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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]

#931

Post by heavyset_go »

pmlnr wrote: post #364
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe the social medias are that much different from what preceding generations were exposed to; TV, magazines, movies, etc all showed more idealized lifestyles. The one difference I will point out though, is that with social media it becomes a lot more attainable to become like that. There's complete randoms that became celebrities through social media - and they don't even need to be conventionally attrac…

> I don't believe the social medias are that much different from what preceding generations were exposed to; TV, magazines, movies, etc all showed more idealized lifestyles. It is: TV was never meant to make you believe it's real or that someone's life is actually like that. "Reality" TV was always deliberately focused on drama.

Growing up, there were plenty of people who thought reality TV was how life is actually like. Same goes for sitcoms and teen dramas.

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

#932

Post by tsol »

ofisboy wrote: post #483

My sister, now 27, was diagnosed with psychosis about 10 years ago. Her real social life was plummeting and i couldn’t notice it since i was living away. But apprently she was obsessed with social media, particularly twitter back then. At one point, she came to our parents saying thay “people put cameras at home and they are watching her”. So, she totally lost it. Immediately diagnosed and started using heavy medicat…

Thanks for sharing that, I think there's a lot to think about there

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

#933

Post by Rury »

roland35 wrote: post #572
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…

The internet was certainly a lot lower stakes and fun in the 90s and early 2000s. We had fun taking over the mic and singing karaoke in Yahoo chatrooms, watching albino black sheep, and playing flash games on kongregator. Even early Facebook was just making funny groups and posting in each other's walls. None of those activities really had me envying anyone else. I remember the first thing that made me feel worthless…

I think you underline the problem. Comparing yourself with others and envying is a source of unhappiness. Social media allows for this, as do TED talks.

But I think another factor is the sheer existence of our ancestors. As more time goes on, the more history there is with more people having achieved great accomplishments. Younger generations will naturally just have more to live up to (with the potential to feel depressed if they don't).

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

#934

Post by waste_monk »

heavyset_go wrote: post #875
AlwaysRock wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah... But we also saw countless dicks on Chat Roulette and watched terrorists sever heads of journalists on LiveLeak and talked to plenty of perverts on AIM. It wasnt all peaches and candy.

Everyone remembers the first time they saw Goatse.

Back when I was a fresh-faced youth I recoiled in disgust. Now when I see it I greet it as an old friend, a wistful reminder of a time when the internet was still largely wild and untamed by corporate interest.

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

#935

Post by waste_monk »

thawaya3113 wrote: post #911
AlwaysRock wrote: post #676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah... But we also saw countless dicks on Chat Roulette and watched terrorists sever heads of journalists on LiveLeak and talked to plenty of perverts on AIM. It wasnt all peaches and candy.

Chat roulette was random. Chat roulette was not pushing the dick streams to more people because it was getting the highest engagement. If you wanted to watch terrorists sever a head you had to at the very least search for it (it was usually more complicated than that). Facebook wouldn’t stuff it in between videos of kittens doing cute stuff while you endlessly scroll your newsfeed.

>If you wanted to watch terrorists sever a head you had to at the very least search for it

Or just happen to stumble onto 4chan during the summer period of each year where it would be flooded with gore and other shock content*. Or be unlucky enough to be on a site which had been targeted by a raid by 4chan or other imageboard users and flood those with shock content.

* to provide historical context for the younger folk here, 4chan would receive a flood of new users every year roughly corresponding to the American summer holiday period, and there would be a noticeable decline in posting quality during that time.

To ensure that only people who fit in with board culture stuck around, the site (or at least /b/ which was where I spent most of my time back in those days) would be flooded with the most offensive content possible to scare away the bulk of the new users. This was rather effective at filtering out people of an emotionally sensitive nature and leaving only the most jaded and persistent to become regular users.

Much like the so-called "Eternal September", the board eventually had a culture change and became more welcoming of new users, and this practice declined. Although that was a long time ago and I think perhaps it may have been more that the introduction of CAPTCHA, rate-limiting, and other anti-spam measures prevented the use of automated image dumping software that was used to flood threads with shock content.

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

#936

Post by bowsamic »

wolverine876 wrote: post #895
bowsamic wrote: post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not at all worth the risk. I'd rather be not okay and not attached to conditions of reality than be "okay" and attached to conditions

I'm sorry you feel that way. It doesn't need to be that bad at all. Nihilism is trendy now, but don't confuse a trend with life and reality; don't make life decisions on a fashion of the moment. Loving relationships have been a fashion for all of human history, and they aren't going away because of trolling.

I’m not a nihilist, I’m a Buddhist

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

#937

Post by sharemywin »

throwaway787544 wrote: post #508
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…

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…

Don't forget the 24/7 of it. No escape from bullies

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

#938

Post by sneak »

op00to wrote: post #798
Teknoman117 wrote: post #739

Earlier 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.

I have a similar story about a crazy hyperchristian scout leader from suburban SE Michigan in the 90s. I ended up getting de-facto kicked out for my atheism.

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

#939

Post by brnt »

sibeliuss wrote: post #843
listless wrote: post #741

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I both agree and disagree here. My qualification is 3 teenage boys. 1. My kids have slack in their schedule. No, they aren't going to Ivy League schools. That's OK. They will survive somehow. 2. This is certainly true, but it's a complete joke to my kids. They aren't confused. They just wonder why all the adults are. Teenagers already think adults are incompetent. 3. This isn't true at my school. My kids have made eg…

> My kids have slack in their schedule. No, they aren't going to Ivy League schools. That's OK. They will survive somehow. Thank you! I think we need more people with this mindset speaking up. Everywhere there's this paranoid fear in parents that without a totally filled schedule, tutors, AP classes and more their children are going to be destitute. Not going to an Ivy League school is fine, and likely anyway; having…

If you like parenting where you give lots of space, you might like [1].

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29905586-the-happiest-ki...

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

#940

Post by unrealp »

1. life has gone better based on data - this means there is more opportunity to being successful. if you are still not successful then it becomes your problem. it is more like lost opportunity has more cost in today's world.

2. human mind scales input to output - emotional output range is fixed. if input is low, we become more sensitive, thereby retaining same emotional output range. in today's better society, people are becoming more sensitive due to this reason, so with higher sensitivity you react to more things (and random things like what you see on social media).

3. we disorderize more - once we label as (depressed/anxious....) it becomes a self-fulfulling profecy.

4. social media - having lot of random stuff - doesnt help to create stream of consciousness story. its rathere mix of random unconnected happenings.

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