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The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? The evidence is equivocal on whether screen time is to blame for rising levels of teen depression and anxiety. (www.nature.com)

submitted 7 months ago by boem@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 80 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I daresay if young people could afford a home, a car, a family, and had some disposable income, free time, and any fucking prospect of a satisfactory life then they'd be a lot less depressed.

I don't think social media is particularly good but it's far from the worst problem facing young people today. The "phone bad" crap is just a lazy cop out.

[–] HelloHotel@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

It seems you are criticizing to the book the author quotes, not the article itself. "

Two things need to be said after reading The Anxious Generation. First, this book is going to sell a lot of copies, because Jonathan Haidt is telling a scary story about children’s development that many parents are primed to believe. Second, the book’s repeated suggestion that digital technologies are rewiring our children’s brains and causing an epidemic of mental illness is not supported by science. Worse, the bold proposal that social media is to blame might distract us from effectively responding to the real causes of the current mental-health crisis in young people

" - The posted article about 3 ish parographs in.

If I'm mistaken, let me know.

[–] Odd_so_Star_so_Odd@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

While you have a point you might consider what little free time young people have is largely spent on social media full of dark patterns and negative feedback loops and/or gaming stuffed with gambling. One does not detract from the other problems you outline. "Phone bad" holds true as long as these big corporations insist on regulating themselves when all they do is feed people propaganda to keep anything from changing.

[–] douglasg14b@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I don't think it's a lazy cop out at all it's recognizing a complex issue that interweaves into the new realities of life for young adults.

What you stated is the lazy cop out, you're dismissing an entire problem space at the wave of a hand without critically thinking about it.

Everything is connected. An example would be heavy social media use being correlated to lower critical thinking capabilities, lower attention span, and more extreme political and emotional swings lead to a population being more manipulable and less cohesive.

Causing them to vote and act against their own interests at the behest of whoever has enough money to influence them though channels they "trust". Thus influencing a degrading social and financial situation.

[–] sep@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/podcasts/hard-fork-apple-lawsuit-reddit-ipo.html Hump to minute 27 for the intervju with jonathan haidt Point is that the social media problem is global and not only affecting US

[–] Mastengwe@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago

I would love it if whoever downvotes statements like this had the balls to explain why.

There’s absolutely nothing inaccurate or I correct about anything you said.