The claim of direct causal claim is bold and probably more likely a contributing factor but can it really be the singular or even most impactful cause?
Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
411–420 of 1001 posts
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#412Video games are a cause of teenage violence.
Well, Iam going to say that what kids see in real life is the cause of their formative views, like stomping on lying victim's head. Nothing virtual.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#413Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course people think of solving this problem again by constraining the consumer, instead of the producer. What we should do is make rules for social media platforms to disallow them to develop algorithms that make people addicted. You might think how do you define that, but the companies have already made a whole science out of it so it's not that abstract anymore. It would sure be an elaborate task and will surely…
> You might think how do you define that, but the companies have already made a whole science out of it so it's not that abstract anymore Hardly. Addictiveness does not exist in binary. There are many people who obsessively check their email or refresh news websites. There is no doubt that social media companies choose the algorithms that maximize engagement and so most probably they also maximize addiction, but _any…
I’m fine with the deciding body being an independent, literate group (easier said than done) who observe allegedly addictive platforms and make judgements based on the spirit of the law. We don’t need to reduce this to some kind of automated decidability machine.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#414I'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.
We don’t live together. But we have a rocky past for sure. I was older and so I got a head start during my teens for all the bad vices during that age; drugs, alcohol, excessive partying.
By the time she got around to it, I had already wisened up and basically lost communication with her. I went on to do other things with my life and actually put in effort to experience new stuff.
She on the other hand did not. She found more excuses (dropped out of uni twice) than solutions.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#415Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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 ?
Sure, you may try (I did and don't regret it, sounds like OP also tried), if only for you to feel better about it yourself. But my experience with addiction in the family is that they can and will drag you down with them. To love is to let go, at some point.
My experience (with alcohol addiction) is: Tried to help once, got into problems (set family up with house of a friend), almost got into financial problems myself (almost lend them money but was stopped by wife, would have lost it all). But at least I could tell myself I tried. But how far would you go? An addict will take you away from your family and kids if you let them.
So what to do? Hope they take the first step themselves. Be clear that you will help them take steps, but only steps you agree with (I once got alcohol for said family, the begging and bad state got to me, at some point an alcoholic will improve on alcohol), but I still feel bad about that today.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#416Earlier quoted context omitted.
> if you don't like these products and feel they are negative, then don't use them. Relevant bit from the essay: "But much of my book is about the collective action traps that entire communities of adolescents fall into when they move their social lives onto these platforms, such that it becomes costly to abstain. It is at that point that collective mental health declines most sharply, and the individuals who try to…
An excellent point. Abstention = social isolation, which for young people is far worse than exposure. Restricting your children's access is not an option (lets' be real, they'll find a way to circumvent your efforts anyway) and moving the burden of restriction from society to individuals is not fair. So as a society do we let unrestrained exposure or do we take collective action? I lean on the second option, but I'm…
Overall, I think the internet has basically been weaponised (intentionally or not) by big tech. People of every generation are being manipulated at a scale that has never before been possible, and what’s more is that the algorithms for targeting and engagement make it trivial to do this, either through propaganda, disinformation, or advertising in a way that skirts regulations on traditional media.
Will it change? I doubt it - Google and Facebook are likely too big to fail now, Twitter is still around as a bona-fide hate platform, TikTok is unlikely to go anywhere until something else replaces it…
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#417Earlier quoted context omitted.
And then there are also those companies/institutions/orgs/news/shops that make you left behind from otherwise useful information or services by not being on social media platforms.
It really annoys me how many services - even sometimes public services like our local police - are Facebook first, with all other mediums as an afterthought.
I completely agree, but one thing that bothered me since 2020 - local municipality posted some news on their website, and people on our neighbourhood group were genuinely complaining why they did not post it on Facebook, since that’s what the “internet is” for a significant (dare I say, majority?” of people. Unfortunately, we are in a minority in this situation.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#418I'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…
I think it's a bit reductionist to say it's devoid of purpose and meaning. Have you asked her what she feels her purpose/meaning is? You can disagree with it (I would as well), but I wouldn't assume she doesn't find any purpose/meaning in it. If she gets angry about it, then probably there is something deeper going on. Or, you're just asking the wrong way (if you come in assuming there's no meaning/purpose to her lif…
When someone is obsessed or drugged to the point that you can't have a rational conversation and they're too angry or volatile to approach with any criticism, then it's not really your fault for coming at them the wrong way.
Sometimes caring about someone means showing them that what they think they want is garbage that's hurting them. That will probably hurt their feelings, and they might lash out at you for it, but the alternative is doing nothing or enabling them and watching them drown.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#419Earlier 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? I’ve done the same, but it’s not without cost: - Two hobbies I’m involved with have large local communities on Facebook. I’m not in the loop, and sometimes miss out on events and catchups. - I’m not on Twitter, and there’s a massive amount of chat about my field (realtime collaborative editing & local first software) that takes place there. I miss out on what’s going on, and I’m relia…
Twitter is also where the discussion about my field takes place. What's not to like? I find Twitter's recommendation algorithm does a great job of honing the content down to just the relevant information I need and then I can go back to carrying on with life.
Before Twitter, you had to go to the coffee shop and listen to people ramble on with their inane political rants and conspiracy theories just to get at the occasional tidbit of useful field-related information. That was depressing.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#420I grew up in Sweden, where strong alcohol is only sold in a state owned company and the same for gambling, so this probably make me have another view of this than people from other countries. I do believe that there has to be some sort of laws around how social media, or really "endless scrolling of content" is done. It's seriously addictive, I feel it myself, and just letting people "be free and choose what to do" r…
> I grew up in Sweden, where strong alcohol is only sold in a state owned company It worked so well, that alcoholism rates in Sweden are higher than in some countries where the sales of strong alcohol are not a state monopoly. A closer look shows that even the neighboring Scandinavian countries are doing better.. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/alcoholis...
The closest neighbouring country, Norway, also have a state monopoly, only with even higer taxes on alcohol.