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Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

judiciary.senate.gov

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Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

#171

Post by silisili »

paulcole wrote: post #142
silisili wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar, but different. I don't let my child use social media at all, and limited to 30 mins screen time total a day. She's excluded in that all her friends use TikTok, and she can't. Maybe it's for the best. My parents used to say 'if all your friends jumped off a bridge...', and I hated it, so I haven't used that one yet. I'm trying to rely on actual merits instead of follower cliches.

I’ll tell you that’s how my parents were about some stuff. Excluding me from stuff my peers were doing because they thought they knew best. They were mostly wrong and I don’t really talk to them today. Better hope you’re right.

Sorry to hear that. I think all parenting is just hoping you know best and doing best for the child. I have no rebuttal because maybe I have it all wrong.

Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

#173

Post by tgv »

armchairhacker wrote: post #92
recursivedoubts wrote: post #32

Our descendants will look back on us allowing children access to unadulterated social media the way we look back on smoking.

I don’t think limiting information is the solution at least among older teens/young adults. I think people have a right to know the world’s ugly, harsh facts and crazy opinions. Not knowing something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. I think the solution is to remind them of all the good facts and reasonable opinions. Warn about particularly bad stuff like gore (and do block this content from children until they reach y…

> I think people have a right to know the world’s ugly, harsh facts and crazy opinions.

Newspapers bring you that, once per day. And social media brings a lot more than that.

Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

#174

Post by chmod600 »

paxys wrote: post #68

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…

Is the good/bad balance really worse? Or does the media just fixate on the bad stuff?

Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

#175

Post by tapanjk »

paxys wrote: post #68

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…

> Teens are aware that they are going to inherit a pretty terrible world, and are powerless to do anything about it.

I don't mean to come across as snarky, but there is a lot to unpack in this statement. First, you inherit something that your parents or guardians own, and the world is definitely not owned by them. Second, why feel powerless if they are actually going to inherit something? They can always fix it after they take control. Again, I am not being mean, but just showing how you can think of this from a different angle.

Now let's circle back to the issue of social media. Kids who are tuned in to social media are going to constantly hear exaggerated claims of gloom and doom, and that would numb their senses. This prevents them from focusing on the present and all the things that you build for yourself are in the present.

The point is -- no matter how you frame it, the information overload is taking its toll on everybody who is exposed, not just teens.

Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

#177

Post by silisili »

jay_kyburz wrote: post #143
silisili wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar, but different. I don't let my child use social media at all, and limited to 30 mins screen time total a day. She's excluded in that all her friends use TikTok, and she can't. Maybe it's for the best. My parents used to say 'if all your friends jumped off a bridge...', and I hated it, so I haven't used that one yet. I'm trying to rely on actual merits instead of follower cliches.

I don't understand such strict screen time limits. As adults everything will be on a screen. Might as well start getting good at it. My kids are I will even let them back on the computer in the evening after dinner if they want to do programming or level editing in Roblox, or make music in garage band, or something else creative.

We have different parenting styles, and that's OK. I hope your children turn out wonderfully.

I want for my child to have a bigger playground, so to speak. Reading books, playing with kids outside, bothering our neighbors constantly to pet and play with their dogs, making dandelion necklaces, etc. When she's on her phone she just zombies out, and it's like watching a device suck the soul from such a warm and extroverted person.

Things will change with time, but for now, I want her to appreciate and enjoy being a kid. The time for 8 hour screen days can wait.

Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

#178

Post by sibeliuss »

rektide wrote: post #129
paxys wrote: post #68

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…

This is an easy thing to test:

1. Kid seems happy, does stuff

2. Kid gets phone for birthday

3. Kid seems sad, and no longer does anything other than sit in his room scrolling through tiktok

It's an extraordinarily depressing situation and anyone who denies this obvious truth is DELUSIONALLY BLIND

Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

#179

Post by nandhinianand »

paxys wrote: post #68

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…

Came here to say this... Social media is not the cause.. It's the light that illuminates(and sometimes exaggerates/highlights) the terrible ills of the current modern world problems we live in.

Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]

#180

Post by tgv »

gok wrote: post #130

The government's abject failure to invest in fixing climate change, or education, or health care for young people, or general human rights? No, surely what's got teens down is congress not regulating social media hard enough. Thank you, senators.

As I wrote elsewhere: that's not new, at all. That was there in the 80s/early 90s as well, with the added continuous stress of the Cold War. What motivates you to reply like this, without any evidence? OTOH, you completely ignore section 2 of the paper.
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