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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]

#711

Post by DaltonCoffee »

Nextgrid wrote: post #575
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…

It's not a problem that can be solved at an individual level. Physical drugs are relatively easy to not get into because for the most part, the majority of society doesn't use them and their users are still mostly marginalized. If your current social group are drug addicts it's possible to find a new, healthier group. Digital drugs on the other hand are something that nearly everyone uses and thus you have to use the…

>Physical drugs >majority of society doesn't use

Maybe you meant illicit drugs. Almost everyone I know of consumes some type of drug.

Your idea seems similar to China's recent policy, restricting access to online games for younger people.

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

#712

Post by hunter2_ »

xeromal wrote: post #697
mattacular wrote: post #635

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your white son is at the bottom of the pack because he can't openly tell bigoted jokes about his peers?

I don't understand this intentional misreading of comments that's so pervasive. Even if they're not entirely clear, you can usually deduce what they mean. Why is his son singled out based on his skin color and unable to do things that his peers are officially sanctioned by the school? Not sure what that sounds ok to you? That seems like regular ole racism to me. That's a bit insane don't you think?

You lost me at this:

> officially sanctioned by the school

You interpret the anecdote as involving something official? I interpreted it as pertaining to social norms being enforced by only the students themselves. Kids hassling each other for "playing nonexistent white/straight/male cards" or "playing a card they don't have" is quite different from authority figures imposing equivalent policies. I mean, on some level the subject of the enforcement is in a similar position regardless of the nature of the enforcement, but we should at least agree on what we're dealing with here.

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

#713

Post by fullstop »

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #623
fullstop wrote: post #542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first gulf war was the current topic. Our view of that was from the news, as well. The events in Ukraine are much more real-time and on social media. They see stories of children separated from their parents, of parents murdered, or all of them being killed in bombings. These atrocities have always happened in war but now they are barely filtered and easily accessible. "If it can happen to those children, it ca…

I didn't even consider that when I wrote the response. I mean, I remember seeing the bombs on television and being a bit worried about it, but I imagine it seems a bit more 'real' now and there is so much more available.

An additional "sad-but-true" aspect is that people can disassociate atrocities because the people look different than they do. The people in Ukraine, in general, look Caucasian.

It shouldn't make a difference, of course, but for some people this makes it all the more real.

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

#714

Post by jeffpalmdev »

Is social media the inevitable manifestation of computing technology evolving at an exponentially faster rate than our biology?

I feel like we are we going to remember these days as the 'Wild Wild West' of unregulated social media, and the impact it's having on kids is tragic.

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

#715

Post by Spooky23 »

trompetenaccoun wrote: post #668
Spooky23 wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll counter that with the caveat that my kids are grade 5 and younger. We’re very involved in school and other activities - my wife is a PTO president and long time member, I coach youth sports and other community type programs. The kids we have seen mostly don’t engage with social media directly. But the ones who transition from cute 5-6 year olds to problematic 10-12 year olds have a key common factor. Tablets. Yo…

Some call this "problematic" behavior of kids starting around age 10-12 puberty. I've not seen any peer-reviewed studies linking it to tablet use but of course it's possible that tablet use is a contributing factor in causing puberty in teenagers.

That’s not what I’m talking about.

It’s pretty easy to observe - when parents use a Skinner box (ie Youtube) to keep the kids quiet, the kids don’t develop the same social/coping/etc skills.

There’s lots of study on the topic. The decline of toys and play is another related thing.

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

#716

Post by JPKab »

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…

"1. Kids have little or no slack in their schedule. This means very little freedom, and very little time to work things out mentally. School, practice, volunteer, homework, bed, do it all again. This builds up to a very difficult to unwind ball of stress, anger, fear and despair."

By "kids" you mean upper middle class suburban kids. Working class kids aren't overscheduled in this way. The bulk of kids in the US don't live the life you describe, and for the most part are under supervised. Your anecdotal information is tainted by the bubble you live in.

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

#717

Post by option »

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…

That is a great summary. Social media isn’t the source but it is a multiplier of mental issues for kids.

They are also manipulated purposely by our enemies. Take TikTok (owned by China). In China it promotes being a scientist and athlete to kids, off at 10pm. In USA it promotes how to set your farts on fire and drink your own piss.

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

#718

Post by sigspec »

I have an 11 and 9 year old. They don't have phones. They do have devices, mostly for Minecraft. They are restricted with parental controls and time limits. They do not have unrestrained internet access and YouTube is completely blocked.

As a parent I find myself frustrated at the filtering options and conflicted by my close-fistedness. They moan every day that they are the only one in their class that doesn't have a phone, can't be on TikTok, can't watch Squid Games, etc.

Parents are just throwing the entirety of the internet at their children and I'm left trying to explain to two kids why I don't think it's a good idea.

Am I wrong? Am I just creating an environment of anxiety?

God, being a kid in 2020 is different than it was in the 80s/90s

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

#719

Post by shigawire »

SamuelAdams wrote: post #651
gilbetron wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an example from my son, a 13 year old white kid, gave me is that if you have one of the "diversity cards" (minority, LGBQT+, female sometimes, or some other thing) than you get to joke and talk in a way than those that don't have such a card. So his friends that are gay or black or indian or disabled are able to tease each other about it and have more liberty to use terms that my son is not allowed to. The gay kid…

I see this often with gangs I grew up around. Black people can call each other niggers in a casual, non-attack way. But as soon as a white person does it, it’s racist.

It means different things coming from different people for very clear historical and cultural reasons.

Pretending not to understand this is being willfully ignorant at this point.

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

#720

Post by ClumsyPilot »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #426
ClumsyPilot wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Compare that to my father born in 1941' I am sorry but the idea that 'bad old days had great mental health is a meme. Do we have any evidence? Was anyone even counting who is depressed and who isn't? What about other mental issues and traumas? They didnt exactly have loads of psycologists avaliable.

> 'bad old days had great mental health An who said that actually? Did you not read what I wrote or are you trying to troll? Anyway, I'll rephrase it, so that it may become clearer to you: my father didn't survive all his traumas because he's stronger than current generations, but because he was not constantly surrounded by misleading messages of rapid success and luxurious lifestyle, something that you should absolu…

"In my country psychologic support is free and universal since after the WW2"

You have to keep in ming that there is huge stigma around going to a psycologust for help, esp. for people of older generation.

My father would literally rather have his car stolen than have someone find out he visited one.

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