Who would've thought that locking young people in for 2 years in their youth phase could have detrimental effects on their mental health. Not saying that is the only part, of course.
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Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
141–150 of 489 posts
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
How about we just be more like the US was before about the 90s? As a kid who grew up in the 70s there's really a lot of truth to the "70's mom" memes/jokes. I could go with my buddies night fishing down on a pier on the bay about a mile away when I was 10 - we just had to be back by 10PM. That wouldn't happen now.
Something went wrong in the US after 911. I don’t think it’s just the government. The entire capitalist machine realised just how profitable fear can be, and that’s been one of the big marketing angles in the 2000s. Especially in media, but elsewhere like supplements and drugs too. But the society wide impact of that has been a much more fearful people, obviously making parents more protective too.
The seeds were planted long before 9/11. I was born in the 80s, and even I saw something wasn't right. The Nancy Reagan War on Drugs and Stranger Danger were there already.
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#143The infantilization of an entire generation and the extension of adolescence into the 20s is a disaster for mental health. It's hard to find meaning if you remain immature. Without meaning, what's the point in living?
Related to the OP and many of the other comments, how much of what has formed your very strong opinions has been from real life, versus online, interactions?
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe. Smoking is a very social habit at least. Whose to say the isolation and depression from phones/social media is less harmful?
How is smoking a social habit? I see people stepping away from groups to go smoke elsewhere.
In it’s heydey those people
stepping away were a group
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s such a strange blend of wanting to let your kids roam while being more aware of dangers that exist, both online and off. Unaccompanied roaming is, by it's nature, offline-centric. The primary, actual risks to children who are roaming are those that involve law enforcement and intolerant adults. What does not present a meaningful risk to unaccompanied children is strangers. > For my son, Scouts have been wonder…
> The primary, actual risks to children who are roaming are those that involve law enforcement and intolerant adults. Any statistics on that ? I grew up in 90s and in a family with 5 younger siblings my mother couldn't keep up. I got hit by a car running across the street at 6 (I think I was that age). I would roam local forest and street - visiting there recently I remembered how I went to pick up my ball once and n…
I wonder about this a lot. I have a handful of similar stories about nearly dying as a child too, as do most of my friends. But none of us have any stories about knowing someone who accidentally died as a result of doing something dangerous as a kid, even though I'd expect a few of those given how dangerous we all think our childhoods were. Of course, with the reach of the Internet, I'm sure at least somebody reading this does have a more unfortunate story.
Anyway, it makes me wonder if maybe we were more aware of how to avoid danger as kids then we give ourselves credit for. Maybe only at the last minute, when instinct takes over and you cling tightly to a branch when you notice your balance shifting, or clutch your oversized stuffed dolphin to your chest when you trip on the newly de-carpeted stairs directly onto a large exposed nail that pierces through the dolphin instead of your lung.
It's hard to know how protective to be, and I guess I'd rather err on the safer side, where the consequence of being wrong is that my child is just developmentally stunted instead of dead. But either way, making the wrong choice kinda sucks.
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#146Many young women feel like they’re failures because they can’t meet the unrealistic expectations society has of them to be successful, beautiful and nurturing. Many young men feel like they’re failures because they can’t meet society’s expectations success, attractiveness and fatherhood. Society has always had winners and losers, the global nature of things makes people more aware of higher standards and the threat t…
This resonates with me
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. In our modern societies we have more means of communication than ever, yet we’re also more lonely than ever before. Urbanization has also disrupted people’s social lives very much. Raising children is hard when your parents live far away and all your friends are too busy to help, even with state-funded childcare. Different generations used to live together and help each other. Underpaid nurses and nannies ar…
>In our modern societies we have more means of communication than ever, yet we’re also more lonely than ever before. I really wonder if most people are just worthlessly incompetent at forms of communication other than face-to-face interactions. The narrative is that the covid lockdowns made people more socially isolated, and to some extent I don't disagree, but the narrative goes on to paint an image of "noone to see…
> I really wonder if most people are just worthlessly incompetent at forms of communication other than face-to-face interactions.
I think a large number of people are worthlessly incompetent at communicating effectively period. Face-to-face is what most humans are good at, so if you are bad at that, you will usually be even worse at other forms
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's objectively false for almost any metric you can come up with. Maybe the problem is that media gives such distorted view of reality?
Outside the people on HN etc, aren’t people objectively worse off payment wise than in the 80s? Cannot buy houses and having to live with their parents? Sure we live longer and healthier (well, this is also mostly the well off people) and we have tremendous tech advancements, but isn’t everything owned by a few people? I have to pay monthly for my car seat warmer. Movies and music that I bought are removed without me…
I’d argue distortion isn’t the ideal word. We are in a tough situation and strong narrative framing is needed to get through it. One narrative is different than another. It’s not so useful to call one distorted and the other not. Rather, which is more productive?
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#149I‘m 42. Here‘s my advice to someone half my age. Have conflicts. Put your heart into it. If you loose, you receive some truth. If you win you give some truth. The outcome does not matter if it means you grow. Go eat or drink together as if nothing happened.
> loose since a few years ago i’ve noticed a trend where people write “loose” (not firmly or tightly fixed in place; detached or able to be detached. "a loose tooth") instead of “lose” (be deprived of or cease to have or retain (something). "I've lost my appetite") does anyone know what’s going on?
soy un perdedor
Re: Young adults and mental health: Is more childhood independence the answer?
#150It's because there's nothing for them to look forward to. People keep asking why is X group struggling? And there's been enough articles about different groups that X is basically nearly everyone. Things are not getting better for anyone except the extremely wealthy.
That's objectively false for almost any metric you can come up with. Maybe the problem is that media gives such distorted view of reality?
Well here's a metric that's getting worse.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/219643/gini-coefficient-...
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/US_Gini_...
