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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]

#491

Post by to11mtm »

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…

> The 80s weren't a happy time, and there are no signs that that had such an impact on teen mental health

Are we sure about that? The fun thing with a lot of childhood trauma can take years to surface, let alone figure out. I personally wonder whether it has contributed to our race towards a kleptocratic society.

I can say that personally, while I was born in the early 80s, the recession had an impact on my family. Essentially, my parents chose to focus their efforts on making sure we could get as many college grants/scholarships as possible. An insanely intense focus on education and being able to sustain oneself. Didn't quite work out how they hoped.

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

#492

Post by amachefe »

Yeah, Lets blame it on the social thing aka the present thing.

As if it teams mental health has always been great. I guess Social Media started the class cliques too in schools, the competition, the social pressure.

Social media started the 24hrs news cycle that is bombing everyone and making it look like the world is ending the next hour.

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

#493

Post by sidewndr46 »

silisili wrote: post #108
treespace8 wrote: post #18

Parent of a teen, one anecdote to add. You see what all your friends are doing all the time. Every gathering or event that you where not a part of you see, sometimes in real time. People hate being excluded, and this greatly amplifies this feeling. I'm certain I missed out on a ton of cool stuff as a kid, but at least I didn't have to see it.

Similar, but different. I don't let my child use social media at all, and limited to 30 mins screen time total a day. She's excluded in that all her friends use TikTok, and she can't. Maybe it's for the best. My parents used to say 'if all your friends jumped off a bridge...', and I hated it, so I haven't used that one yet. I'm trying to rely on actual merits instead of follower cliches.

Can I ask how old your child is? By the time I was a teenager, I needed greater than 30 minutes of screen time just to complete assignments. One high school class alone was over and an hour and a half on the computer.

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

#494

Post by jliptzin »

indymike wrote: post #481

Unpopular opinion: Social media is a great scapegoat, but it is not the source of the problem. It is where they go to communicate and cope. My sole qualification to post this: I have four kids that are either teens or in their early 20s, and one who will be a teen next year. Here is what I see out there: 1. Kids have little or no slack in their schedule. This means very little freedom, and very little time to work th…

Seems very plausible to me, I don’t think this is an unpopular opinion

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

#495

Post by snikeris »

mschuster91 wrote: post #394
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…

> Perhaps it's social media that makes that they are either too aware of it or simply mention it more often. Or rather, they see how historically threats were dealt with: lead was banned, CFCs were banned, sulphur in fuel was banned - in short, environmental threats were met with decisive action. And then they see how scientists have warned for decades now about climate change and they can clearly see that nothing ha…

Perhaps the threats that were met with decisive action were better understood. What decisive actions should be taken in this case?

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

#496

Post by ejb999 »

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…

>>a mountain of debt right after graduation

Average debt upon graduation is approx. $31K, less than the cost of a mid-grade car.

I would not call that 'a mountain', and unlike a car which will rapidly depreciate in a very short amount of time, getting a decent college degree will pay dividends throughout your life in increased earnings power.

According to govt estimates, the average lifetime earnings difference between someone with just a high-school diploma, and someone with a college degree is - on average $550,000.

A $550,000 improvement in lifetime earnings in exchange for $31K in debt, seems like one of the best investments you can make.

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

#497

Post by dash2 »

indymike wrote: post #481

Unpopular opinion: Social media is a great scapegoat, but it is not the source of the problem. It is where they go to communicate and cope. My sole qualification to post this: I have four kids that are either teens or in their early 20s, and one who will be a teen next year. Here is what I see out there: 1. Kids have little or no slack in their schedule. This means very little freedom, and very little time to work th…

The article makes a strong claim, based on evidence, that social media and not anything else is the real culprit. Why is it wrong? What evidence supports your alternative proposed causes?

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

#498

Post by lupire »

nivenkos wrote: post #295
ben_w wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both for you and the person you are replying to, I would caution that “Europe” isn’t one country like the USA, even just the EU is 27 smaller countries in a trenchcoat — the average may be lower, but bits are higher. University tuition is wildly variable and not directly proportional to income: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuition_payments (Housing costs are also wildly variable, but I don’t know where to get enough…

Yeah, I am European, I've lived and worked in 3 different EU countries. But Americans really don't appreciate how lucky they are. An American CS college grad can earn more than almost all senior/staff engineers anywhere in the EU e.g. ~$150k.

That's an extremely small group of lucky Americans, who happen to hang out on HN.

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

#499

Post by [deleted] »

indymike wrote: post #481

Unpopular opinion: Social media is a great scapegoat, but it is not the source of the problem. It is where they go to communicate and cope. My sole qualification to post this: I have four kids that are either teens or in their early 20s, and one who will be a teen next year. Here is what I see out there: 1. Kids have little or no slack in their schedule. This means very little freedom, and very little time to work th…

[deleted]

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

#500

Post by lupire »

holdonasec wrote: post #326
ben_w wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both for you and the person you are replying to, I would caution that “Europe” isn’t one country like the USA, even just the EU is 27 smaller countries in a trenchcoat — the average may be lower, but bits are higher. University tuition is wildly variable and not directly proportional to income: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuition_payments (Housing costs are also wildly variable, but I don’t know where to get enough…

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…

Urban vs Rural is a far stronger effect than State 1 vs State 2.
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