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

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

#271

Post by veltas »

spencerchubb wrote: post #147
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…

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.

"It affects girls far more". Don't far more young men kill themselves? How is this being measured? Seems more complicated than that.

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

#272

Post by rendall »

sofixa wrote: post #256
rendall wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Teens are aware that they are going to inherit a pretty terrible world With respect, I truly mean no insult when I say this is a naive and ignorant position. By every measure, the world is generally better than it has ever been. Far better than any decade in the past you could care to name. Despite media doom-and-glooming, there is every reason to expect that teens will inherit an overall materially better world th…

Climate change drastically changes that equation. Not only will life expectancy go down, but life itself will probably become harder for many people in many places - droughts, heat waves, floodings, hunger and famine, mass migration, etc.

Except, people have been saying exactly this with the same unshakable confidence, literally since the beginning of recorded history. In the 70s, it was said that we would have experienced all of those things by 2000, and yet, life continued to get dramatically better for everyone, particularly for the poorest.

So, no. Life will continue to get better despite global warming. Or, not doing so is an extraordinarily claim for which there is no real evidence.

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

#274

Post by vaylian »

ptsneves wrote: post #263
DSingularity wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh. Turn the tv off? Please, do tell — how shall we turn off social media?

You install parental control. Does this seem unfeasible?

Not unfeasible. But non-sensical. You simply cannot offload raising of kids to technology. Besides, parental control tends to have a lot of false positives.

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

#275

Post by odessacubbage »

watwut wrote: post #244
tristor wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This number is skewed heavily towards women too All of the data I've seen on the mental health crisis in the West seems to indicate that it hits women harder than men. I have yet to see an explanation for why, though. Does anyone know of any articles that thoroughly cover this gender split in mental health and why this particular issue is more predominantly affecting women?

There are tons of proposed explanations. Starting with "during covid, boys were less isolated due to them socializing via computer games way more then girls". Continuing through "different body standards and societal expectations" (tho those did not changed in covid). In addition, some mental illnesses are simply genetically more prevalent in one gender then in the other. Those are all speculations tho. Historically,…

anorexia could be viewed as part and parcel with the kind of body dysmorphia that is often displayed in weightlifters, not to mention anorexia is also seen at heightened rates among gays and mtf transgenders.

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

#276

Post by luca_null »

betwixthewires wrote: post #252

Social media cannot be blamed. Parents are the only ones to blame. I grew up while MTV had music videos playing. There were mascara wearing men talking about slitting their wrists and there were tough looking black men talking about killing people in the street. Some people imitated that. Some parents turned it off. If you give your kid access to anything and everything the world has to offer, including every manner…

I grew up similarly and I think I have to disagree. When we had all the influence from the Tv, we would still se people that were really far away from us.

Right now a teenager that is spending their summer vacation at home can be bombarded with photos of classmates "having the best time of their lives" through social media.

You're right that parents should be more present but even if you explain to a teenager that what they're seeing on instagram/tiktok is not the full reality, it still has an effect on them. I know because even I feel it sometimes.

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

#277

Post by krageon »

rendall wrote: post #237
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 With respect, I truly mean no insult when I say this is a naive and ignorant position. By every measure, the world is generally better than it has ever been. Far better than any decade in the past you could care to name. Despite media doom-and-glooming, there is every reason to expect that teens will inherit an overall materially better world th…

Can't buy a house, can't expect work with reasonable pay in most places, will probably be impacted severely by climate change, food prices are quickly becoming extremely high. The future is shit.

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

#278

Post by tomp »

tristor wrote: post #137
twayt wrote: post #83

Figure 2 that shows the rates of major depression among boys and girls is shocking. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 10 boys have been diagnosed with major depression. I wonder what the distribution is of others who haven't been diagnosed or deal with depression to a lower degree. Something that may be surprising to some people is that this trend isn't limited to boys and girls. From data collected in 2019/2020, 30% of people a…

> This number is skewed heavily towards women too All of the data I've seen on the mental health crisis in the West seems to indicate that it hits women harder than men. I have yet to see an explanation for why, though. Does anyone know of any articles that thoroughly cover this gender split in mental health and why this particular issue is more predominantly affecting women?

Not all the data.

Women attempt more suicides, but men commit more suicides.

Some people say that this trend looks to be reversing in teens (girls committing more suicides) but not sure that’s already clear in the data.

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

#279

Post by i_cannot_hack »

tapanjk wrote: post #175
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 can always fix it after they take control.

The oil cannot be unburnt. The glaciers cannot be refrozen. The species cannot be made unextinct. At least not in any human lifespan.

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

#280

Post by htlion »

rendall wrote: post #237
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 With respect, I truly mean no insult when I say this is a naive and ignorant position. By every measure, the world is generally better than it has ever been. Far better than any decade in the past you could care to name. Despite media doom-and-glooming, there is every reason to expect that teens will inherit an overall materially better world th…

I agree that the quality of life is currently better than it has even been. Though the future is looming because of climate change. Last year, a heat dome destroyed a tow in Canada, yet we are just at the beginning of the consequences. This year, we are seeing intense droughts in India as well as on the west coast. Scientists predicted that it would happen and it does, but this is just the start. We should be all on-board to prevent it and lower our fossil fuel consumption quickly to limit consequences. If you live in a rich country, just talk about energy sobriety around you and see how people react... > Today’s IPCC Working Group 1 Report is a code red for humanity. Sadly, even after the IPCC alarms, I have yet to see governments properly act. Young people know that, and they understand that their quality of life could be at its maximum at the moment, before decreasing due to climate change.

[0] https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/secretary-generals-statemen...

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