I will start this off by saying I am a teen (14) and have suffered a unstable upbringing in the events of my childhood (mother was abusive).
I have had unmonitored internet access from the age of I think 5, and for what it is, I at least didn't end up as bad as some others did.
I was born in the last generation that parents bought their kids toys and let them watch TV, so you could imagine I was pissed off as much as the rest of you are about young kids being in a tablet 24/7.
I grew up with older games and computers and the likes and therefore have developed a fondness for older games, music, website design, culture and whatever else (early 2000s to early 2010s), and I say that to give you context as to why I don't mindlessly browse social media like the rest of my generation does the way I've seen them. I browse forums, websites like this, chat with people on discord about likeminded stuff (trust me, I would love to use Matrix if all my friends did too) and I never fell for the social media bullshit despite how much pressure I get to fall into it because of every other kid I've known being literally dependent on it (Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok as of recently and I fucking hate them all with a burning passion for ruining my generation), Twitter is for the part of my generation that thinks they're "different" but essentially they're just the same exact shit with the added pronouns and pride flag profile pictures. I have read a lot and talked to people my age personally to understand what exactly it is that promotes derogatory mental health, and it's the fact usually that nobody cares anymore.
People harass over opinions about them harassing others, "diversity" being pushed to ruin mental health even more and make people believe things about them that aren't true at all and make it their entire personality, the music my generation listens to promotes violence, unrest, "making money" which is just putting profits over values, and "getting p*ssy" which is literally just objectifying women more than ever (I'm not even gonna talk about how much female rappers influence this), use of drugs like nicotine and marijuana is being pushed more than ever and I know people as young as 16 who literally depend on them, social media like TikTok is just prime ways to serve them propaganda and useless bullshit nobody cares about, On top of all that, they barely have any interests of their own due to the fact their free thinking has been impaired because they're all so used to being spoonfed content by a centralized media platform on a phone and I am so glad I didn't fall for any of that shit.
I love computers and stuff like Linux, I love old games (half life, doom, sonic, sims 2&3, team fortress, guitar hero), I listen to metal (Killswitch Engage is my favorite band of all time) and my free time is usually occupied by that or talking to my friends, and I guarantee you if you got someone else my age to try and write about this, they'd say back "bruh I ain't even tryna do all that right now this shit all cap".
School system, home life for my generation, etc are problems, but if anyone wants to hear my perspective on those issues please ask me in the replies.
Please excuse any dumb phrases, swear words or crappy grammar btw.
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]
#822Our descendants will look back on us allowing children access to unadulterated social media the way we look back on smoking.
Strongly disagree, when has society ever decided less access to information is ideal? Our descendants will create better platforms that can allow users to better filter for their emotional needs and they'll likely have better tools to understand their own emotions.
Society has nearly always decided that limiting access to information to children is ideal.
Most dont let young children have access to pornography and extremely violent content for example. Historically, this access has been limited both by parents and social groups.
I wouldn't want to rely on my toddlers cognitive tools to digest and defend against a high resolution video of someone being dismembered and beheaded alive.
Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]
#823Earlier 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.
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…
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Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]
#824Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Fully wrong, which you would have known had you bothered to read it. Additional data does NOT account for the increase in mental health issues.
Mental health being a thing probably does though. I'm 31, and even when I was a kid, mental health issues were very stigmatized. Nowadays, they're not. Why wouldn't you expect more mental health issues?
Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]
#825Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is an easy thing to test: 1. Kid seems happy, does stuff 2. Kid gets phone for birthday 3. Kid seems sad, and no longer does anything other than sit in his room scrolling through tiktok It's an extraordinarily depressing situation and anyone who denies this obvious truth is DELUSIONALLY BLIND
This is what happened to me at 14: the first time I've ever had an Internet connection at home. I am now 27 and it's really a downward spiral. I'm starting to think that the only solution, at least for me, would using Internet only for 10 minutes a day and only to download offline all the things I would like to read.
First step is to quit all social networks, and to remain off them for good. It's disorienting at first, and it certainly feels like withdrawal, but then it gets better, and quickly. In my case I'm at the point where I open up the computer and hardly know what to do on it, and pretty much only read HN. You can do it too. Save your spirit.
Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]
#826Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.
Adventure Scouts [1] is another option.
[1]: https://www.adventurescoutsusa.org/#:~:text=Adventure%20Scou....
Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]
#827Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> Boomers wrecked the world and young people know they need to fix it. This is the exact kind of BS the parent comment is referring too. The world is full of problems but it’s never been better for most people in most ways.
Your comment represents the same worthless platitude. It doesn't make sense to say "yea your life is significantly worse than your parents, but hey at least you aren't a slave building the pyramids at Giza." The fact is it's relative. People are, in general, worse off than their parents were in the west at this point in time. That matters.
Being slightly economically less well off (although still doing exceedingly well and having lots of opportunity) is not the same thing as “boomers wrecked the world”. There are people in very tough situations and as a society we need to help them more but the vast majority of young people (and I say this as one who isn’t doing exceedingly well) need to grow up, cheer up, and start taking more responsibility for things. My parents may have been able to buy a house, but there is much much more about their younger lives that I am glad I don’t have to deal with.
Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]
#828This is not unlike dungeons and dragons in the 70s
Or Atari / Nintendo in the 80s
Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]
#829Unpopular 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…
All your arguments are very specific to yourself and is not necessarily indicative of "All teens". 20 years ago we didn't have the so called social media we have today. And back then we didn't have that problem atleast not to the extent we have today.
Re: Teen mental health is plummeting and social media is a major contributing cause [pdf]
#830Earlier quoted context omitted.
It depends where you are ? A male kid from Kentucky probably didn’t see his life get worse in the last 60 years. A kid from Yemen & Afghanistan (and now Ukraine) more than likely did.
Did this kid go to college? Did he buy a house? Did he get married and have kids? Did he buy a car? Did he have any sort of major illness at any point along the way? If he experienced any of these relatively common life activities (and many more out there I'm sure) they are more difficult economically than they were 60 years ago. Obviously it's a matter of degrees and I'm sure he wouldn't trade places with his counte…
If you were a boy 60 years ago in Kentucky, the timing was right for you to be drafted for the Vietnam War a little later in life. My father was. He was sent there against his will, injured during combat, and carried a lifelong burden from what he experienced. My father's friends and brothers avoided his fate by preemptively "volunteering" for service that would keep them away from combat. I remember that every time I envy how great the economy was for his generation. Life was hard in other ways.