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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]

#61

Post by mkoubaa »

usrn wrote: post #10

Is it social media? Or is it also the knowledge that they effectively have no future. Rent is going up and mortgage rates are going up faster. A shrinking portion of young adults can now afford housing. The economy is becoming so disfunctional there's almost no reason to bother participating. When children end up in that position their family will turn on them and they have nothing materially or socially.

I assume you're talking about living in the USA. The economy is certainly more difficult than it was 50 years ago but there are still plenty of reasons to participate. Ask anyone (like myself) who immigrated here from a country where you don't have a shot to get a job or start a business unless you know someone.

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

#62

Post by scythe »

ginger2016 wrote: post #6
ginger2016 wrote: post #5

Haidt wants to censor the speech he doesn’t like; he is pining for the old order. His main talking point is Diversity and Equity is bad. He even suggests diversity is bad. Watch this video from mid point. https://youtu.be/RKRuvKtFvqo

My theory is that he is affected by America’s racial reckoning, and is blaming social media for it. So he has come up with these convoluted explanations to justify his insecurities.

The quote you complain about obviously can't be about racial diversity. He introduces a problem with diversity, and then links it to problems which, he says, and emphasizes in TFA, have increased very sharply since 2010-14. But racial diversity has been rising steadily for decades with no inflection point near 2014. Furthermore, he goes on to explain how social media leads to a fracturing of cliques and a tendency to maintain parallel lives. It's clear from this context that the "diversity" he's talking about must be a sort of diversity of perspectives and not of heredity or anything else like that.

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

#63

Post by javajosh »

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…

I'm curious: how do the "weird ones" do? The outsiders, contrarians, the ones who don't quite fit in and who might even take pleasure in not caring about social media?

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

#64

Post by selfhoster11 »

temp8964 wrote: post #31
usrn wrote: post #10

Is it social media? Or is it also the knowledge that they effectively have no future. Rent is going up and mortgage rates are going up faster. A shrinking portion of young adults can now afford housing. The economy is becoming so disfunctional there's almost no reason to bother participating. When children end up in that position their family will turn on them and they have nothing materially or socially.

> Rent is going up and mortgage rates are going up faster. A shrinking portion of young adults can now afford housing. The economy is becoming so disfunctional there's almost no reason to bother participating. When children end up in that position their family will turn on them and they have nothing materially or socially. This sounds exactly like you are reading too much social media.

Or alternatively, sounds like being informed about the current state of things and future prospects.

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

#65

Post by remarkEon »

denimnerd42 wrote: post #55
abledon wrote: post #36

And TikTok usage is heavily limited in China (its origin) but allowed to be consumed unlimited in other countries

I'm not sure if you know but Tiktok and Douyin (Chinese Tiktok) are actually separate.

I think the point remains. The Chinese seem to grok that social media and everything that comes with it can be severe net negatives, and so they've gone the (predictably) authoritarian route of heavily restricting its use.

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

#66

Post by [deleted] »

javajosh wrote: post #63
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…

I'm curious: how do the "weird ones" do? The outsiders, contrarians, the ones who don't quite fit in and who might even take pleasure in not caring about social media?

[deleted]

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

#67

Post by shadowofneptune »

javajosh wrote: post #63
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…

I'm curious: how do the "weird ones" do? The outsiders, contrarians, the ones who don't quite fit in and who might even take pleasure in not caring about social media?

It's been four years since I graduated high school, but my experience was that even if you were not on a given social media platform, at least one of your friends definitely was. It is very hard to ignore or stop caring about.

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

#68

Post by paxys »

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 government gridlock that has made fixing any of this impossible. Can't really shield kids from this reality anymore when all of it is one click away. Teens are aware that they are going to inherit a pretty terrible world, and are powerless to do anything about it.

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

#69

Post by WaxedChewbacca »

twayt wrote: post #60

Is it really social media itself that's the major contributing factor? Or is it really that people are using social media as a distribution channel to propagate negative, defeatist beliefs en mass in response to the natural challenges teens face when growing up? I think it is the latter. One has but to open TikTok to quickly come across a video instilling negative beliefs about the opposite sex with tons of commenter…

I can buy this, but it might practically be a distinction without a difference. If social media is an amplifier, we have to be careful what we're amplifying. Most people have no regular practice for the cultivation of wholesome solace. The result seems unsurprising.

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

#70

Post by ImaCake »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #37
MonaroVXR wrote: post #21

My family is kinda addicted, so addicted, we ended up not talking anymore because someone wanted a perfect shot off the eifel tower and it wasn't goid enough, even worse when there has to be made pictures of food and whatever.

> pictures of food and whatever I never understood the food photos. Do I just not love food enough? Do people really enjoy seeing photos of their friends’ meals?

I take photos of good looking meals but never to post them elsewhere. They are just going into the memory bank of photos for later reminiscing.
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