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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

#501

Post by jessaustin »

WalterBright wrote: post #248
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…

> our current situation is particularly perilous How so?

Our leaders are attempting to start a nuclear war, after twenty years of disastrous wars that have enriched armaments manufacturers while murdering millions of innocents.

Working people haven't had a raise since 1971.

We spend twice as much on health care as any other nation, but only Peru, Brazil, and several nations in Eastern Europe had worse results from covid. All of Africa cared for covid cases better than we did.

I'm sure you can think of other issues.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#502

Post by swader999 »

romeoblade wrote: post #156
1234letshaveatw wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

right, teen kids are so worried about healthcare costs! Gimmie a break, your comment has nothing to do with the article, it's low effort and a better fit for reddit

I'm not yet 40 but I am a male single parent. With the closest family being 1300 miles away. Last year between March-May my health deteriorated so bad that I went from being fine to walking with a cane in less than 2 months. Once finally diagnosed, I went from diagnoses to major surgery in less than 12 days. My daughter (just turned 16), picked up the slack as I become pretty much bed ridden. I can attest that this h…

I think you identified something here. Kids are very capable, often more than us and if we let them, they can be just like adults. But we really do need them to just be kids and not carry all our burdens. I really hope you two get a break.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#503

Post by WalterBright »

nugget wrote: post #455
WalterBright wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> break under this kind of pressure They aren't being drafted to go fight in Vietnam. The Russians aren't bombing our cities. The main health problem is eating too much food, not too little. Teens aren't even expected to have jobs anymore. (In my day, teens got jobs at 16.) My dad volunteered in WW2. He expected to die in combat, as his cohort had an 80% casualty rate. 4 out of 5. Every mission meant holes in the air…

My grandfather survived Pearl Harbor and became a B-25 pilot in one of those cohorts with an 80%+ casualty rate. As a kid, I enjoyed reading and hearing about his experiences. It made me proud of his service. But I'm not sure it lessened the stresses and anxieties I felt during my own adolescence. Years later when a close family member had a near death/should have died experience, that meaningfully altered my perspec…

Your dad and mine were members of a very special club, and I'm sure they would have been fast friends. Thanks for talking about him!

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#504

Post by bodiekane »

htag wrote: post #488
com2kid wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I went to Western in early 00s, the CS department's theory seemed to be to allow anyone to attempt to join, and then just ruthlessly fail people in the first year. Between Ada, Scheme, C, and C++, class sizes shrunk fast . IMHO this is more fair than making the department hard to get into. Let everyone have a go at it.

1. It can look like a cash grab to take a semester or two of tuition from traditionally middle performing students before failing them out. 2. College admission and graduation rates are important and watched.

"College admission rates are important" is an arbitrary thing society developed, which people are increasingly realizing is largely counterproductive and unrelated to anything meaningful.

Getting into a highly selective school mostly just means the student fit one of a handful of profiles at age 18 which the admissions process looked for, most of which have little to do with the students actual abilities or aptitudes. But thanks to nepotism, network effects and the cultural belief in those schools representing "the elite", there is a significant self-fulfilling prophecy.

Overall, society would probably be better if we all admitted it's a farce, and focused more on what people accomplish in college and after, rather than giving such power to the admissions staff at a handful of universities.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#505

Post by swader999 »

zabzonk wrote: post #223
purpleblue wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son is 10 and is naturally accelerated across many subjects (12th grade proficiency in ELA, 9th grade proficiency in Math, talented in music, writing, etc). We have been actively indoctrinating our kids with the idea that college is not the be-all-end-all, that they should NOT apply for Ivy schools, 3rd tier schools are very good and if they want to go abroad or even eschew college altogether, we will support them…

you do know that "indoctrinating" is not a positive thing to do?

That's just a word. They are parenting and looking after their kids welfare as best they can.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#506

Post by geenew »

gnramires wrote: post #118
vkk8 wrote: post #51

Anecdotally, I was (as probably many here were) ahead of the curve in digital devices usage when I started hanging out in IRC and various web forums as a teenager in early 2000s. At some point I noticed that just using computers induced some amount of anxiety compared to "old tech"; whenever there was some period of time when I used my computer less (like christmas, vacations, etc.) and joined back to the "world of t…

> Can you think of other activities that require this? Well, reading books (and other documents). I also am suspicious of screens (and specially spending too much time on them... I'm certainly guilty), but the existence of books is somewhat confusing in this regard. However, I really don't think the population as a whole was reading quite as many books/documents as we today use digital devices or social media. That c…

> reading books

Not sure how much currency this has lately, but back at the dawn of Web 2.0, this was well-known comedy. Relates 'books' to 'tech'.

Medieval helpdesk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#508

Post by retrac »

oneoff786 wrote: post #466
retrac wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People do need common culture. I have a friend in his mid-20s and he is always "Do you know [YouTube personality]?" or showing me memes that require extensive explanations. And we're actually very similar people in many ways. Some of this is just me not being hip with the next generation's culture. But he also has not seen almost any of what I would call the American film canon. So we can't even discuss cheesy 80s ac…

Ok but… this is so obviously a generational thing. You know who does know the YouTuber? His peers. He does not watch cheesy 80s films and you don’t watch 40s theater. People absolutely don’t need mainstream media. Mainstream media hits the lowest common denominator and tends to suck. I think most YouTubers and uncomfortably fake to watch, but I would still prefer people watch that over mainstream tv…

I'm only some ten years older. The films I spoke of were released before I was born. Yet most of my generation is familiar with some of them. Star Wars, then. Or Schindler's List. Maybe I'm Spielberg biased. The Exorcist.

My point is that there was such a thing -- a common film canon -- that people who were interested in film, could be expected to be somewhat familiar with. No longer true?

Yes. Lowest common denominator. Some common point of reference gives a common vocabulary. Even if it sucks.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic began around 2012

#510

Post by MuffinFlavored »

Andrex wrote: post #379
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does one measure whether it's a net positive (for those who are laughing/dancing with their friends at the park) or a net negative (for those like you described) without being biased/projecting? It feels a little "anarchist" to say "down with all social media! it's most likely a total net negative! nobody should be allowed to enjoy it because it isn't inclusive of those who might be left out!"

> It feels a little "anarchist" to say "down with all social media! it's most likely a total net negative! nobody should be allowed to enjoy it because it isn't inclusive of those who might be left out!" The middle ground I've settled on is regulating it like alcohol. Children should not be hanging out in bars and they should not be on social networking sites, period. COPPA should be vastly expanded. Social media is…

> Children should not be hanging out in bars and they should not be on social networking sites, period.

Have you ever watched a child watch YouTube before? I don't know if comments are turned off for kids videos (maybe they are) but most kids videos have 2m+ views if not much more.

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