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The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

jonathanhaidt.substack.com

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Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#341

Post by Justsignedup »

causi wrote: post #272
Justsignedup wrote: post #262

Biggest issue I'm seeing is people in the digital ecosystems (even myself) often lack in high quality friends who they regularly see. I noticed how I would form bonds with people over a game, but as soon as we both move on, we effectively just fizzle away and lose friends. Meanwhile my daughter is having similar issues. She has more closer ties to people online than in the physical world, which means that when we wan…

Indeed. Real people are just so danged inconvenient . Even just talking to them involves this degree of ritual where the desired communication is bookended with wasted time on introductory small talk and then a denouement you're never quite sure where it ends. If you're meeting up in person it's almost guaranteed you're going to be tired of their company before you actually leave, and then you have wasted time again…

in the past this was the only way, now there's an easier way, but easier is not necessarily better. But easier is the way most would choose.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#342

Post by codeslave13 »

nluken wrote: post #79

While I don't doubt that social media can drive some of these mental health issues, I think most teenagers are simply stressed from the constant work that's necessary for the college admissions process. I'm 24, so I would have been a teenager in 2012, but I didn't have a smartphone until I was 16 or so. My high school experience consisted almost entirely of school, studying, and running (my primary extracurricular).…

Having a child that hit teens then and hindsight being 20/20. Crazy parents and social media i feel can be the root of the majority of. Really location specific and not the deciding factor but it laid a solid foundation for mental health issues even today.

No citations or anything just my exp as a Dad.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#343

Post by officeplant »

sammalloy wrote: post #338
officeplant wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>society began to open up more to these ideas I'm a late 80s Gulf Coast America kid and any talk about therapy of depression growing up in the 90s/2000s was met with disbelief or family being upset that I'm not praying enough to Jesus. Those same people are now gladly taking anti-anxiety meds and dabbling in therapy. It was obvious to me as a kid that plenty of people need some form of help or therapy even if it's ju…

Well said. Do you follow Kitty Tait and the Orange Bakery? I just bought her book "Breadsong" as a gift. Her story about dealing with mental illness is incredibly inspiring. Check it out.

No but I'll check it out/add it to the list.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#344

Post by fjdiemsloien »

mouse_ wrote: post #196
jahsome wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you honestly see value in comparing scars? Does that matter in any meaningful way? The worst stress of someone's life is the worst stress of their life. It's unproductive and petty to bicker about who has it worse. If life is stressful for anyone, regardless of status, title, age, etc. there's a good chance it's undeserved. The takeaway is to treat people better, not dismiss their stressors as less significant.

Do you honestly not see how your own narrative could be seen as dismissive to the vast majority of the world? And yes, I do see value in comparing scars, as do most people who do not reside in the high tower. I understand the social rift between you and I is comparable to living on a different planet, and I forgive you for not getting that, but others may not. Please just understand that our current situation is part…

What's the worst stress you've ever experienced?

What's the worst stress the person you're replying to has ever experienced?

I'm very curious about how you know so much about the parent commenter's life compared to your own.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#345

Post by nradov »

e40 wrote: post #256
nradov wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What deteriorating job market? Despite some recent high profile tech industry layoffs, the US unemployment rate is 3.4%. There are jobs available for those who want to work. They may have to move. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/yellen-you-dont-have-rece... A recent survey showed that most college students seriously overestimate their earnings potential. There is a mismatch in expectations. Students graduating wit…

Yeah, that was badly phrased. I was replying too quickly. Yes, the job market has roared back in the last couple of years, but before that it was cooler. But, I should have mentioned other things besides jobs. The world is a pretty bleak place, in a lot of ways. Yeah, the cold war was always hovering about, but it was not really something that my peers really worried about.

The world is less bleak now than it has ever been in human history. If you zoom out and look beyond the news headlines we as a species are doing pretty well. Rates of extreme poverty are down worldwide and relatively few people are starving to death or being killed in wars.

The world still has a lot of problems but let's be objective about the data instead of succumbing to defeatist narratives.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#346

Post by lcnPylGDnU4H9OF »

antihipocrat wrote: post #224
mouse_ wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you honestly not see how your own narrative could be seen as dismissive to the vast majority of the world? And yes, I do see value in comparing scars, as do most people who do not reside in the high tower. I understand the social rift between you and I is comparable to living on a different planet, and I forgive you for not getting that, but others may not. Please just understand that our current situation is part…

The physical experience and effects of enduring a stressful environment is the same for everyone regardless of who they are, where they're from, or what they are doing. An equivalent high stress environment can occur whether working in an executive office, working in a call center or selling bracelets on the street. Learning to overcome high stress experiences is a transferrable skill regardless of the context in whi…

> An equivalent high stress environment can occur whether working in an executive office, working in a call center or selling bracelets on the street.

This doesn't necessarily mean an equivalent high-stress life. The call center employee has fewer or worse options for dealing with stressors outside their job which they share with the executive.

> I need to eat.

> I need to travel.

> I need somewhere to live.

By and large these things cost money and the person who doesn't have to worry about having enough money for such things is going to have less stress in their life.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#347

Post by nebula8804 »

carabiner wrote: post #90
nluken wrote: post #79

While I don't doubt that social media can drive some of these mental health issues, I think most teenagers are simply stressed from the constant work that's necessary for the college admissions process. I'm 24, so I would have been a teenager in 2012, but I didn't have a smartphone until I was 16 or so. My high school experience consisted almost entirely of school, studying, and running (my primary extracurricular).…

40% of high school students don't go to college (of any type). Of those, only a tiny portion are focused on elite universities. Many are just going to Long Beach State, University of Redlands and other 4 year schools that you've never heard of. They have lax admissions. Among adult Americans, only a third have bachelors degrees. Certainly the high pressure scholastic environment of certain high schools is not common.

Where did this 40% come from and is it lumping in all generations or just Gen-Z?

I found this source that may or many not be authoritative that says 57% of Gen-Z is attending college, furthermore I have heard from the grapevine that Gen Z has been pushed more into STEM than any other generation.

[1]:https://timely.md/blog/generation-z-college-students/#:~:tex....

[2]:https://thejournal.com/articles/2022/06/21/stem-fields-are-t...

Personally as a developer that is overseeing hiring, I see more and more Gen-Z people coming into the pipeline in greater numbers. Looking at my alma mater(public state level engineering college) the CS dept is exploding. When I attended in 06, it was more of a snoozefest.

But this is one datapoint and probably biased. It just seems like every Gen-Z I encounter(im a millenial) seems very pragmatic and cynical in their choices and that may be leading to more practical career choices like STEM.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#348

Post by Spivak »

DanHulton wrote: post #263
kypro wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the opposite could be true – that we're too quick to diagnose mental illnesses in kids today. In the last few years I've witnessed several kids in my family get referred to doctors for potential mental illnesses and then end up on a cocktail of drugs as a result. It's something I've found really difficult because I was never personally convinced they were mentally ill in the first place and in many cases thes…

sigh Well, _I_ think it's going too far. Way too far. Myself, for example, I had raging ADHD throughout my life and only recently in my 40s started to get treatment. And incidentally, treatment isn't _just_ drugs, it's also counseling, to help identify coping mechanisms, work through trauma, identify strategies to help you to become effective despite working differently from how neurotypical people work. I'm in a goo…

> It took a lot of work for me to not feel grief over how my life could have been different if I had been diagnosed earlier, if I had had the level of treatment available now, back then.

That shit is way to real.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#349

Post by yamtaddle »

monknomo wrote: post #308
yamtaddle wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My oldest plays baseball, he started in kindergarten, and has played all the way to high school now. He loves the game, but we also made sure it was a game, not a job. All kids in his class who could afford it were on travel teams, starting in first grade. All but three have private coaches for whatever position they specialize in. . . starting in first grade. The parents sponsored tournaments. The parents made sur…

Parks & rec funding has also cratered so the "little league" that you think of as a way of putting together local kids of all abilities to play a sport is less common that it used to be. The privatized equivalents are usually more competitive or religiously focused or both

Oh man—is that part of it? Now that you mention it, all the leagues I used to play on were either city-run leagues or YMCA (which seems to have shifted toward the very-casual end, too, but maybe that's just our local ones) I think.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#350

Post by yamtaddle »

munificent wrote: post #309
yamtaddle wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> wanting to tune out of the horror show that is the world by staring at their phone. Yikes—dead wrong way to do it. About the only other way to get 1/10 as much exposure to the "horror show" would be cable news.

A lot of people looking at their phones are just watching TikToks of people dancing to 80s songs with their dog and weird shit like that. They aren't all doomscrolling the news.

Sure, fair point.
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