Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf] • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by bratwurst3000 » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:30 AM UTC

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…

You are talking about millenias and not teen. Most of us where 20 when 2008 happend and then the eurocrises…. Jobs ate getting worse paid in releation to inflation … and and and and … wait till teens are late 20s then they are fucked

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

#332

Post by andyjohnson0 » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:30 AM UTC

tgv wrote: post #167

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…

> Multiple major recessions 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…

> One. They lived through one major recession

If seems like one continuous recession since 2008 - at least here in the UK, and I suspect also in many places. Nearly a decade and a half of austerity and failure: what does that do to their hopes for the future? My children (both teenagers) ask me "has it always been like this?" I was a child/teen in the seventies and I remember thinking the same thing.

Add to that the perma-war, the climate crisis, massive and pervasive social inequality, housing and employment precarity, Trump/Putin, Brexit...

> Perhaps it's social media that makes that they are either too aware of it or simply mention it more often.

Teenagers know what's coming down the road. They just, broadly, haven't developed the adult habits of denial and avoidance yet. We need to listen to them, not tell them that they are "too aware".

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

#333

Post by itronitron » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:30 AM UTC

elevaet wrote: post #125

germinalphrase wrote: post #22

My entirely anecdotal impression as a high school teacher is that media (in general, often but not always “social” media) is doing an exceptional job of sucking up teenagers’ every waking moment that is not actively demanded to be focused on something else. It’s pleasure without joy. Ennui without boredom. Their social skills (and social interest) appear markedly reduced even compared to even five years ago. So many…

As a parent of a 10 and 7yo your insight here is absolutely golden. I worry a lot about my kids getting sucked into that world. Right now we're keeping them well away from social media, and very little and restricted screen time. Your comment gives me confidence that this is the right approach, but I'm not sure yet how to navigate it as they enter their teenage years and all their friends have phones. We are leaning…

If I could go back and change one thing about my teenagers' educations it would be to homeschool them during the middle school years. They go from ~30 interpersonal relationships in elementary school to upwards of ~150 to ~210 in middle school at a time when they, or their classmates, are beginning adolescence.

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

#334

Post by SunlightEdge » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:31 AM UTC

Interesting report. I think we should ban teenagers/children from having smart phones. Calling and texting aside, teenagers don't need phones. As an education tool, laptops/desktops are invaluable for teenagers. I'm uncertain of the best way to manage these devices with teenagers. Perhaps limiting the internet connection to their devices might work - e.g. only for an hour when a parent is around. Perhaps parents do not provide enough protection.

Broadly encouraging positive behaviours and exercise, and giving teenagers good defenses against difficult issues (bullying, negative thoughts, loneliness) could all help.

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

#335

Post by parineum » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:32 AM UTC

tetris11 wrote: post #293

rendall wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 clai…

They rang the alarm bells because they saw the trend and tried to curb it. They knew things would get bad, not neccesarily at an exact date. We are only now experiencing the contributions to the atmosphere made at the dawn of the last century. This delayed effect is worrying to say the least.

They're not talking specifically about climate change. Doomsayers have always existed, warranted or not. Previously, it seemed inevitable that the cold war would end in a massive nuclear exchange and yet here we are. That was a very real threat, just like climate change, but it was avoided. We also have AI/Singularity doomsayers right now and, previously, Bird flu, SARS, Ebola, etc. and where the doom actually came, humanity has survived just fine.

Through all of that, everything has gotten better.

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

#336

Post by mandmandam » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:32 AM UTC

bambax wrote: post #319

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…

Mmm, what? The things you are listing don't concern "teenagers" in their young teens, at all. They start being a problem for young adults, maybe. The study in question debates young teens, ages 11-13 and 13-15, well before college. In my experience as a parent of young teens, while they're sensitive to climate issues and of course "suffered" [1] during the pandemic, they aren't politicized, don't care about house pri…

> they aren't politicized, don't care about house prices, and don't know what "inflation" even means.

Those things are heavily affecting teenagers mental health even if they don't give a flying about them. Poverty, uncertainty, and anxiety in the family home have serious and lasting, even generational consequences.

The "I'm alright Jack"-ness of that statement is making me actually angry. You think forbidding the social media of 20yo's from your teenagers is making a difference? You put "suffered" in quotes? Gross.

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

#337

Post by Mordisquitos » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:32 AM UTC

nsenifty wrote: post #200

carlivar wrote: post #71

Working for Facebook/Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. is today's equivalent of working for a tobacco company.

Why not add cellphone manufacturers? If social media is equivalent of tobacco, the cellphone is the pipe/cigarette/ .

I would say that the mobile phone manufacturers are, if anything, analogous to tobacconists. They do provide access to the noxious stuff, and one may argue it is their main source of income, but they also provide other non-harmful and even necessary products (depending on culture, in Spain for instance tobacconists would traditionally also sell postal stamps, bus tickets, etc.).

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

#338

Post by modo_mario » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:33 AM UTC

mlindner wrote: post #218

vanviegen wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it definitely will not be "unlivable" Yeah, we will probably survive for the next 50 years at least. But climate events will be making life a lot harder. Droughts, floods, forest fires and tornados will be wrecking havoc in many places. Even if you don't live in one of those places, you'll be feeling the effects through shortages (as we're currently experiencing a very small taste of in Europe), refugees and politi…

> Yeah, we will probably survive for the next 50 years at least. I feel like you are fundamentally misinformed here. It has never been the case that IPCC predicted "end of the world" in terms of climate predictions, even in the worst case. And in fact things have been improving since the worst predictions. We are currently headed to a 3 degrees C temperature increase. Which will cause global hardship on a massive lev…

>We are currently headed to a 3 degrees C temperature increase. Which will cause global hardship on a massive level, but it's not anywhere near what's needed to wipe out even civilization let alone all/most humans.

No but with that also comes a bigger variance in extremes. Which brings more things like the current ridiculous heatwave and crop issues in india and pakistan which have what...1.5 billion people? Things like this should absolutely shock people. Much much smaller things like 9/11 have caused shocked and awe.

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

#339

Post by RGamma » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:34 AM UTC

2014 is a curious date, because it's when I first understood that my utterly optimistic outlook on what the internet would do to at least western culture/society was misdirected.

It's when I first noticed how loud, oblivious and frenetic online interaction became at large and how - by self-selection - sociopaths took the lead on the stage that big central platforms provided them. But what I found/find even sadder were/are the engagement numbers around shallow multimedial diarrhea and influencers.

It's also the year I sharply cut back on my internet usage by about 90% and quit all communities (perhaps prematurely, but I was sort of shellshocked).

HN is almost all that's left (except one venerable gaming community) and it itself I consider one of the shallower communities (this is structural because of the lack of longitudinal communication since discussions are keyed on links, not longer-lived standalone threads. The crowd makes up for it though).

And now... I'm glad I made the connections and experiences I did before then, some of which carried over to today. I also learned how the psychopathological spectrum does not just exist in textbooks and how to bail when confronted with it.

Maybe when I have less things on my plate I'll stretch out my feelers once more and visit a couple online villages like I enjoyed so much back then.

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

#340

Post by mtlmtlmtlmtl » Thu, May 05, 2022, 8:35 AM UTC

cloutchaser wrote: post #285

sofixa wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you actually read the IPCC report, or only read what the media says about it? There’s a huge difference. The IPCC, the consensus of scientists says that the rate of growth in the world will slow. That’s it. And that’s turned into an “earth will become a fireball” narrative by the media. Therefore the actual scientific consensus is the world will get better more slowly, not that it will get worse. Stop listening…

Nonsense. The scientific consensus does not simply say that one thing or another will happen. There is a number of possible scenarios each of which is assigned some likelihood according to modelling(informed by empirical data). No serious scientist is saying "X will happen and that's it". That's an inherently unscientific statement.