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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]

#721

Post by naravara »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #647
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…

> Unpopular opinion: Social media is a great scapegoat, but it is not the source of the problem. It's the War On Drugs all over again. We understand addiction enough to be able to say that a person's mental, emotional, and psychosocial states are the greatest causes of addiction and not the drug itself. Social media leads to an increase in a cortisol and dopamine. It also increased oxytocin by a large margin. Behavio…

Social media also impacts people's mental, emotional, and psychosocial states as well as their relationships to many of the people in their communities. So it both hits the hormonal triggers AND the social support systems.

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

#722

Post by fullstop »

Spooky23 wrote: post #529
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…

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…

> Through lawsuits and reporting, I learned that my childhood Boy Scout Troop and church was infested with pedophiles.

Yes! My freshman biology teacher was extradited and imprisoned in Australia for this. [1] The Marianist Church knew and shuffled them to new congregations rather than doing the right thing.

1. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/catholic-clergyman-bernard-hart...

Social media is such a double-edged sword.

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

#723

Post by s1artibartfast »

glitcher wrote: post #702
s1artibartfast wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are powerful second order or related effects here. There is both what screens and social media replace, and what they enable. This is the most risk adverse, most monitored, and most policed generation of Americans. I think this results in less freedom to experiment, explore, grow, and find happiness. In about 25 years we have gone from teens behavior being largely untraceable, to them being reachable by…

These are all great points. And my take on seeing these debates about the effects of social media is that too many people tend to fall on one or the other side of a false dichotomy: social media is the root of all evil, or social media is being used as a scapegoat and the effects are grossly over-exaggerated. My opinion is that social media is a contributing factor to much larger problems in our current tech driven s…

Totally agree.

My other related hobby horse is parenting. I have seen so many people who literally mentality handicapped their children by giving them tablets instead of raising them so that they can watch TV or surf the web themselves.

American parents watch an average of 4 hours of TV per day.

Alternatively, I have friends who don't have tvs or tablets in their house and the developmental differences are night and day.

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

#724

Post by naravara »

evocatus wrote: post #699
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…

Quoted post unavailable.

Sir. We're talking about 13 year olds.

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

#725

Post by ceedan »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #705
throwaway787544 wrote: post #508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the only source of the problem, but social media is certainly a big one. Back in the day you didn't get rape threats from 50 anonymous accounts, or see pictures of you photoshopped sucking dicks, or feel like even more of a loser because you see in 4K detail how everybody else in class is having more fun outside of school. The internet is a threat and embarrassment and envy machine. You feel like you're cons…

When I was a teenager in the late 90s, I had escapes from the social hell of high school. I could go home, invite one or two close friends over, and play video games. I could find a super niche community on IRC and hang with them virtually. I felt like I had somewhere I could belong. Now, as a teenager you are plugged into that social fabric 24/7. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to find yourself in that hype…

The ability to escape online was really nice. There was a lot more anonymity, privacy and exploration.

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

#726

Post by xeromal »

hunter2_ wrote: post #712
xeromal wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

People tell stories on hackernews. If you don't take the story to be true, take it as hypothetical value. Not everything on the internet needs a scientific study to be discussed.

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

#727

Post by pier25 »

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…

I'm not from the US and I've never lived there, but from what you're describing (except point 4) it seems like stress is one of the fundamental values in the US society. Stuff like not having public healthcare, exorbitant college costs, being fired at any moment, etc. It seems like kids are taught that early on with the stuff you're mentioning through the imposition of cultural values, rules, etc.

I'm from Europe but I grew up and have lived in different cultures/countries which have a much more relaxed attitude towards life. Reading your comment actually made me anxious.

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

#728

Post by drewcon »

standardUser wrote: post #679
carlgreene wrote: post #649

Teens are being told the world is terrible by pessimists when there truly hasn’t been a better time to be alive. How do you expect them to feel? This is amplified on social media and shown with "proof" from all corners of the world. We've evolved from a place where hearing about bad news from the tribe was an advantage. It allowed us to adjust our life to take into account risks _seen_ by other folks in the tribe. On…

Boomers wrecked the world and young people know they need to fix it. Sorry it can't just all be sunshine and roses like you prefer, but women in this country are about to lose a fundamental human right, so maybe "looking on the bright side" is not the appropriate disposition for these times.

This is a non data based take. Support with information.

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

#729

Post by ashleyn »

mattacular wrote: post #635
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…

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

I would think the existence of an inherently inequal standard here, and/or the idea of watering down the impact of harmful speech, is the problem more than wanting some perverse privilege to tell bigoted jokes. When and where I grew up I still remember black leaders critical of hip-hop for trying to normalise the n-word - the view being it was objectionable for anyone to launder the term.

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

#730

Post by [deleted] »

evocatus wrote: post #699
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…

Quoted post unavailable.

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