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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

#421

Post by 0dayz »

The issue isn't social media in itself, it's how social media has become this absurd commercialized parody of what social media should be about.

Back in the day Facebook was actually decently good social life because it augmented it with helping you easily connect with others and get to know events happening (and other stuff too).

Instead everything has turned into some bizarre race to the bottom where communities are slowly becoming glorified cult of personalities, social engagement doesn't mean people socially interacting but instead it's a statistical term now, etc.

Instead of connecting us it's gamed to exploit us and there's plenty of people willing to be 1 step above the exploitation (influencers).

Just looking at how different twitch. tv is now compared to how it used to be, it used to be that pretty much everyone watched streamers just to see someone play something or do something extraordinary, now while it still is a bit true, there's a growing shift that people don't watch for any other reason than the influencer the self.

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

#422

Post by nearbuy »

thegrim000 wrote: post #212
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…

It's funny .. earlier today there was a front page HN post about the federal government mandating safer circular saws. It seemed like the majority of users in the thread were in favor of the federal government mandating technology changes to prevent harm from being done to the population. Now for this issue, there's harm being done to children, and the majority of users in the thread seem to be against government int…

Because people don't think the government should always prioritize protection over freedom, nor do people think the government should always prioritize freedom over protection.

It's like asking, if people are okay with the government restricting the sale of bombs to private citizens, why aren't they okay with restricting steak knives? They're also dangerous weapons.

People judge the cost and benefit of each situation.

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

#423

Post by tokai »

Buttons840 wrote: post #149

The charts in this article are deceptive and cause me to not trust the author. Look at long term teen suicide rates and you will see that suicide rates were quite high around 1990, and then rates dropped until about 2005, and are now on the rise again but have not yet reached 1990 levels (I think). So, the author of this piece wants to make it look like suicides and self harm are on the rise because of social media ,…

This. If you go even further back like 1890-1920s today numbers are also looking very good. This whole mental health pandemic is over blown. People had it even worse just recently - and they didn't get much help outside of drinking.

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

#424

Post by me_me_me »

skilled wrote: post #414
gardenhedge wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 f…

I don't know how much you care about her, but it sounds like you do care at least a little.

Don't tell her what to do, or how to fix her life.

Go to her and tell her you are worried about her, that you are always no matter what there for her. And if she ever needs help you will be there for her.

Don't judge dont advice but make sure to let her know you care and will help when she comes around.

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

#426

Post by exebook »

I'd guess these poor teenagers were mentally sick of something else before the social networks thing came to be. And they will be sick of another thing after social networks get replaced.

Important thing is that we have developed rules that parents teach to kids in regards to many things, but we've developed those rules for centuries, now with internet we need generations before kids will be ready to dangers of internet as good as they are prepared for the dangers of the street for example. Damn we still have bullying in schools, because schools are around just recently, like 100+ years, we have not adapted yet.

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

#427

Post by wildrhythms »

ZaoLahma wrote: post #402
Springtime wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to clarify, is the scope of social media being referred to here particular, typical apps (eg: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), or any app/service that has interactive social and media elements (eg: Discord, Reddit)?

I really think we need to make a (large) difference between platforms focused on user interaction and discussion (Discord, Reddit, old school forums, ...) and platforms where the person behind the user is the focus and placed in front of the entire world to be judged (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, ...). The former is not focused on you as a person and you are judged by the discussion that you participate in, while th…

100% agreed, I really have to question the motives of people who lump the likes of Discord in with Instagram or Tiktok. They are not comparable.

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

#428

Post by YurgenJurgensen »

0dayz wrote: post #421

The issue isn't social media in itself, it's how social media has become this absurd commercialized parody of what social media should be about. Back in the day Facebook was actually decently good social life because it augmented it with helping you easily connect with others and get to know events happening (and other stuff too). Instead everything has turned into some bizarre race to the bottom where communities ar…

Social media becoming an absurd commercialised parody of itself was inevitable. They're for-profit companies and that's where the financial incentives are. If there was a period when you thought social media was 'good', it's because the operators hadn't yet optimised their corporate mind-control machine.

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

#429

Post by tokai »

rsolva wrote: post #420
fransje26 wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

And the just as close (sea borders are borders too) Denmark has low alcohol taxes and no state monopoly.

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

#430

Post by skilled »

yawboakye wrote: post #409
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…

i find this to be, unfortunately, the current western stance on responsibility towards anyone: irresponsibility. for some reason, leaving people to go their way, wherever it may lead them, has been interpreted to be the good and the moral duty of anyone who understands what freedom (for intelligent beings) means. with all due respect, that’s cowardice and a neglect of duty. i explained to my sibling the other day tha…

I have tried being supportive on multiple occasions. I offered to help with building her a platform online since she spends so much time there. I offered to team up with her in case she wants to create an eCommerce site. The discussion always ends with, “I don’t know”.

I have tried various approaches, including being provocative, and that is why I said it is not worth it.

I am not abandoning her by any means and we talk. We are on good terms so to speak, but sadly those good terms only extend to lengths of her own comfort. She has a genuine problem with sharing who she is as a person and that is not easy to work with.

When every other thing you say gets interpreted as an “attack” or “you are crossing boundaries”, it makes no sense to push the person to end up where you started.

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