Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

judiciary.senate.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

591–600 of 1001 posts

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

#591

Post by weatherlite »

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…

But what changed since 2009 to make what you say worse? Why 2009? (or whatever year the research says this all became worse in). It makes the case for social media = bad much stronger.

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

#592

Post by dash2 »

treis wrote: post #536
WithinReason wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article points out correlation, which would be also explained by GP's comment

It's not even really correlated. The timing is off. Teen Social Media usage exploded in the early to mid 2000s and all the bad trends started 2010 or later. Plus, it was a seismic event. We went from little social media in 2000 to ubiquity by 2010. We should have seen one big rise to a new steady state not a continually increasing problem.

The graph here shows social media exploding from 2008, not before.

https://www.worldline.technology/post/over-2-5-billion-peopl...

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

#593

Post by diogenescynic »

Instagram and Facebook are probably the biggest culprits, but YouTube is part of the problem as well. It disgusts me how many ads are in kids content on YouTube--and they usually aren't even relevant to kids. Why are you showing car insurance ads on a video for kids? Also, kids have a bigger hurdle to get over than any other generation--housing and college costs keep rising and there's never been more competition in every other aspect of life. Our society has created a toxic winner takes all environment that leads many to despair and depression.

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

#594

Post by navjack27 »

api wrote: post #568
SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely and speaking in the kindest way: I think what you consider culture has aged out. Youth culture does exist, but has simply changed in a way that no longer appeals to your definition of culture. It’s also covered in the news, see: the Astroworld crowd crush. There’s new terminology (bussin, deadass, bet, etc.), new aesthetics (cottagecore), and new music consumption (the rise of kpop). And my knowledge is lik…

Is/was there a sense of being part of something special and exclusive in those scenes or was it just something fun to do? I didn’t say it in my OP above but I have heard young people bemoan a lack of interesting culture that is “theirs.” Hip hop, IDM, etc are all things from GenX or earlier, though obviously with a fresh coat of paint.

Young people are always thinking what they are into is lame even if they think it is special at the same time because they are young people lol

If any of us are commenting on this using anything that we know from when we were kids then we are already out of touch

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

#595

Post by mgdlbp »

jnotwell wrote: post #156
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…

Reflecting on the state of the world always leaves me thinking of this[0]: 30 March 1973 Dear Mr. Nadeau: As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness. Sailors have an expression…

Common thing for humans to reflect on... there's the old adage: 'This too shall pass,'

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass)

and in ancient history (circa 2003), "For Now" from Avenue Q:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-9T5f_VtxNc&t=6342

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

#596

Post by dtjb »

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…

This sounds like how a bunch of old dudes on HN see the "teenager world," with very adult interpretations. I also have teenagers and have worked in schools. I think there are two truths that this comment overlooks; 1) today's youth, generally speaking, are pretty impressive and resourceful, and 2) being a teenager has always sucked. Just because their experience is different doesn't mean it's worse. Every generation of teenagers has known awkwardness, stress, and confusion. All of these studies about how x is a million times worse these days often can be attributed to more accurate data and measurements.

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

#597

Post by navjack27 »

chimen wrote: post #465

Ofc it is plummeting. We are letting them install apps that have people behind them with the sole job of making them more addictive. We are handing them drugs, multiple variants if I may say so. I had to fight with my daughter for TikTok and whatnot, she is only allowed with YouTube due to school/tutorials/classes etc and I still find myself pretty often having to snap her out of shorts and other bs with an algorithm…

How the heck is your daughter not on the mode of YouTube where it doesn't switch to whatever is recommended next and how come she isn't taught not to watch shorts? I don't have kids and I don't want kids but like is it really hard to completely enforce some sort of a online media literacy?

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

#598

Post by ejb999 »

monsieurgaufre wrote: post #510
ejb999 wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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 betwe…

> A $550,000 improvement in lifetime earnings in exchange for $31K in debt, seems like one of the best investments you can make. Not when you're not even sure of being able to pay back those $31K+interests afterwards.

>>Not when you're not even sure of being able to pay back those $31K+interests afterwards.

If you went to college for 4 years, and didn't improve you situation enough to afford a few hundred dollars a month in debt, then you chose poorly.

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

#599

Post by SpEd3Y »

mnsc wrote: post #561
seydor wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes that s a good example. "being proud to be black" is diverse, being proud to be white is not. There is definitely a level of doublespeak here, although i'm not sure if teens are really annoyed by it

When someone expresses black pride my interpretation is that they are reclaiming, trying to manifest and celebrate that they no longer live in times where being born black meant that you were a second hand citizen and that you should/could feel no pride. When someone express white pride I can't interpret it the same way because there hasn't been a time where the structures were so that being born white made you infer…

I'm from east Europe. In my country there have never been black slaves. There have been white slaves. The rich would sell the poor as salves to other rich people.

However if I wanna be proud of being middle class white person today, that would raise a lot of eyebrows and not a few people would assume I'm a "white supremacist". You cannot be proud of being white. Doesn't matter what your country history is, or what your personal context is.

My hypothesis is that American history has been conflated with "white" history so now all white people are privileged and oppressed black people and have no reason to be proud.

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

#600

Post by skeeter2020 »

bdefore wrote: post #556
rapind wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another amplification is that many many parents haven't even solved this problem for themselves. How are they going to help their kids navigate social media use when they're pissing about on Instagram, and retweeting outrage garbage, etc.

Indeed, one generation breaking the loop can support the next. Perhaps the antidote to social media is regularly sharing with your children: it doesn't matter what Alice or Bob think of you, ignore them and do what you enjoy most with this gift of life.

I appreciate the sentiment, but question how realistic this is. Social media is where my kids interact with their peer group. By the time they hit their teens "sharing with dad" can't compete with that. I still try but I don't expect to have the power to break the cycle.
Post reply on HN