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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

#871

Post by jauntywundrkind »

From the man who aimed COVID was 100% about leftists control, who says DEI is also about racial hierarchy. Recent thread, https://bsky.app/profile/romancingnope.bsky.social/post/3kpl... but one can search his name on any social media to get a taste of what he's about. Haidt is insufferable. Haidt can be right that we need better for our kids. But this satanic panic scapegoating shit is crazy. There's massive economic uncertainty, a crazy world, we are short on worthy role models, the environment is going crazy, capitalism has consolidated enormous power, and much closer to home truths that there are so few shared spaces, 3rd places where one can be a free youth. Social media is portrayed like such a crafty monster, but we rarely delve into the other whys of it, are too busy demonizing convenient to snap at companies to recognize how amazing it is to tour the world & get such a great perch watching humanity.

Dragging red meat postings like this into HN greatly lowers the discourse.

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

#872

Post by pksebben »

belthesar wrote: post #855
pksebben wrote: post #774

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was bartender, always liked computers and wanted to work with 'em. Self-taught my way into the field (which is a gross simplification but broadly gets at the meat of it). Disconnecting from social media was part of a larger effort to remove distractions - around the same time I also deleted steam and cancelled my netflix account. The wealth of time this left me to focus on self-development was absolutely critical to…

One of the things I do agree with, and personally struggle with, is that the attention economy makes it incredibly easy to fill gaps with things that spark the good brain pleasure chemicals, but do not create any positive outcomes. Removing the space to process complex information, or think about ourselves and our needs/wants/desires seems to lead to a lack of capacity to think critically, at least in my own experien…

You hit the nail on the head, there. Facebook et al represented a large enough timesink / extreme enough "attention shelf" adjustment that removing them provided a dramatic and measurable change to what I was capable of.

Just try telling people about it, though. I can't count the number of times someone's been telling me that they're depressed b/c they can't accomplish their goals and I've tried to invite them to disconnect, only to come off sounding like a know-it-all. It's a really hard thing to communicate.

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

#873

Post by B56c »

makeitdouble wrote: post #715
haswell wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the one hand, I can see how starting the graph in 2005 feels misleading. On the other, past high rates don’t necessarily invalidate theories about the current spike. Another way to frame this is that whatever factors were leading to teen suicides in the early 90s improved. The question now is: are the same factors in play? The fact that rates were higher is not by itself a good reason to conclude that Haidt’s theo…

It would be a fine question to ask, if the rest of the rethoric wasn't so biased and lacking imagination. Haidt isn't looking into what actually happened during these periods, he's just throwing his hands in the airs preaching "I can’t see a causal path linking X with Y outside of social media". A lot of things have been happening all around the globe that were also fundamentally different from the past, including se…

I like how you had to replace part of Haidt's statement with meaningless variables X and Y because it actually does a great job showing the absurdity of Odgers' suggested causes in the context all the data. Once again:

"I just can’t see a causal path by which America’s school shootings, lockdown drills, poverty, or racism caused girls in Australia to suddenly start self-harming or dying by suicide at the same time as so many American girls."

Do you really think Haidt is lazily missing a causal link here? Or is he maybe a thoughtful researcher who genuinely can't square this circle?

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

#874

Post by gosub100 »

khazhoux wrote: post #821
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…

> The 'Redditization' of the world means that sharing thoughts is met with hostility I think the actual biggest problem with "Redditization" is not hostility, but instead the fact that there is really no dialogue. There's no back and forth discussion, at least not with the same actual individual. You post a comment and ( maybe but usually not ) get a reply, then if you reply to that reply, the next reply in thread wi…

Reddit is not hostile as long as you only parrot back ideas that the hive mind agrees on. And the reward system is mis-aligned. I'd call it a Twitterification, because the karma points are awarded to succinct, snarky/funny conversation-ending quips. Nobody has time or attention span to debate an issue, and even if you did you risk being shut out of the group for wrongthink.

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

#875

Post by RGamma »

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #295
Aurornis wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the constant comparison hellhole like Instagram that is causing mental illness. Anecdotally, Instagram ranks much lower than Reddit for causing problems among the young kids I’ve worked with. Reddit is an absolutely cesspool of misinformation, fake stories, propaganda, and rampant doomerism. Scrolling Instagram can’t hold a candle to the militant doomerism that seethes from sites like Reddit. I think it’s an uncomf…

Reddit now is not even vaguely close to the site it used to be. Doomerism is popular on Reddit because the power users are Reddit are basically everyone who failed life. Can't get a job, can't find a partner, no friend, and normally for reasons their own fault. Those people used to be social shunned and live on the edge of town but now their voice gets amplified 1000x because they are willing to live online 24/7 and…

How do you define doomerism? On the opposite end there's toxic positivity where Problems Aren't Real.

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

#877

Post by hahamodbanme »

miiiiiike wrote: post #772
gwervc wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You certainly can just throw things out there On 4chan sure, on Reddit absolutely hecking no. On the main subs in French wrongthink comments get deleted super fast, and on one English-speaking about a hobby it's an immediate ban.

Indiscriminate banning/blocking is the thing that turned me off most social media. I don’t post anywhere but HN so my profiles are always bare. Starting something like 5 years ago I’d follow someone and within a day, flip a coin, on tails I was banned or blocked. I eventually deleted the last of my social accounts. They turned into places where strangers were just there to torment each other or receive unconditional…

[flagged]

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

#878

Post by Damogran6 »

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…

Conversation is muted because the vast majority of the things I want to add to the conversation are in the top 5 upvoted comments.

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

#879

Post by nmz »

pc86 wrote: post #752
amplex1337 wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You certainly can just throw things out there, but if you are obsessed with making every single person satisfied with your thoughts, you are going to have a bad time. 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…

How many people in their early/mid 20s, let alone teenagers, understand this? I'm just a few years from 40 and I can still vividly remember a time not too long ago where this was not at all how I thought.

I doubt anybody is so naive, we all understand that we can't change everyones minds, however, we are social creatures, and to be accepted in the community is a goal to strive for, Of course, if the platform has a literal form of "dislike" and "like" then popularity and acceptability by the community is the goal. Both of these are not goals to strive for, and yet are of importance in your own survival. BUT, as it turns out, game-ifying social conventions does not lead to lasting friendships or anything of value. Just witty put downs and outrage culture.

Another game that is like this is our very own economic system, at least when it comes to aesthetics, money is yet another "upvote"/"like" game. The impact and similarities more clear and apparent.

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

#880

Post by Sammi »

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…

I ALWAYS respond with the most infuriating response a troll could ever imagine getting. I just write the two letters: ok

The fact that they cannot discern if I'm giving them agreement or the side eye is delicious.

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