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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

#391

Post by coldtea »

firecall wrote: post #371
anhner wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not around these parts! They all use Discord and/or Snapchat here in Australia. No one I've every asked about this cares about Android vs iPhone. No one. No one apart from the Parents uses the built in messaging and SMS. But then the Parent groups all use Facebook Messenger for most group comms. The whole green / blue bubble thing is either over played by the Press or purley a US Phenomenon. But given the marketshare…

>No one I've every asked about this cares about Android vs iPhone. No one.

They wouldn't necessarily tell if they did though...

This is more like "I asked 100 men if they worry their D is small, and nobody said yes".

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

#392

Post by passwordoops »

rgbrenner wrote: post #145

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…

Sorry to seem glib, but by this same token we should be lift all restrictions we place on youth including smoking, drinking, etc.

There's a very clear causal relationship between IG and mental health that goes beyond a moral choice and ideals of free speech

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

#393

Post by nicolas_t »

WalterBright wrote: post #183
logicchains wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If the kid has an emergency, the teacher can call the parents. If the parents are having an emergency, the can call the school. What about if the kid's being bullied? Half the time the teacher will side with the bully, especially if the bully's a more popular kid.

Have cell phones ever stopped bullying?

I know it's rhetorical but just to answer. No, in general phones increase bullying. Before phone and social media, bullied children would finish the school day and leave the bullying behind them. Now, it follows them on their phones with countless mocking messages... Messages like "X should kill himself for being so ...." and so on.

It makes the psychological part of any bullying that much more relentless.

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

#394

Post by coldtea »

epolanski wrote: post #258
raziel2p wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

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?

If you don't live in a society but in some remote wilderness and hunt for your food, then you don't need to care what others do.

If you do live in a society, you do need to care, as "what others do" affects society in general, including you in the end. Affects how they behave, how they vote, what causes they support, their mental health, and tons of other things, all of which end up also affecting those who don't use those apps.

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

#395

Post by markus92 »

NeutralCrane wrote: post #161
tiznow wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't get phone-free schools in a post-Uvalde world.

Indiana literally just banned phones from schools state-wide this month.

Same with The Netherlands (not legally, but all schools have agreed to implement these rules).

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

#396

Post by [deleted] »

firecall wrote: post #371
anhner wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not around these parts! They all use Discord and/or Snapchat here in Australia. No one I've every asked about this cares about Android vs iPhone. No one. No one apart from the Parents uses the built in messaging and SMS. But then the Parent groups all use Facebook Messenger for most group comms. The whole green / blue bubble thing is either over played by the Press or purley a US Phenomenon. But given the marketshare…

[deleted]

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

#397

Post by thih9 »

About disproving correlation, the article cites:

> college students who were asked to reduce their social media use for three weeks generally experienced mental health benefits compared to the control group

But that's still correlation. Maybe it was the change, the extra attention, or some other factor that caused their mental health to improve? The linked study was short term and lasted three weeks - if they spent more time without social media then perhaps their mental health would get even worse than at the start?

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

#398

Post by worthless-trash »

apexalpha wrote: post #383
skilled wrote: post #337

I'm no saint when it comes to addiction and being on my phone for more than I should be, but I have a sister who is in her mid 20s right now, and for the last couple of years she has slowly isolated herself from life and her family, she spends most of her time in her room on the phone and does weird things like get cosmetic surgeries, ordering cosmetics, etc. It's bizarre. She does this and all the while never leaves…

>It's her life so I leave her alone, not my place to tell her what to do, and the emotional upheaval from her isn't worth it either. In my culture this is exactly what family should do. "Soft doctors make stinking wounds".

> and the emotional upheaval from her isn't worth it either.

If you loved your sister, you should do something, if direct confrontation isnt working, take another route.

> In my culture this is exactly what family should do.

I assume you mean "family should intervene here", because if you don't who would ?

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

#399

Post by hackerlight »

ergl wrote: post #279
maxcoder4 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

There are actually a bunch of studies that explore the role of mass media, in particular the radio, in the spread of Nazi propaganda in the years before Hitler came to power.

The radio played a big role in the Rwandan genocide as well.

Mass media was central to fascism because fascism requires the ability to build collective consensus over a broad geography that wasn't easy before mass media. It's hard to otherwise align the morality of millions of people.

I share the concern that social media will be like this, but more potent. And it won't just be a distribution channel, it'll be a breeding ground for the ideas that create extremist ideologies in the first place. It's like the wuhan wet market, but for ideas. The ideas that come from this breeding ground are not necessarily good ideas, just popular ones. And fascism is one subset of bad ideas that have been historically popular.

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

#400

Post by gardenhedge »

skilled wrote: post #337

I'm no saint when it comes to addiction and being on my phone for more than I should be, but I have a sister who is in her mid 20s right now, and for the last couple of years she has slowly isolated herself from life and her family, she spends most of her time in her room on the phone and does weird things like get cosmetic surgeries, ordering cosmetics, etc. It's bizarre. She does this and all the while never leaves…

It just sounds like you're not part of her life. It sounds like you live together. Imo, that's absolutely normal behaviour between siblings.
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