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Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

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Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#31

Post by yieldcrv »

pfisch wrote: post #18
atleastoptimal wrote: post #7

The solution is unironically just to do what China does. Create restrictions on how long kids can use the web and what they can use. It won't be perfect but it will be the biggest influence towards better habits and cultural norms.

I think this is too far, but you should have to be 18 to post on social media, except chat rooms like discord. Frankly, social media should maybe be highly regulated like prescription drugs. A lot of people can't handle social media and it is tearing democracy apart.

we could regulate feedback loops, "the algorithm"

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#32

Post by AlexandrB »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #15
atleastoptimal wrote: post #7

The solution is unironically just to do what China does. Create restrictions on how long kids can use the web and what they can use. It won't be perfect but it will be the biggest influence towards better habits and cultural norms.

Jonathan Haidt, the author of this article, was on Real Time w Bill Maher recently, and has some simple recommendations with respect to phones and social media: 1. No smartphones for kids before high school — give them only flip phones in middle school. 2. No social media before age 16. 3. Make schools phone-free, by putting devices in phone lockers or Yondr pouches. 4. Give kids far more free play and independence,…

I don't get how phones became acceptable in schools. Imagine bringing a GameBoy into class in the 90s. It'd be taken away instantly.

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#33

Post by ianstormtaylor »

hot_gril wrote: post #27
ianstormtaylor wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never heard puberty described as making kids “a lot less social”, so not sure where you’re getting that from. A source would help your argument.

There's no source I'd believe on this. Kids don't become shy when they turn 13.

I’d tend to agree with you, it doesn’t track to anything I’ve heard either.

As someone who happened to hit that inflection point at the summer after high school I consider my cohort extremely lucky.

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#34

Post by maxcoder4 »

cyanydeez wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Just like in 1939, ...wait. Maybe blaming social media for fascism is a step too far.

But I'm interested to hear what you have to say about that. Why did social media enable fascism now, and why did fascism exist before it?

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#35

Post by maxcoder4 »

satellite2 wrote: post #23
cyanydeez wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is basically a mental illness.

Exactly, I just saw a post today about someone's grandpa barricading himself in his house and fearing the eclipse would kill him. On the comments section everyone was insulting him, treating him like an idiot. I couldn't help but feeling this was not a result of poor media choice as everyone was suggesting but an underlying medical illness. I really hope mental illnesses would be better treated and that people in ver…

Also, in general, people are quick to insult others online. Somehow it's easier to degrade someone online than I'm person, and there's less incentive to look for the common ground.

That also can't be healthy.

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#36

Post by yieldcrv »

throwitaway222 wrote: post #2

It is also not just teenagers. Its effects are extremely broad.

I agree, I think the vast majority of us are affected, we just don't have anyone watching.

for example, I had found the antsiness I was reading amongst children in classrooms about to be ridiculous. younger people having fidget spinners to pay attention.

then I took a class at community college, I've been out of school for a long time, and I experienced the same thing the first couple of sessions. then I realized that not only was I having the same traits, my ability to adapt was probably due to knowing it was not normal.

in another anecdote, when I go see even older people, baby boomers, their phone etiquette and attentiveness is waaay off. like, the more disconnected someone is, the more these new things adversely affect them.

I see this as akin to the opium dens. Popular at one point, and a smaller privileged group of people creating a social circle that opted out. We'll probably look back at this dopamine addiction pretty badly.

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#37

Post by andrepd »

api wrote: post #14
hot_gril wrote: post #5

It's electronics in general. I was in 7th grade at the inflection point, when the iPhone 3G first widely popularized having a pocket computer. Facebook went mainstream around the same time. Suddenly kids became a lot less social, and that never flipped back.

Hard disagree. It’s algorithmic “engagement maximizing” systems, specifically. (Engagement is code for addiction.) If those pocket PCs had useful and creative apps only and maybe some non-addiction-optimized games they’d be fine. The problem is the apps, not the hardware. With kids the absolute worst seem to be YouTube, TikTok, and Roblox. All three are banned in our house. The kids have their own devices (with monit…

YouTube has a treasure trove of creative, stimulating, enlightening, entertaining, and didactic content. There is more interesting stuff there than you could watch in many lifetimes: science from Veritasium to lectures from Stanford on every topic imaginable, thousands of hours of high-quality content on every topic from WW2 to the most niche retro computer you can thing of, the best orchestras in the world playing at your demand — all at your fingertips.

Unfortunately, it has 1000x more utter filthy trash.

Seriously, I dare you: open the default YouTube homepage on incognito. It's terrifying. The dystopia is already here.

---

My advice for parents: curate a few channels or playlists yourself, manually, but UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES give them unsupervised unfiltered access to YouTube. So-called "YouTube Kids" included. Those turbo-consumerist hellscape videos make my stomach churn.

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#38

Post by cedws »

verall wrote: post #28
cedws wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why 16 specifically? Apparently the brain doesn't stop developing until much later, around 25.

The brain never stops developing, why 25? Where does everyone get this darn 25 is when you're grown number from?

The commonly cited number refers to when the brain structures stop/slow development, not the halting of skills or knowledge growth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_brain_development_timeli...

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#39

Post by ryandrake »

If parents really want to set a good example, they ought to also quit their smartphones and Social Media--or at least hide it better. Kids are really good at identifying hypocrisy. When they see their parents glued to their phones and scrolling Instagram all day, after being told "Oh, don't do that, it's not good for you" they know their parents are full of shit.

And, the trouble is: Most of these adults are addicted to their smartphones and social media, too. Everyone is. I go to birthday parties with my kid, and sporting events, indoors and outdoors, and other kid activities, and the kids are for the most part jumping around having a ball, while the adults are huddled up by themselves, bathed in smartphone light, scrolling through their feeds getting their fix. Don't think this doesn't leave an impression on kids--it does.

Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness

#40

Post by asciimov »

AlexandrB wrote: post #32
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jonathan Haidt, the author of this article, was on Real Time w Bill Maher recently, and has some simple recommendations with respect to phones and social media: 1. No smartphones for kids before high school — give them only flip phones in middle school. 2. No social media before age 16. 3. Make schools phone-free, by putting devices in phone lockers or Yondr pouches. 4. Give kids far more free play and independence,…

I don't get how phones became acceptable in schools. Imagine bringing a GameBoy into class in the 90s. It'd be taken away instantly.

Helicopter parents and PTA Karens that just have to be able to connect to their kids at all hours.

But also, 80s/90s stranger danger and all the school shootings.

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