The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness? (Nature)

[Cotton McKnight]

Mmm, can we not push some dude and a book that leans into the idea that being trans is a social contagion please.

Also known as the cofounder of Heterodox Academy that regularly gives oxygen to anti-trans bigots and other right-wing views.

Like maybe we can give this guy a miss when it comes to the whole 'he has a few good points' thing?

Heterodox Academy vs. transgender people

Heterodox Academy (HxA) is an American organization that promotes “viewpoint diversity” in academia, by which they mean conservatism and reactionary populism. HxA frequently promotes an…

www.transgendermap.com

https://juliaserano.medium.com/all-the-evidence-against-transgender-social-contagion-f82fbda9c5d4

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Agreed, completely forgot about his transphobia!

 

[NoobSauceG7]

I see people talking about phones in classroom and banning vs not banning, but maybe it was just my school district from years ago (30 now, graduated HS in 2011), but we were never allowed to have phones out. Did something change? I know iPhones are like $1000 now and not everyone had them back then, but I am always puzzled by the push back of allowing phones or whenever phones became useable in classroom since it never was that way for me.

 

[Fisty]

I see people talking about phones in classroom and banning vs not banning, but maybe it was just my school district from years ago (30 now, graduated HS in 2011), but we were never allowed to have phones out. Did something change? I know iPhones are like $1000 now and not everyone had them back then, but I am always puzzled by the push back of allowing phones or whenever phones became useable in classroom since it never was that way for me.

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We had people in a previous thread against it saying they need to be able to contact their child every second of the day

 

[Mesoian]

He has a open repository of all the evidence and studies he used in the book, tons of which is direct causative data.

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Unrelated, but I'm looking over the resources he's chosen to highlight for his american attitudes on the Isreali/Hamas war and...that's gonna be a lot of ugly conclusions.

 

[BeastmodeDynasty]

I see people talking about phones in classroom and banning vs not banning, but maybe it was just my school district from years ago (30 now, graduated HS in 2011), but we were never allowed to have phones out. Did something change? I know iPhones are like $1000 now and not everyone had them back then, but I am always puzzled by the push back of allowing phones or whenever phones became useable in classroom since it never was that way for me.

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Phone use is still "banned" during class for most schools, but it's increasingly becoming less enforced. Admins increasingly don't want to penalize kids either. Classroom activities moving towards tablets/Chromebooks has been detrimental too, especially for grade schoolers.

It's a worse problem outside the classrooms. Kids are so tied to their phones it's hurting their socialization inside schools. Lessing chatting with classmates during lunch, more scrolling on social media.

 

[Fulminator]

it's probably a part of it

another (bigger?) part is probably the hyper capitalist and hyper individualistic society we've created

 

[Davidion]

I see people talking about phones in classroom and banning vs not banning, but maybe it was just my school district from years ago (30 now, graduated HS in 2011), but we were never allowed to have phones out. Did something change? I know iPhones are like $1000 now and not everyone had them back then, but I am always puzzled by the push back of allowing phones or whenever phones became useable in classroom since it never was that way for me.

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If nothing else, phones occupy an entirely different role in society than 30 years ago, and I would argue there's a lot of weight behind the idea that it's a "general life" assistant, for all the problems that perspective bring.

That kind of ambient pressure will affect how people design policy around it, likely with a bias towards treating it as being essential

 

[BeastmodeDynasty]

it's probably a part of it

another (bigger?) part is probably the hyper capitalist and hyper independent society we've created

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The youth mental health decline is happening in the Nordic countries too, despite having some of the best social welfare programs in the world.

 

[Thordinson]

The youth mental health decline is happening in the Nordic countries too, despite having some of the best social welfare programs in the world.

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They are still very much capitalistic and mental health has been declining since at least the 1990s.

 

[Avis]

I remember listening to his episode and the follow up on Hard Fork. Though they were good episodes, didn't know about the transphobia stuff at the time.

It sucks that he is a piece of shit because I think there is a really interesting discussion to be had here - after his episode the hosts said they got a TON of viewer feedback from both sides of the argument, both young and old, on the influence of social media.

 

[BeastmodeDynasty]

They are still very much capitalistic and mental health has been declining since at least the 1990s.

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This whole discussion is centered around research about the decline in mental health since the early 2010s.

 

[Thordinson]

This whole discussion is centered around research about the decline in mental health since the early 2010s.

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It's been in decline before then. It cannot be solely attributed to social media.

 

[EchizenKurage]

The Internet is a mirror. Millennials were the first generation to experience the hyper-self-consciousness of being hooked up to a hivemind. The more self-aware man is the more prone he is to neuroses, fractures, and fears.

I can't fathom the damage being done to gen Z with monoculture and tiktok and the rest

 

[BeastmodeDynasty]

It's been in decline before then. It cannot be solely attributed to social media.

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I suggest you read the evidence this book and article are based on. Literally every metric has shown a huge increases in the rates of mental illnesses/wellbeing decline since the early 2010s. This isn't a general decline going on since the 90s as you say. And there's direct causative data linking declines in mental wellbeing with increased social media use.

 

[Dyle]

You shouldn't have to listen to Haidt to realize that anyone spending large amounts of time on social media will lead to mental health issues and that negative social effects of all tech for adults will be magnified for minors. Even if some of his specific claims are off base he's clearly pointing at the main culprit of the contemporary mental health epidemic

 

[AliceAmber]

This thread is locked due to the author's transphobia.