Is it because the world is more depressing? Inequality, injustice, war, climate change, lack of opportunity, loneliness, destruction of social systems by technology, decay of community values and the promise of a worse not better future. Is it that this generation is less well off than its parents, that housing is no longer affordable, that the world is polluted, that nuclear war has returned as a possibility, that c…
Turns out when people can't afford kids, healthcare, housing they are unhappy.
Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
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Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#42Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#43Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#4460 years ago you might have ended up in a psychiatric hospital without getting effective treatment, mental health issues were stigmatized and the incentive to seek out help was low. People used to just live a miserable life with their issues. Nowadays knowledge about mental health issues is widespread in the population, somewhat normalized and leading to people seeking help. I consider it realistic that depression di…
Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have to be genetically adapted to survive food deliveries and TikTok?
Why not? The claim (which I believe is well supported) is that these things hijack some innate impulses to trap us in bad decisions. If you consistently make bad decisions (eg, put off developing your life) your line is less likely to continue. This is just like animals that didn’t run from humans — they didn’t know to be scared of us and now they’re dead. Even massive things that could crush us can be killed if we s…
Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? The claim (which I believe is well supported) is that these things hijack some innate impulses to trap us in bad decisions. If you consistently make bad decisions (eg, put off developing your life) your line is less likely to continue. This is just like animals that didn’t run from humans — they didn’t know to be scared of us and now they’re dead. Even massive things that could crush us can be killed if we s…
So hopefully future generations develop an instinctive fear of food deliveries and TikTok, or what?
Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#47As someone living with a lifelong serious melted illness, I say this guy can F off. Strictly blaming depression on sociological factors is demeaning to those people with mood disorders. What about diet? What about nutrition? What about EMF’s? What about Covid infections? This blow hard with his three points, always three points by the way, is minimizing depression, and all people with mental illness.
Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? The claim (which I believe is well supported) is that these things hijack some innate impulses to trap us in bad decisions. If you consistently make bad decisions (eg, put off developing your life) your line is less likely to continue. This is just like animals that didn’t run from humans — they didn’t know to be scared of us and now they’re dead. Even massive things that could crush us can be killed if we s…
So hopefully future generations develop an instinctive fear of food deliveries and TikTok, or what?
1. Human reward-seeking becomes longer-term, with less of an emphasis on short term rewards. I'd bet this trend has probably already been ongoing for a long time. But I wonder if there are some negative effects of this -- for example perhaps it takes us longer to learn things that truly do have very quick, direct feedback loops. Maybe it takes us longer to learn how to walk, swim, etc as a result.
2. Screen-avoidant communities start to dominate the human population. Eg, Amish communities, "traditionalist" communities like that, your friends that religiously don't use social media, etc. I'd bet this is already happening too! Would be really interesting to look at the proportion of new births, perhaps controlling for usage of birth control. I wonder if this effect could result in humanity generally becoming more religious (as opposed to the recent trend of becoming less religious). Admittedly, this is more of a cultural change than a change in our dna, but I feel it fits the category -- it's a widespread change across humanity in response to the pressure of distracting apps.
3. Humans grow a stronger distaste for blue light. I suspect this wouldn't be the "end" state, because if it happens we'll probably just start buliding devices that put off less blue light.
Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#4960 years ago you might have ended up in a psychiatric hospital without getting effective treatment, mental health issues were stigmatized and the incentive to seek out help was low. People used to just live a miserable life with their issues. Nowadays knowledge about mental health issues is widespread in the population, somewhat normalized and leading to people seeking help. I consider it realistic that depression di…
It is also possible that depression itself is more widespread. But it seems exceedingly likely that acceptance, willingness to talk about it, and general understanding that the correct answer to "chemical imbalance in the brain" is not "cheer up!", have improved substantially.
Re: Depression has tripled in the last 15 years. Arthur Brooks about the cause
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Watch any movie, typically the protagonist is good looking and antagonist is ugly. That's the whole answer. In Game of Thrones director had a chance to make the dwarf (protagonist ) really ugly, like in the books, but they chose a good looking actor. Same for Harry Potter, Hermione was supposed to be meh.
That's absolutely not the whole answer and never has been. - People who crave validation seek good looks. They want to be accepted. - People who crave status seek good looks. They want to be awarded. - People who crave admiration seek good looks. They want to be desired. There are so, so many more possible reasons and motivations, and it highly depends on the individual. Someone could have all of the above or none of…