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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]

#341

Post by Nextgrid »

mlindner wrote: post #229
NalNezumi wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a teenager and 2008 housing crisis happened I cared quite a lot about it. Sure it never affected me personally or anyone around us, but I spent a lot of time watching documentaries and reading articles around it and got upset and cynical about the world/regulatory authorities. It wasn't social media, but ease to pirate movies and looking for documentaries recommendations online that led me to it. This noti…

I was also a teenager in 2008, as were many other people I know. If they weren't affected by it directly, most didn't even care. At the time I remember looking at the stock index dropping with some amusement and went on with my life.

If you weren't affected you were lucky enough that your parents were in a stable situation and have been able to wither the storm. But I'm sure there were (and still are) kids who aren't so lucky that were affected directly by their parents not being able to afford housing, food or heating.

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

#342

Post by vrfvr »

vlunkr wrote: post #205
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…

I think you're probably just projecting your own anxieties onto teens. It's been a while since I've been in touch with my teenage side, but what I remember people being stressed about was school work, family issues, bad dating experiences, bullying and all around bad social experiences, etc. The people who actually paid attention to politics were usually smart and well-adjusted. As a side note, your list seems highly…

> Climate change is causing distress, anger and other negative emotions in children and young people worldwide, a survey of thousands of 16- to 25-year-olds has found.

> The results, released in a preprint on 14 September1, found that most respondents were concerned about climate change, with nearly 60% saying they felt ‘very worried’ or ‘extremely worried’. Many associated negative emotions with climate change — the most commonly chosen were ‘sad’, ‘afraid’, ‘anxious’, ‘angry’ and ‘powerless’ (see ‘Climate anxiety’). Overall, 45% of participants said their feelings about climate change impacted their daily lives.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02582-8

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

#343

Post by bratwurst3000 »

saiya-jin wrote: post #301
maeln wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idk but in France, when I was still a teenager, it was not that uncommon to talk/joke about the fact that we will never be able to retire. In high school, most of my classmate already started to have a political conscience and where thinking about this kind of stuff. Same with the environment. We already had social media at the time (mostly facebook) and yes, I won't deny that there was already something anxious abou…

I can subscribe to the last sentence more than the rest. French are generally very interested in politics from youngish age, for better or worse (the amount of outright communism supporters there among young anywhere I spoke to is disheartening, especially for somebody like me who went through proper communism and saw first hand how it always fucks up individuals and nations for generations, and consistently fails to…

You have to differentiates between French Socialist and do communists of the east. French Socialism was very successful in the 70s and 80s. The reason France is so successful today is because of the communist regime in the 70s and 80s.

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

#344

Post by peoplefromibiza »

jackblemming wrote: post #327
bambax wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

With all due respect, please don’t trivialize how the pandemic impacted youth because your family was fine. Especially because many of their parents (if they’re fortunate enough to have both) probably lost their jobs.

Not op, but I don't think op is trivializing how pandemic impacted youth, I think he's saying that youngster are more resilient than we think they are and we project ours fears on them.

And than we trivialize how dangerous it is for their well being being bombarded by stories of personal success over nothing (being a popular tik toker is 99.99% luck) and let them do it anyway, because having to actually talk to them, have a meaningful relation with them or simply entertain them is hard and takes a lot of time and effort. so we let the screen rise them.

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

#345

Post by parineum »

graeme wrote: post #134
AbrahamParangi wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider the possibility that this perspective might be less a reflection of reality and more a reflection of the media environment.

A lot of that list is pure fact: Multiple major recessions —> 2008 was biggest since 1929. Dunno about multiple a global pandemic —> this happened and is still happening rising inflation —> objectively true. Though I suspect the oncoming recession will quash it as in 2008 housing and education getting more expensive by the day —> huge house and education price increases in past decade, far outstripping inflation pros…

> political extremism becoming the norm —> It definitely increased on both sides

Recent generations have seen multiple political assassinations and bombings. When was the last time you saw a fire hose and dogs used to clear protestors?

Tribalism is on the rise, extremism and violence are not.

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

#346

Post by Nextgrid »

DrSiemer wrote: post #145
abdel_nasser wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exactly. the equation has changed. people who dont fit in are now even more fucked. everyone is obligated to play this high stakes game that nobody asked for and that wasnt filtered through any kind of intelligent societal deliberation. nobody seems to be worried that kids make the rules in public schools, they bully each other viciously and kids who graduate from the system cant point to the country of portugal on a…

But most of them become very skilled in navigating the social media landscape, which is what actually matters to them. And the people that don't fit in will usually put more energy in other ways to express themselves and have a much higher chance of becoming Truly Interesting People, if they make it through that pressure cooker. It's tough and I'm glad I'm not a part of it, but it's not the end of all cohesion in soc…

Dealing with school bullies and other unpleasantness is a useful skill for adult life.

Dealing with the social media rat race is merely a "skill" to become a good little consumer to generate more "engagement" for the social media companies later in life.

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

#347

Post by mmarq »

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…

What about kids who didn’t have a yard where they could play? Those whose parents lost their jobs? Those that have been evicted because their parents could not pay ever increasing rents?

Besides, living in an economy that moves from recession to recession has an impact on the mental health of their parents, especially in economies with little or non-existent safety nets (see UK and US), and I’d be very surprised if that didn’t have repercussions on their kids’ mental health.

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

#349

Post by BlargMcLarg »

Longhanks wrote: post #316
alexvoda wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is the overall trajectory and the volume of information available. During WWII and the Cold War, other than the present or looming threat of war, things were generally improving. Also, without the internet, people did not really care about far away events. On the other hand, many of the challenges of today have been known for deacades(plural). A good portion of the anxiety is caused by watching in real…

I disagree. Within the cold war, the immediate threat was a nuclear war so devastating it would completely wipe out humanity's habitat, and most of humanity as well. The fear of that was known since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most people nowadays do not carry that fear. There's much more reason for hope today: Most of the problems, as you said, seem solvable, they've been known for decades. It's unlikely for Europe or t…

The same threats still exist today. We've even had multiple cases of fearmongering. On a smaller scale. How some countries would test their weapons on others. North Korea not too long ago. Heck, European countries are revisiting their military budgets in light of Russia invading Ukraine.

What changed is people can tell the world has become too competitive on a financial, emotional and social level. That's quite different from the cold war where the land was rife with opportunities as long as you held hope things wouldn't blow up tomorrow.

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

#350

Post by Broken_Hippo »

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…

"The things you are listing don't concern "teenagers" in their young teens, at all. They start being a problem for young adults, maybe"

That's just not true, though. I'm over 40: My first formal 'current events' portion of a social studies class happened when I was 12, IIRC. The first gulf war was the current topic.

Middle schoolers would be told now that they need to think about going to college, how doing well in high school is their only hope of a scholarship, and so on.

They know about political extremism: They just might not use those words. They might know someone that is queer and see the hate they get. Heck, they might be spewing the same hate as their parents.

They likely know about inflation even if they don't know what it is. Poverty - or even a tight budget - affects you as a child especially in the pre-teen and younger teen years. Parents stress over money, after all, and some of their peers might have struggled with homelessness, depending on where you live.

At 15, I had started to care about politics. I mean, I knew they were a thing since elementary (and the mock elections they held), but I saw how it affected me.

And of course they know about the fun things.

You probably didn't successfully forbit FB and Instagram if their friends don't use it: This is more common with younger folks than their parents. Plus, if they are out playing in the yard (Which I quit doing during middle school and there was no internet) they might be too young to care right now.

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