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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]

#451

Post by annyeonghada »

maeln wrote: post #258
moonchrome wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think teenagers are thinking about pensions... If they are they are probably already having mental issues because that's not something someone pre 20s should be concerned about. People in this thread need to stop projecting their problems and worldviews as universal social issues.

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…

>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.

The same in Italy. It was very disheartening and certainly contributed to our discontent.

>home ownership becoming harder and harder

This is starting to weigh more and more in our life (mine and my age cohort). The average monthly pay in my region is 1200EUR while the average cost of an house is 250000EUR, so 17 years of salary. On the other hand my father bought two houses with a manual laborer stipend and my mother never worked a day in her life and she had four children. I really don't know when (or better, if) I will be out of my house.

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

#452

Post by Jcowell »

pydry wrote: post #407
Shared404 wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, as a 20 year old I've been told my whole life that I'll be paying for social security but never see the money. Same for most of my peers.

This is part of the effort to kill it. If enough people believe it is a ponzi scheme, unsustainable, etc. then the political impetus to either privatize or get rid of it can be mustered. Social security is very popular among the working classes (especially retired ofc) and deeply unpopular among the upper classes who see it as a tax burden on them that makes their workers lazy.

I understand this but I think a big question needs to be asked and answered: Will someone born >= 1990 who lives until retirement see Social Security?

It doesn’t matter how popular it is , will we actually see it ?

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

#453

Post by germinalphrase »

crate_barre wrote: post #111
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…

How do you differentiate what you are saying versus what people have always said about reading comic books all day, or playing video games all day, watching tv, listening to certain music, spending all your time on the internet, etc? Life is boring as fuck. It really is. It takes a lot to keep a human captivated.

I wouldn’t say doing anything all day is healthy.

But - I would also argue that boredom is not a negative state of mind. Boredom motivates us to think, to dream, to change, to move our bodies, to be creative, to seek connection, to free associate, to let our minds rest, to..., to..., to…

Perhaps, our minds aren’t built to be captivated all day (though the root of the word does feel appropriate to the conversation).

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

#454

Post by germinalphrase »

XorNot wrote: post #81
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…

Insert Socrates quote here. What adults think they understand about current trends in teenage culture were laughably wrong when I was a teenager, and there's no reason to think the trend has changed.

My point is that it’s not all kids. I’m also not Socrates shaking my fist at kids being slovenly and disrespectful; I like teenagers and enjoy their passions and interests. I actually enjoy their stupid little dances and social media silliness.

That said, the issue is the all encompassing nature of it. Always on. Less time interacting with peers. Less time in extended thought. Less time even with their own thoughts.

I’ve taught high schoolers in the countryside, the city and the fancy suburbs both pre and post smartphone. The transition feels rapid and noticeable.

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

#455

Post by bowsamic »

wolverine876 wrote: post #123
jsiaajdsdaa wrote: post #121

Play some video games, research something interesting, stay in school but don't take it too seriously, and learn a marketable skill slowly. Do this, dgaf about everyone else, you'll be ok.

> dgaf about everyone else, you'll be ok It sounds cool but it could be taken as serious advice. If that's how you truly feel and act, you are not ok and you are missing out on what is most rewarding in life.

It's not at all worth the risk. I'd rather be not okay and not attached to conditions of reality than be "okay" and attached to conditions

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

#456

Post by Jcowell »

engineeringwoke wrote: post #441
holdonasec wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that the United States is conceptually a single country is our single greatest flaw. We’d all be so much better off if we just admitted strong consensus is vanishingly unlikely between every state and territory. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. People can disagree and chip in on a military to defend their shared interests, like staying alive, together. I don’t think the EU and the US are very diff…

No offence, everyone is the same in the United States. You talk of left and right but you're both playing the same ball game. I'm from the American South and I lived in Europe for four years with the rest in the Northeast US, so I do actually know. Just because people pick the different color team doesn't make them different than you. The same unstable people in New York go hard left and the same unstable people in M…

While we surely have more similarities than The people of the Netherlands have differences, we also have enough differences to not qualify us as the same. I think what’s not really understood is that picking democrats or republicans is not an end sum game. A sizable people probably don’t even know or care of either parties full platform. For some, certain beliefs that a party posses are enough for people to align with them and some of these beliefs are fundamental to who they are.

Can a person from Kentucky and New York share beliefs ? Of course. Are we the same ? Women and LGBTQ+ people might disagree.

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

#457

Post by refurb »

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 as an adult, I can surf social media, chuckle at the bizarre opinions, recognize when someone is lashing out and see the teenage angst for what it is.

But I also know social media is not representative of the population. Maybe 1-2% of people make up 90%+ of the content.

It’s also a place where lonely and depressed people can go and feel heard and commiserate.

Teenagers don’t have the life experience to know that and have their own life direction and purpose to keep them occupied.

Teenage years are a struggle for everyone, so I can only imagine how hard they must be when a social media echo chamber reinforces the futility of it all.

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

#458

Post by y4mi »

moonchrome wrote: post #196
Semaphor wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Situation wrt to teen mental health is similar in Europe, but there's a much smaller graduation debt. We have other issues here, though (speaking for the situation in Germany). I’m quite some time out of my teens at 36, but for many years now I’ve been told that all that tax (technically not a tax) I pay for my pension will not result in me getting any meaningful pension. For people who are currently teenagers it p…

You think teenagers are thinking about pensions... If they are they are probably already having mental issues because that's not something someone pre 20s should be concerned about. People in this thread need to stop projecting their problems and worldviews as universal social issues.

> You think teenagers are thinking about pensions...

A lot of them will be doing that, yes. They're teenagers until their 20th birthday, and a lot of people start to work between 16 and 20. In Germany, all of them will be paying a lot of their paycheck for the current pensioners.

It's called a generational contract here, and it boils down to current workers paying the current pensions - so when theyre ready for theirs, it will be the responsibility of that workforce to shoulder that burden.

This will fail within the next 20-30 years, realistically speaking and arguably already failed, as current pensioners are often extremely poor.

The parent comment was spot on with their comment wrt Germany, which was the context they explicitly set

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

#459

Post by Jcowell »

meerita wrote: post #303
tgv wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

+1 kids from previous generations lived under much worse conditions. Not only economical ones, but also social (wars, technology, etc.)

It depends where you are ? A male kid from Kentucky probably didn’t see his life get worse in the last 60 years. A kid from Yemen & Afghanistan (and now Ukraine) more than likely did.
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