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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

#791

Post by brushfoot »

zigman1 wrote: post #224
burningChrome wrote: post #84

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.

So did I, as an American. Locale, culture, and parents' values probably have more influence on this than continent.

That said, I don't think there's anything particularly strange/hilarious about people congregating in spaces built for congregation or feeling nostalgia for those spaces and experiences as they've begun to fade away. Memories can be made anywhere, and not everyone has access to the green spaces that you and I did as children.

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

#792

Post by randomdata »

verisimi wrote: post #741
fireflash38 wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think that childcare is incompatible with familial love and care?

Well, do you think a teacher can love a class of 20 or 30 kids, like a parent can? I think they might do a professional job, but it would be impossible to give individual attention. And, around here (UK), teachers have a lot of non class time obligations with the result being that they are away and a lot of care is passed to teaching assistants.

A teacher with 20-30 kids under watch cannot give the same level of attention to each child as a parent with 1-3 kids under watch, all else equal, but are attention and love the same thing?

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

#793

Post by seydor »

I think we should start calling them "social comparison engines". From day 0 they were all about gossip but we pretended they are the 'new media' that will change the world. Now we are back to square 1 , with a few trusted media and a sea of scammers peppered in vacation selfies and baby pics. It's like everyone has become a Sim in the largest game of Sims.

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

#794

Post by coldtea »

_heimdall wrote: post #520
coldtea wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's a bit reductionist to say it's devoid of purpose and meaning Probably he is old-fashioned and means the coventional old-style purpose and meaning, that old-timey thing that we'd call "actual purpose" nowadays. Some backward people don't understand that "being isolated and doom scrolling all day" or "getting tons of destructive cosmetic surgeries" or "Amway" can also be a torally fine purpose in life.

> Some backward people don't understand that "being isolated and doom scrolling all day" or "getting tons of destructive cosmetic surgeries" or "Amway" can also be a torally fine purpose in life. I really can't tell if this is a sarcastic comment or not, so just to be clear none of these examples are examples of purpose. How one spends their time isn't purpose, it's just a description of their day.

>How one spends their time isn't purpose, it's just a description of their day.

My examples were sarcastic, based on those being bad ways to spend your time.

That said, I don't agree that "none of these examples are examples of purpose". Or at least I don't think purpose has to be something big, like "do great good", "cure cancer", "get rich".

Those could very well be descriptions of someone's purpose, they would just be unhealthy purposes.

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

#795

Post by triceratops »

KingMachiavelli wrote: post #103
willcipriano wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> completely destroying internet anonymity. Stores that sell age restricted products already can also sell "adult passes". Each adult pass costs less than $5, and contains a single use scratch off code that you can use to prove you are of age. When you want to sign up for social media or porn, you need a code. Mutiple companies can implement and sell them.

There would be a huge black market of selling to the underage immediately defeating the purpose.

Most minors don't smoke or drink, even though straw purchases of booze and cigs are a thing. Social media is even more amenable to this type of gatekeeping because if most of your social circle isn't on it, you have no reason to be there either.

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

#796

Post by Teever »

Lacerda69 wrote: post #776
mindcrime wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world is full of people who disagree with you, but you need to learn more than ever to recognize and filter out what you don't care about. I don't even view replies to posts any longer, 98% of the time because I am not seeking validation sharing my opinion. This is something it's taken me a while to come to terms with. I used to want to fully engage with everybody and everything. It was anathema to me to just "br…

I no longer say things online except some rare occasions. Mass social media online discourse will slowly vanish in the next 15 yrs

That's an interesting thought. What do you think will replace it?

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

#797

Post by spxneo »

speff wrote: post #784
spxneo wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% and the people who created Facebook, Instagram all know exactly what they were doing. This is why many people hate Mark Zuckerberg and the Instagram founders and they need to be protected at all times by armed guards.

Every big corp c-suite executive has armed guards. It's not related to the ire they draw, but rather the board weighing the risk of someone taking them hostage vs the cost of the guards.

but theres so many execs without guards all over the world even bigger than Mark

who and what is Mark so afraid of that he needs a platoon of special forces soldiers guarding him?

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

#798

Post by randomdata »

runamuck wrote: post #620
randomdata wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 i…

I have a good rule. I NEVER reply to someone who comments on my comment w/ hostile intent. For example: I made an innocent comment on a YouTube video, and someone completely misread the comment and posted a hostile reply. I wanted to explain to him that he misread my comment but I just let it go. You never need to defend yourself. If you want to post a comment, post it. If someone misunderstands or mocks you, let the…

That's fine for the internet which is understood to be just for fun anyway, but with 'Redditization' taking over the world, you see that behaviour escape out into places where things actually matter and where walking away can be truly impactful to one's life in a negative way. That's the problem.

Especially for people who run in youthful circles. Older people at least have the benefit of generally being around people who learned human compassion before the social internet became prevalent.

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

#800

Post by darby_eight »

randomdata wrote: post #486
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…

> 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 i…

> 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.

I understand this fear when posting on reddit (or other social media) itself, but I am absolutely confused where this idea that this applies to reality comes from.

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