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

afterbabel.com

351–360 of 1001 posts

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

#351

The author had it right in the first paragraph. In the 90s version of this hysteria, Congress passed a law that would have prevented access to education medical information, dirty curse words, and other filth from being published on the internet to protect the children. The federal government fought a case all the way to the Supreme Court to enforce it. If they had won that case, the internet would look very differen…

> Restricting the right to free speech does have negative consequences... from the development of critical thinking skills; development of technical skills; and limiting of educational information.

That's not true. Those things are limited in bubbles like the one of the rationalists as well, so free speech has nothing to do with why people don't develop these things. It's a matter of character; and obedience to a system that establishes the rules that evaluate social, academic and economic status.

The Supreme Court was capable of distinguishing between free speech and moron speech but the Party was too convincing.

Most of the parents of these kids don't have the required flow of information to handle their kids consumption. And more importantly, their stress levels are too damn high already. Which is also the result of the Party's long term strategy.

And if all the other parents say it's normal and the same for their kids, even those parents where it is not the case, which are those that know that's why their kids will be better off while everything collapses (vs making sure their kids are better off while nothing collapses), then there is no way but super-rationality to identify a problem and then there's the willpower to go against the accusations and the time required for researching strategies to deal with the problem while the rest of the world, and school, and one's own life keep working as they always did.

If there's bait, the untrained puppy bites. Unless the untrained puppy was trained to bite and puke it out afterwards to find hints at who put the bait right in the path of all those innocent puppies.

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

#352

The author had it right in the first paragraph. In the 90s version of this hysteria, Congress passed a law that would have prevented access to education medical information, dirty curse words, and other filth from being published on the internet to protect the children. The federal government fought a case all the way to the Supreme Court to enforce it. If they had won that case, the internet would look very differen…

> if you don't like these products and feel they are negative, then don't use them It's really not that simple. The products have become so widespread and influential that they change the very culture of our society for the worse. It doesn't matter whether you abstain from using Instagram or not, some of your friends will still be more or less subtly influenced by its existence in your social interactions. There's a…

Teenagers are so judgy about the color of the text message bubbles they receive, imagine how judgy they would be if one didn't participate at all in some digital platform most of them use.

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

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the point you're trying to make. I for one deleted all of those platforms and my life is definitely better (I'm way less distracted for once, but the list is longer). What do I care what others do?

> What do I care what others do? example from real life: My local musicians community decided to use only FB to communicate their gigs dates. I refuse to use FB. I no longer know when or where is the gig. I don't see my fellows anymore.

How hard is it to discuss this topic with other people that have access to fb when you meet them around the city ? Honest question. Sure, it require more involvement than opening the Facebook tap and getting everything instantly, but at the end of the day, isn't your goal to getting involved in the community ? This will require some energy.

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

#354
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My theory is that to meet a new person and have it be substantial, you basically need to spend a few hours, a few times per week, in the same space doing some arbitrarily interesting thing for a common reason, without being too eager but with a signaled sense of openness. I like this concept, and I feel like I've experienced this as well, but I'm having trouble picturing an example of what you're describing, practi…

I kinda met a gal in a class I was taking at a community center. Couldn't tell if she's into me or just nice; didn't push it. Maybe I'll see her in another class in the future, but I'm there to learn.

Why is this downvoted? It answers the GP. It seems reasonable to me. Taking classes at the community center sounds like a good way to meet people.

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

#355

The author had it right in the first paragraph. In the 90s version of this hysteria, Congress passed a law that would have prevented access to education medical information, dirty curse words, and other filth from being published on the internet to protect the children. The federal government fought a case all the way to the Supreme Court to enforce it. If they had won that case, the internet would look very differen…

Do you feel the same about legalizing guns, alcohol, cigarettes and heroin for children?

I don’t think this is a stupid comparison, as I believe these platforms can be very harmful to children.

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

#356
post #347

I still don't see any actual casual link. Nor do I see any evidence given that the situation would improve if social media was banned or restricted, the few he does give don't talk about mental illness, but rather general wellness and add in more variables like exercise. There were other problems like "fake" data or non-significant changes labeled as significant. I haven't even seen enough evidence to show correlatio…

> Other than the mass economic, educational and social harm none.

That argument is taken from thin air. There's nothing to substantiate it.

> Just because you as an old man view the younger generations social interactions

It's not about their social interactions, it's about the addictive properties of mobile phones in combination with social media.

> To me this seems like ...

And to me, you sound like an addict defending his addiction.

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

#357

I will attempt to at least inject some hope into this discussion. My formative years from ages 15-25 were spent in the 80's and 90's. It was the apex of the mall experience. We saw the mall as a place to get away from our parents, hang out with our buds, run into other classmates and feel some sense of freedom while running amok playing video games in the arcade and chowing down tacos in the food court. Then smartpho…

> Its like an entire generation has re-discovered the mall again and its refreshing to see... Sometimes I feel like I'm in a dream I am really really sorry to go off-topic here, but as an European this is... So strange and slightly hilarious to me. We went to a park. Or local river/lake.

Where in Europe?

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

#358

I will attempt to at least inject some hope into this discussion. My formative years from ages 15-25 were spent in the 80's and 90's. It was the apex of the mall experience. We saw the mall as a place to get away from our parents, hang out with our buds, run into other classmates and feel some sense of freedom while running amok playing video games in the arcade and chowing down tacos in the food court. Then smartpho…

Interesting point you bring up. With e-commerce, I am surprised that malls can work at all. There is a brand new, massive and beautifully designed mall in The Netherlands called Westfield Mall of the Netherlands. I went there once to quickly grab something and I got hopelessly lost, even while my phone navigation actually was able to display and navigate the layout of the mall, due to the sheer size I underestimated…

I had to Google about that mall. There is a separate Wiki page!

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

    > Total retail floor area 117,000 m2 (1,260,000 sq ft)
    > Parking 4,000
That retail floor area is enormous!

And, LOL: If this was US, parking would be 10x!

FYI: Westfield is a huge global mall developer. Before 9/11, they ran the mall under NYC World Trade Center. It was one of the highest grossing retail spaces in the world. They must have done a lot of market analysis before they built that mall in the Netherlands.

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

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the point you're trying to make. I for one deleted all of those platforms and my life is definitely better (I'm way less distracted for once, but the list is longer). What do I care what others do?

> What do I care what others do? example from real life: My local musicians community decided to use only FB to communicate their gigs dates. I refuse to use FB. I no longer know when or where is the gig. I don't see my fellows anymore.

Maybe text or call a couple friends in the community once a week?

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

#360
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the country's role or more specifically, the role of education to equip citizens with skills that will help them navigate virtual, deceiving and fake internet space.

No, it's not. Where does it say so?

You are focusing too much on formalities. It doesn't say so specifically, but a collateral of education, or maybe it's equally important as knowledge itself, is the ability of critical thinking.
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