161–170 of 1001 posts
Social media definitely amplifies it, but consider the economic and social environment that teenagers have lived through their entire lives. Multiple major recessions, a global pandemic, rising inflation, housing and education getting more expensive by the day, prospect of a mountain of debt right after graduation, climate that will be unlivable in a few decades, political extremism becoming the norm, and massive gov…
Social media definitely amplifies it, but consider the economic and social environment that teenagers have lived through their entire lives. Multiple major recessions, a global pandemic, rising inflation, housing and education getting more expensive by the day, prospect of a mountain of debt right after graduation, climate that will be unlivable in a few decades, political extremism becoming the norm, and massive gov…
If the mental health crisis is exacerbated by other stressors, how does that explain the following? 1) The crisis started suddenly in 2009, 2) It affects girls far more, and 3) It is occurring in many countries. Haidt brings up those points in the testimony to rule out other factors and prove that social media is specifically to blame.
2) seems to point the finger at social media more heavily though I think, but I'm not entirely sure what to make of that but this point is convincing to me.
Social media definitely amplifies it, but consider the economic and social environment that teenagers have lived through their entire lives. Multiple major recessions, a global pandemic, rising inflation, housing and education getting more expensive by the day, prospect of a mountain of debt right after graduation, climate that will be unlivable in a few decades, political extremism becoming the norm, and massive gov…
If the mental health crisis is exacerbated by other stressors, how does that explain the following? 1) The crisis started suddenly in 2009, 2) It affects girls far more, and 3) It is occurring in many countries. Haidt brings up those points in the testimony to rule out other factors and prove that social media is specifically to blame.
Social media definitely amplifies it, but consider the economic and social environment that teenagers have lived through their entire lives. Multiple major recessions, a global pandemic, rising inflation, housing and education getting more expensive by the day, prospect of a mountain of debt right after graduation, climate that will be unlivable in a few decades, political extremism becoming the norm, and massive gov…
Agreed a whole lot. Social media is the new whipping boy, but no one is willing to confront that much of what it shows us is a genuine & real reflection, is just connecting us more accurately to the real state of things. I think there's an incredible resillience especially in youth to not get bogged down in or at least to tangle with & find peace with the sad scary backdrop of the world. When they have elememts of ho…
Is it social media? Or is it also the knowledge that they effectively have no future. Rent is going up and mortgage rates are going up faster. A shrinking portion of young adults can now afford housing. The economy is becoming so disfunctional there's almost no reason to bother participating. When children end up in that position their family will turn on them and they have nothing materially or socially.
> Is it social media? They do cite a number of randomized controlled trials that show it's social media: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w-HOfseF2wF9YIpXwUUtP65-... > Or is it also the knowledge that they effectively have no future. Rent is going up and mortgage rates are going up faster. A shrinking portion of young adults can now afford housing. The economy is becoming so disfunctional there's almost no reason…
Yeah, but why should I solve them ?
Modern media and modern world has taught us that our existence is merely here to satisfy our own needs. Sure, humans' main objective is to prevail the existence of the human species. But why live ?
Why exist ? As a person with (recovering?) depression, I am not motivated enough to contribute to anything at all. Maybe making software is my thing. But what are we? endless Consumption machines ?
I apologize in advance for not sounding optimistic at all. I think that lackthereof religion has brought us to question our existence even more.
With a seemingly more-accessible we've made some things easy (survival, basic needs except mind) and others hard (purpose & happiness, setting expectations).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd normally agree, but in this case I think a lot of us in the older generations are realising we're also being affected. I certainly am, it's not just the teenagers.
And this was exactly what the older generation was saying when I was a teenager . There's always a special pleading as to why this time for this issue it's definitely different .
In this case, in my life I have concrete examples of the jealously and FOMO invoked by social media (in this case, old school Instagram) from what people are doing literally on the other side of the world. That's a significant change and was much more difficult and far less in real-time in the past. It's not great for my mental health.
Social media definitely amplifies it, but consider the economic and social environment that teenagers have lived through their entire lives. Multiple major recessions, a global pandemic, rising inflation, housing and education getting more expensive by the day, prospect of a mountain of debt right after graduation, climate that will be unlivable in a few decades, political extremism becoming the norm, and massive gov…
One. They lived through one major recession, and here it wasn't really major, and is not something they lived through recently. They were younger than 6 when it started. I've lived through two. The 80s weren't a happy time, and there are no signs that that had such an impact on teen mental health. If it did, it would be proof that the impact of a major recession is temporary.
> prospect of a mountain of debt right after graduation
Situation wrt to teen mental health is similar in Europe, but there's a much smaller graduation debt.
Don't try to downplay the role of internet, mobile devices and social media. Here's a thought for your correlationism:
> Teens are aware that they are going to inherit a pretty terrible world, and are powerless to do anything about it.
Perhaps it's social media that makes that they are either too aware of it or simply mention it more often.
Social media definitely amplifies it, but consider the economic and social environment that teenagers have lived through their entire lives. Multiple major recessions, a global pandemic, rising inflation, housing and education getting more expensive by the day, prospect of a mountain of debt right after graduation, climate that will be unlivable in a few decades, political extremism becoming the norm, and massive gov…
Agreed a whole lot. Social media is the new whipping boy, but no one is willing to confront that much of what it shows us is a genuine & real reflection, is just connecting us more accurately to the real state of things. I think there's an incredible resillience especially in youth to not get bogged down in or at least to tangle with & find peace with the sad scary backdrop of the world. When they have elememts of ho…
Most people are getting drip fed curated content to 'influence' them, which has a very different agenda to accuracy regarding real things.
Also most people are not selecting real things, they are selecting entertainment.
If you had just said connecting to real things, agreed that sometimes it is, plus a lot of false things, plus heaps of fantasy/entertainment. But when you said its connecting us more accurately to the real state of things, well thats just false.
Accuracy in echo chambers that create information bubbles as socmed systems do is simply impossible, then the fact these systems are used to influence not inform makes them produce highly distorted minds.
What bothers me most and even on HN, where you usaully get intelligent discourse, the alarmist pessimism. Everything is falling apart! Just another form of self-indulgence. There must be something compelling about pretending the apocolypse is tomorrow. Yes, there are problems in our social, political, ecomonic systems. They need to be recognized and addressed. Democracy makes that process slow and difficult. But the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Which do you think are just products of the media? A lot of them. The '08 recession happened when most teenagers were in elementary school. The economy has thoroughly recovered the last several years leading up to COVID. Mountains of debt after graduating, is only an issue if you plan to go to college. A lot more teenagers are realizing the scam and predation that a university education is unless you've got a serio…
What do you think where those 200 million will flee to? Certainly not other arid or equatorial countries.
And regardless, no, that shouldn't be cause for dread either. Those 200 million estimated refugees are spread out both geographically across the globe and across a century time-wise. There's 45 million immigrants living in the US currently. Even if half come to the US, it's hardly an apocalyptic levels of immigration.