations on the planet, which seems like it could incredibly easily boil over into World War III

- Multiple ongoing ethnic cleansings and/or genocides

- The rise of authoritarian fascist movements in several countries

- The rise of unchangeable super-corporations that run more of our lives than ever with zero oversight

Like, as an adult, who has SEEN some shit, I have to meter my intake of world news to avoid entering a depressive state in which I cannot function. I have already had a vasectomy because this world is not one I want to bring children into, and my wife got her tubes tied, because there is a non-trivial chance that she won't have the ability in a few years to do so and feels similarly. And it's all well and good to say "well the 24 hour news cycle is probably behind that," maybe? But maybe if said news cycle ever had anything but the worst shit you've ever heard of to report, maybe that would be less of a contributing factor?

I dunno, this just sucks. This incurious response by the dominant media of "well it can't be that the world we're leaving them is fucking awful, it's gotta be those pesky iPhones" is so dismissive and shitty.

Suicide and emergency room visits for suicide attempts among teenagers are also up, and also on exactly the same post-2010ish timeline.