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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

#881

Post by lawlessone »

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…

>The 'Redditization'

I'm more worried about the Linkednization. Where people share terrible views and nobody criticizes it because they don't want to be seen as someone that criticizes things.

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

#882

Post by talldrinkofwhat »

asdf6969 wrote: post #841
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’m like this too except a man. It’s because I need to work on myself before I date or make new friends. I think it used to be easier to be happy as a loser before phones made us too self aware. It’s hard to be confident when I’m so aware of how much better things could be, and there’s really no excuse for failure when I can get a step by step guide on anything I want.

There are no step-by-step guides for living your life. If there were, the only person who could write them would be you 20 years in the future. If you were to follow them, the person who wrote them would not exist, because the wisdom of knowing what to do and what not to do is borne from error embodied. Work on yourself, but do not wait for some magical moment where you say "ah, so this is what it's like to be complete". The moment does not exist. Find people who will accept you as you are, and they will help you become the person you strive to be.

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

#883

Post by janetmissed »

hbn wrote: post #767
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…

Saying things that were obvious scientific facts 5 years ago are now controversial and can now get you fired from your job -- and people are more gung-ho than ever to seek out anyone who says something "wrong" and try to ruin their life over it. That's why I don't speak my opinions to anyone other than people I'm close with.

What are these obvious scientific facts? Being honest I've only ever heard people complain about not being able to say "obvious scientific facts" in reference to specific beliefs about transgender or gay people.

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

#884

Post by Sammi »

zelphirkalt wrote: post #579
nearbuy wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Playing the devils advocate: Isn't social media much more a "bomb" than circular saws?

For teenagers it is.

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

#885

Post by nmz »

jononomo wrote: post #698
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 is important to remember that freedom of speech is more important than having a functioning society of a healthy populace.

sarcasm?

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

#886

Post by disqard »

gosub100 wrote: post #874
khazhoux wrote: post #821

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

You and GP are both correct. I've observed how many posts are set up with the "hive mind does (or does not) agree on" outcomes. Here are concrete examples:

* Does Anyone Else foo?

* Pretty sure I'm gonna get downvoted for this, but foo.

* Unpopular Opinion: foo.

...and many more such patterns.

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

#887

Post by Xeyz0r »

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…

It's even harder for women to not to get in influenced be this crap about cosmetics...

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

#888

Post by tim333 »

janetmissed wrote: post #883
hbn wrote: post #767

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying things that were obvious scientific facts 5 years ago are now controversial and can now get you fired from your job -- and people are more gung-ho than ever to seek out anyone who says something "wrong" and try to ruin their life over it. That's why I don't speak my opinions to anyone other than people I'm close with.

What are these obvious scientific facts? Being honest I've only ever heard people complain about not being able to say "obvious scientific facts" in reference to specific beliefs about transgender or gay people.

Popular things for getting into trouble over seem to be there being two sexes of which you are probably born one, heritability of IQ and until recently the origin of covid though I think maybe folk have chilled out a bit there. Also I got some grief for saying natural immunity was likely as good or better as vaccine acquired.

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

#889

Post by B56c »

SirMaster wrote: post #870
y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #852

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you attend high school in the US? It's basically the online version of high school. They've brought all the popularity contest, show-boating "look at the nice things I do, have, etc", and gossip from high school onto social media. Many people don't grow out of that mindset.

Yes, I did go to high school in the US. I didn't really care what people thought of me and my stuff then and so I guess I still don't now. I guess it's not so much that I don't understand why what you are describing would be addictive and compelling if one cared about those things like being popular. It's more of, I don't understand why so many people care so much about being popular haha. I guess I am really that ab…

To get anthropological about it, humans are very strongly wired to seek approval from our immediate social groups, as your social standing was one of the most absolutely critical factors in your survival and reproduction. Especially because social exile for most of human history meant simply death.

It's not so much about people thinking that social media makes them happy. It's social media hijacking what our ancient brains think is important. This is why so many people can emphatically tell you that social media doesn't make them happy, yet they continue to consume it.

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

#890

Post by mensetmanusman »

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…

"It's her life so I leave her alone"

this statement is foundational to secular ethics, and it is arguably part of the problem. Sometimes love requires helping when it hurts.

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