[deleted]
Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
481–490 of 1001 posts
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 a…
I generally agree, but as for the Youtube homepage in incognito mode: It’s now empty!
That’s an improvement! I’m going to give it a spin and see what it does when you search a few mundane things. Probably still rabbit holes you into trash.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#483Phone-free schools seem like an obvious way to fight this, but supposedly modern parents need constant access to their kids and tend to oppose the idea.
You don't get phone-free schools in a post-Uvalde world.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-education-minister-clarif...
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/05/europe/netherlands-school-pho...
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-restrict-...
Americans might not get phone-free schools but others in places that have their shit together on gun regulations and police corruption/incompetence will.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#484I'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…
Maybe she thinks the same thing about us doom scrolling HN.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#485I'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…
But isn't there a question of what causes what? Is she terminally online because she's ill or is she I'll because she's terminally online
Both. It's a feedback loop keeping her in place. Like with many (all?) addictions, you get stuck in a situation where the same activity makes your situation worse and provides a short-term reprieve from immediate consequences. You take a hit to briefly fix the accumulated damage from all the previous hits.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#486I'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…
> She doesn't share her actual thoughts
That's where social media has been most damaging. You can't share your thoughts anymore. The 'Redditization' of the world means that sharing thoughts is met with hostility. No longer can you just throw something out there, no matter how stupid. These days you have carry an entire encyclopedia with you in order to back up every last thing you say and if you utter anything that isn't deemed 100% perfect by those listening, the social scorn will fall upon you.
> It's bizarre.
Is it, though? Once you've felt said social scorn enough you no longer see words as a way to make friends, so turning to beauty is the natural progression. People like to be around beautiful people – or at least so it appears to those looking from the outside in, right? If that doesn't work, then you can easily fall into a cycle of thinking "maybe this next surgery is the one that will make me beautiful enough!"
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#487The 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…
One could make that exact argument of cigarettes too. And see why it doesn't work in the real world.
Tobacco regulation is actually something I don't see people talked often. Some seem to have restricted it and succeed, or failed. Some seems to let it go and succeed, or failed. It's seemingly less sexy than either alcohol or marijuana, maybe because USA is one example where they just let cigarettes go and succeed anyway.
My country is an example where it failed anyway. Whether we are considered to have tried regulating it or not is a bit complicated.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#488I'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…
>>But it's crazy that a person can get this lost in life and become completely devoid of purpose and meaning. The thing is, I'm sure for her it doesn't feel that way. She probably feels a lot of purpose and meaning in following all these people online and participating in social activities around them. That's part of the addiction too - it can feel meaningful for a long time.
> That's part of the addiction too - it can feel meaningful for a long time.
That's obviously true of meth,etc. as well. The first step is always to realize you have a problem that's negatively impacting your life.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#489Earlier 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.
That is very similar to why I use FB. It is what people use.
I even admin and moderate FB groups.
In my case it is home education in the UK. It is what everyone else uses, so its where you can discuss things or ask questions. I just asked about parking at the exam centre where my daughter is doing her GCSEs (UK exams typically taken at 16). It is where I found a GCSE classical civilisation tutor for her. It is where I can use my experience to help others. It is where I can find out about local events and activities.It is where people find resources and courses and can discuss them with others. It is where discussion of approaches and how to do things happens.
not using FB would mean giving up all that.
Re: Yes, social media is a cause of the epidemic of teenage mental illness
#490Earlier 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?
> What do I care what others do?
This is libertarian virtue signalling that simply does not stand up to reality.