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The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

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Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#571

Post by verisimi »

geodel wrote: post #59

My theory is it is effect of ever faster economic growth across the world. Now it has given great many benefits to great many people. Negative effects so far discussed are only in term of destruction of ecology, depletion of natural resources, pollution etc. To me this growth has created a sense of anxiety in all teens and older. Now the societal structures, jobs, careers, education, medicine etc do not change over m…

My theory is that this is by design. Unhappy people buy things to make them feel happy - this is beneficial to corporations and governments. The answers are within, but the won't be found in this or that product, government, teachers, careers, mental health workers, etc.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#572

Post by goatlover »

smeagull wrote: post #103
nradov wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mentioned the "effect of ever faster economic growth across the world". But economic growth hasn't become consistently faster .

Continued growth is alarming on its own.

Why? It's good. Everyone needs to be lifted out of poverty and given the same kind of opportunities as the developed world.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#573

Post by Loughla »

circlefavshape wrote: post #501
FarhadG wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This resonates with what I've observed: I've asked several close family members and friends (between 16-22) what's troubling them and the most common answer is that they feel they're behind in life. They feel that they must already be driving an exotic car, surrounded by tons of potential partners, and at the top of their game—I assume these expectations are set by the content they consume and interact with on a dail…

> They feel that they must already be driving an exotic car, surrounded by tons of potential partners Really? I'm way older than that, but have a fair bit of contact with people that age via my kids and music/theatre stuff I'm involved in, and I don't know anyone who feels like this

That's my experience, too.

It's not being behind, it's a general sense of dread about the future.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#574

Post by goatlover »

addaon wrote: post #560
fasterik wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard disagree. Economic growth is what raises people's standard of living. We're not going to eliminate poverty without continued growth. That doesn't mean it doesn't also cause problems, but those problems are solvable.

But we know that in the medium term, growth is limited to cubic; and in the long term to quadratic. Building a society that depends on a few centuries or millenia of exponential growth is designing for failure when that asymptote is reached, and all the assumptions about future growth are violated.

You're talking about centuries from now, when technology and culture could be very different. We might spread out through the solar system. It's not something to worry about now.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#575

Post by resoluteteeth »

throwup238 wrote: post #7
kbos87 wrote: post #2

I’m not a parent nor am I a teen so take my comments with a grain of salt. The one thing that has consistently jumped out to me on this topic is how quickly people seem to jump to convenient answers. Of course you can’t ignore the rise of social media since 2010, but what about the level of control, structure, and surveillance that most young people have been subjected to over the same arc of time? That gets no atten…

I think that arc largely peaked in the 1980s and 1990s with stranger danger and the satanic panic nonsense. Helicopter parents and people calling social services on unattended kids was already a meme by the 90s.

> I think that arc largely peaked in the 1980s and 1990s with stranger danger and the satanic panic nonsense. Helicopter parents and people calling social services on unattended kids was already a meme by the 90s.

It stopped being a meme because the expected level of parental supervision of children got much higher and it went from being perceived as a thing that only weird people to what is required of parents in most places.

Calling social services on unattended kids isn't something that makes the news as much simply because almost all parents agree that children should never be left unattended until they are old enough to have a driver's license now and there aren't any unattended children to have social services called on them

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#576

Post by unnamed76ri »

vjk800 wrote: post #258
scotty79 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alcohol is a depressant. It won't impove anybody's mental health.

It it's a choice between drinking with friends outside or playing on your phone alone at home, it might be that the first option is better for most people's mental health even if alcohol, in isolation, is bad for it.

But those aren’t the only choices lol.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#577

Post by nradov »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #217
303uru wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So quick to blame social media, even the article just waves it's hand and makes the assumption. Why not declining social mobility? Why not climate change anxiety? Why not late stage capitalism? Nah, it's always easy to blame Tik Tok as if the chosen release isn't indicative of something much greater going on.

I think the sort of people who push "climate change anxiety" and espouse theories about "late stage capitalism" are a huge, huge part of the problem. Near every communist I've met was miserable.

There is a high degree of correlation between mental illness and leftist political views.

https://twitter.com/ZachG932/status/1248823584111439872

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#578

Post by s1artibartfast »

wait_a_minute wrote: post #547
pixl97 wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically possible: "We all stop eating too much and obesity drops" Realistically possible: "Obesity levels keep going up"

I think what you are both missing is that everyone reading this thread can, right now, schedule coffees and lunches and dinners for a month out and text people and get the ball rolling. We should not underestimate the impact of a few people making this effort, it will compound into great and positive results. I will be doing this myself since I recommended it. I expect to have at least five coffees or dinners schedul…

I already have a several social dinners and social activities a week, and have been doing this for years. Most of my friends at this point are people who also socialize in real life at this point.

I say this not to by cynical or cop-out. Im actually pretty optimistic about that things will swing back in the opposite direction. I just dont think it will be a quick snap out of it, but a painful lesson for many people, and a lot of people will be left behind.

That is to say, a quick global anti-online revolution is compatible with the laws of physics, but I dont think it is likely.

The good news is that nobody has to wait for the global revolution. They can do whatever they want starting today. I find physical interactions more rewarding and healthy, so I put in the effort to have them. I suspect most people would be happier if they did the same.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#579

Post by crowcroft »

geodel wrote: post #59

My theory is it is effect of ever faster economic growth across the world. Now it has given great many benefits to great many people. Negative effects so far discussed are only in term of destruction of ecology, depletion of natural resources, pollution etc. To me this growth has created a sense of anxiety in all teens and older. Now the societal structures, jobs, careers, education, medicine etc do not change over m…

Coupled with the fact that young people aren't getting any of the upside of the destruction.

Re: The teen mental illness epidemic is international (2023)

#580

Post by bigstrat2003 »

hackinthebochs wrote: post #464
giraffe_lady wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Naturally, this catty culture will affect females more and teen girls in particular. Why naturally? Can you describe this without leaning on a vague and misogynist adjective. There might be something here but as stated it's no more nuanced and has no more explanatory power than "women are like that."

Women are more social, i.e. more agreeable[1], more people-oriented[2], and so on. As such, they will be more susceptible to status anxiety derived from their place in the social hierarchy. Men's social status is more about who you are, what you do, or what you have, and so social hierarchy is less relevant. Social media has massively scaled up the complexity and the stakes of managing one's place in the social hiera…

The fact you even had to explain this is surprising to me. We don't need papers to tell us this stuff, this is something one can learn by basic common sense observation of the world. Why are people so keen on pretending like there aren't very basic psychological differences between the sexes?
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