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Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

arstechnica.com

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Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#371

Post by BeFlatXIII »

mmooss wrote: post #114
ikmckenz wrote: post #13

Teens aren't doing drugs, smoking, drinking, or having sex. And the suicide rate has never been higher.

> Teens aren't ... having sex. Nor are people in their 20s (that is, both groups are having much less sex). That is the most worrying thing to me. People are not even engaging in the most fundamental, unavoidable, pleasurable human drive. They seem very much like traumatized people, on a massive scale, just trying to survive.

On the flip side, imagine the tremendous spiritual development possible to be unlocked by a generation undistracted by carnal desire.

Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#372

Post by gehwartzen »

lazystar wrote: post #251
Mistletoe wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly the parasocial way my girlfriend's niece and friends experience life. No relationships of their own, it is all celebrities and their lives, ingested on their phones. I don't have the heart to tell them that 95% of it is stuff created by PR firms.

playing devils advocate for a minute... isnt that similar to what our parents said in the 80's/90's about our generation? all that "tv and phone" brain rot

And our kids will warn their kids about how the ‘direct to brain’ type interface they will use is rotting their brains. Each generation will have been a little correct along the way; the harm at each step was just always gentle enough to not scold the frogs too quickly.

Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#373

Post by ghaff »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #365
cluckindan wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

”My 13 year old and his buddies socialize online, period.” Nothing new under the sun. Me and my friends were like that 30 something years ago.

> Nothing new under the sun. Me and my friends were like that 30 something years ago. (1) When I was growing up, nobody had any online presence. I remember life without the internet. (2) The fact that it is not new does not mean it has not changed in magnitude and addictiveness. (3) The fact that it is not new does not mean that it is not a problem. It is a growing problem. Especially because societies these days do…

Aside from BBSs from about the mid-80s, followed by some Usenet and related later, there was very little online presence until getting well into the mid-90s or so. Certainly my social friends who weren't part of the local BBS scene had no online presence until maybe the dot-coms really took off.

Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#374

Post by westerno »

tremon wrote: post #356
jorvi wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m very much for legalizing and regulating (almost) all drugs, but watch out with the confirmation bias of “everyone in my social circle who used recreationally turned out fine.” I can’t find it right now but I read a great comment on legalization that pointed out that a kid experimenting with weed and cocaine in college is doing so for a radically different reason than a kid doing it escape the daily misery of his…

> with them having seen people close to them destroyed by drug use. But isn't this a false correlation, then? Were they destroyed by drug use, or by the daily misery of their ghetto neighborhood?

The combination, which is the point of the comment above. Legalization may be fine in places where people have other support factors that make them less likely to destroy their lives with drugs and alcohol, but in areas without those protective forces, it's good that there are some controls (or at least many of the people who live there think so).

Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#375

Post by sdiupIGPWEfh »

captnObvious wrote: post #214
LorenzoGood wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person in that age bracket, I don't feel like my peers and I are lacking in opportunities to participate in drug & alcohol use. As to why I choose to abstain, I honestly am just not interested in drinking or doing drugs. I don't see any benefit to it socially, since I have more fun with my friends doing things while they are sober, and I don't want to be one of those adults that can't socialize without it. Also,…

This is what I’m thinking. All of the kids I know from 16-22 are the most level headed group of young adults I’ve known. It is hilarious to me that this group of brilliant technologists leans so heavily towards seeing the absolute worst in every data point. Could it be that, kids are doing less drugs because they’re more informed, less bored, and less reckless than previous generations? We all aspire that our kids wi…

> This is what I’m thinking. All of the kids I know from 16-22 are the most level headed group of young adults I’ve known.

Taking this on a bit of a tangent, but as an elder millennial, I recall having been told (by elder relatives in their mid-30s at the time) all about how one day I'd too be an "old fogey" looking down on "teens being teens" and how such progression is just the way of things. Hell, I still hear people preaching such "wisdom" today to their youngers.

Yet here I am, just past the age I'm supposedly meant to start ragging on "kids today", and all I can remark is that this same 16-22 set you speak of are remarkably respectful, polite, and considerate, perhaps more so than my own cohort at that age. I almost worry they're not rebellious enough for their own good.

Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#376

Post by BeFlatXIII »

makeitdouble wrote: post #162
conductr wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had is persisting thought that, we as a society have been delaying adulthood, thus extending childhood, with each decade for a while. And we've now pushed it so far that the current cohort of teens simply are effectively young children on a social/emotion perspective making them unprepared to handle the stresses their age is exposing them to.

> have been delaying adulthood If you have kids, do you see them as less mature than how you perceived yourself at their age ? TBH I feel the opposite: current kids have a lot more to deal with, and are expected to be much much more down to earth than a few decades ago. The most basic things: a single post on an SNS can stick with them for the rest of their life, yet we moved half of our social life online.

My observation of teens online, as someone who was once an online teenager, is that they are noticeably less mature than my cohort. Perhaps because it's no longer just the nerds who are online all day—if everyone in my high school was chronically online, there's a high possibility that Bush-era teens would've been just as openly immature and stupid as today's youth. Whatever happened to pretending to be an apathetic 24-year-old?

Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#377

Post by johnisgood »

lolinder wrote: post #337
tirant wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fear the (negative) impact of our current technological drugs goes beyond the impact of traditional drugs. I’ve seen kids not even 3-4 years old already hooked to smartphone screens. Even toddlers around 1 year old with an smartphone mount in their stroller. Main impact on kids is lack of socialization, lack of emotional regulation and a complete impact on their capabilities to keep their attention. Those used to b…

> Most of those drugs had a component that actually pushed kids heavily towards socialization and forming peer groups. Now looking back to the results of that drug consumption I would say that most of the individuals engaging on them were able to regulate and continue to what it seems to be a very normal adult life. Counterargument: a "very normal adult life" in our generations treats alcohol as basically mandatory f…

A substance is a means to an end. What you described is just one of the many.

And I agree. I do not drink, not even in social settings, and I feel like I'm the odd one out for doing so, thus I typically avoid parties and gatherings as much as possible.

I do take something people would consider a drug though, but for different reasons you described. It is to manage pain, anxiety, and depression, difficulty walking, and urinary incontinence. What I take works for all of the problems that affects the quality of my life.

That said, new year is coming up, and I'm definitely not going to drink.

Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#378

Post by dr_dshiv »

In the future, will there be drugs specifically for kids?

I find it weird that we don’t give kids coffee to help them focus on math. (But amphetamine is fine?) There is no evidence coffee is bad for kids.

Psychedelics are so similar to kid level playfulness — and sometimes I think it could be helpful to help them see the big picture.

Even cannabis— we know it’s controlled use is fine for kids, based on studies of usage for epilepsy, etc.

Why do we wait till kids try it themselves under suspect circumstances rather than introducing it with intention?

Just provoking some free thought.

Re: Decline in teen drug use continues, surprising experts

#379

Post by gehwartzen »

9dev wrote: post #335
dpndencekultur wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indoctrination into a dependency mindset fits the "buy a solution" model that our societies run on. We are already primed for this indoctrination from the moment mother puts a pacifier in our mouths. Then constantly looking up at her approval, that constitutes the beginning of our need of approval from the women in our lives. We are programmed and primed from day 0.

That kind of misogyny sounds like some deeply rooted trauma you have there, buddy. Have you ever considered that humans are simply social creatures, that the only thing really separating us from other animals is our ability to socialize and organise in groups? There is no programming, it’s our nature.

So if babies are ignored and raised in isolation they still grow up with normal social skills? I think it’s fairly clear that socialization is learned (a term which I think is equivalent to programmed in this context) and not something as innate (or “in our nature”) as breathing.
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