Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf] • Hacker News Board

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

#791

Post by defterGoose » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:31 PM UTC

carlgreene wrote: post #769

eldaisfish wrote: post #691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this ignores the harsh realities for life as a young person in the west. Sure, they are not scrounging for food nor is there widespread famine but politics is increasingly polarised. There is a climate problem looming and the youngest will deal with it, western citizens or otherwise. Economies are tanking, job markets are topsy turvy not to mention the real estate problem in a lot of western countries. These problems…

Of course there are challenges and problems. There always will be. The important thing is to teach the youth and give them confidence that they can solve these problems instead "hand-wave" them away in a negative way as pessimists tend to do. There will always be trials and tribulations. The ones that solve those are the ones that truly believe they can. The more blind optimism we instill in folks the more confidence…

Dude, you blogged about being super thrilled about your garage door opener. Don't let the rest of us drag you down, but also don't presume to have figured the exact mental attitude that leads to successful outcomes. Not everything is peachy keen.

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

#792

Post by tzs » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:31 PM UTC

seydor wrote: post #522

radarsat1 wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, still lost. What is "the 50% of diversity"? Are you trying to say "white"? (Not sure that's 50%...) Not judging, literally just trying to understand the semantics here. This is some kind of code that I'm not getting.

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

Is it doublespeak? It seems to me that we have Black pride but not White pride for the same reason we have Black history month but not White history month.

We don't have White history month because every month in the US is White history month. Same for Gay pride month but no Straight pride month. Or National American Indian Heritage Month, National Deaf History Month, and many others.

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

#793

Post by themitigating » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:31 PM UTC

sxv wrote: post #707

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?

In all seriousness, I think the freedom to tell (and receive) bigoted jokes as a youth was an integral part of my maturation.

Why?

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

#794

Post by ThalesX » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:32 PM UTC

chiefalchemist wrote: post #636

How much and how well were we measuring mental health - teens or otherwise - prior to the last decade or so? We are what we consume - food or content. That said, imagine being young and looking back 20+ yrs. Tech bubble burst, 9/11, housing bubble burst, an unproductive gov, an unsupportive social infrastructure, etc. Imagine thinking that past is your future. But sure, let the (do nothing) status quo powers blame so…

> We are what we consume - food or content. That said, imagine being young and looking back 20+ yrs. Tech bubble burst, 9/11, housing bubble burst, an unproductive gov, an unsupportive social infrastructure, etc.

When I was young and without social media, with NATO bombing a neighboring country, I heard a couple of times from some concerned adults about the entire situation. Now, I'd be flooded with images of the destruction, probably blamed for it somehow, told I'm not doing enough to stop it. They feel like vastly different worlds.

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

#795

Post by kar5pt » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:33 PM UTC

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…

If this was the cause I would have expected this trend to start when cable news started, not in the 2010s. How do you account for the delay?

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

#796

Post by themitigating » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:33 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #541

radarsat1 wrote: post #502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Diversity is good, but being ____ is bad. Can you fill in the blank? I actually have no idea what you are referring to here.

We like to “celebrate diversity”, but if you diverge from whatever the people in charge are doing, or worse, whatever they think you should be doing, you’re very much on the outside. Kids and teenagers need stability and trust. As adults, we’re bad at fostering that environment in our institutions for a variety of reasons.

The types of diversity that is celebrated includes culture, race, sexuality.

What's an example of diversity that you are punished for?

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

#797

Post by s1artibartfast » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:33 PM UTC

WalterSear wrote: post #135

wolverine876 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One big zero-sum game. Not relationships, marriage, work, or community. Even business is rarely zero sum, or the economy wouldn't grow. Generally speaking, business is win-win deals.

> Not relationships, marriage, work, or community I don't understand how you could think any of this. Relationships? They are absolutely a competition for the young: both platonic and romantic, but especially romantic. Nothing more competitive. Work? Work is absolutely a competition, for young and old alike. Community? What else do you think teens are seeking out online?

They are objecting to the zero-sum aspect, not the competition.

IF you need to make your married partner feel worse to make yourself happier, you are absolutely doing it wrong.

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

#798

Post by op00to » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:34 PM UTC

Teknoman117 wrote: post #739

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…

> Through lawsuits and reporting, I learned that my childhood Boy Scout Troop and church was infested with pedophiles. It's really sad to see things like this. Boy Scouts was one of the best parts of my childhood. Both my parents were heavily involved - dad was the Scout Master, mom was the merit badge counselor for backpacking and other woodland activities, my younger sisters came on many of the trips. It served as…

I was emotionally and psychically abused in cub scouts, led by the pack leader because I did not buy into her specific image of evangelical Christianity. This was in a suburb outside of NYC in the 90s. the lack of oversight and vetting allowed this to proceed and turned more than a few kids off Boy scouting.

I would send my kids to Baden-Powell scouting if that was an option.

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

#799

Post by WalterSear » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:36 PM UTC

s1artibartfast wrote: post #797

WalterSear wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not relationships, marriage, work, or community I don't understand how you could think any of this. Relationships? They are absolutely a competition for the young: both platonic and romantic, but especially romantic. Nothing more competitive. Work? Work is absolutely a competition, for young and old alike. Community? What else do you think teens are seeking out online?

They are objecting to the zero-sum aspect, not the competition. IF you need to make your married partner feel worse to make yourself happier, you are absolutely doing it wrong.

This is just silly. Teens aren't married. Competition for relationships is absolutely a thing.

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

#800

Post by antiverse » Thu, May 05, 2022, 4:36 PM UTC

timst4 wrote: post #781

Lots of politically charged comments here, but I actually work with students on a daily basis. It’s not about politics, people. Social media does play a role, but not in the way most would argue. All those saying it is an addiction are correct, but I would expand it to include most of the teen internet as well. The thing is they don’t use technology like you do. They are CONSUMED by digital media if they don’t receiv…

>but I actually work with students on a daily basis.

I hate to be the one but what's your sample count? What does, "I actually work with students on a daily basis" mean? Are you a teacher in a high school? University? Do they intern/co-op at your company?

I attend a few schools for part-time things here and there, and I'm exposed to students aged 14-70 regularly. Politics are involved as a means of an identity, even if they realize that they are powerless to do anything.

The lack of critical thinking for any given saucy subject (most recently see Roe vs Wade) means that the opinions people hold are generally prepackaged from whatever sources they obtained them from and are internally congruent† - they know things here and there about a given subject, but externally nonsensical given the situation that the person is in and what they ought to focus their attention/time towards - they are, for lack of a better term, wasting their precious time away getting baited by professional media con people with attention grabbing headlines and memes.

† Best seen in person as a dialogue between two or more people where you're aware that their source material was written by one person in an essay (or a tweet roll) form, but has been changed to be a kind of a ping-ponged conversation where each person takes a turn to continue the over all narrative. (Better put: one big agreeable circle-jerk.)