From the NY Times summary of this study:
While a few researchers have claimed that digital technology is a powerful, causal factor in the rising rates of mental health problems, others have countered that the risk of harm for most teenagers is tiny — about the equivalent influence on well-being as wearing eyeglasses or regularly eating potatoes, one group calculated.
Now, the authors of the eyeglass paper have published a large, multiyear study providing what independent experts said was an unusually granular and rigorous look at the relationship between social media and adolescents’ feelings about life.
Analyzing survey responses of more than 84,000 people of all ages in Britain, the researchers identified two distinct periods of adolescence when heavy use of social media spurred lower ratings of “life satisfaction”: first around puberty — ages 11 to 13 for girls, and 14 to 15 for boys — and then again for both sexes around age 19.
Like many previous studies, this one found that the relationship between social media and an adolescent’s well-being was fairly weak. Still, it suggested that there were certain periods in development when teenagers may be most sensitive to the technology.
I don't know what to make of this debate. This paper, it seems to me, accurately summarizes the science we have on the issue: social media use can't be shown to have major impacts on mental health. But given that the mental health of teenagers has gotten a lot worse, what else could be causing it? Have maybe phones and social media gotten so ubiquitous that we can't actually tease out their effects? Or is there something else going on we can't put our fingers on?
Or maybe it's just 'everything is disease' these days. Stuff that would have been considered normal for teenagers to go through is now 'mental illness'. When everything is a trigger, and everything needs counseling why is it shocking that 'mental illness' is higher?
ReplyDelete"But given that the mental health of teenagers has gotten a lot worse, what else could be causing it? Have maybe phones and social media gotten so ubiquitous that we can't actually tease out their effects? Or is there something else going on we can't put our fingers on?"
ReplyDeleteThe anonymous commenter above seems to be making a derisive implication to the effect that it's "all in their heads" (and I apologize if that's not what they meant, and I misread their intent), but in a roundabout way the comment might actually be getting at something.
I don't have actual statistical sources, sadly, but there's an old and widespread claim that when modern militaries started to issue steel helmets to troops around the time of the first World War, certain people derided such helmets as worse than useless because their introduction coincided with a massive increase in injuries, particularly to the head. Those observers reasoned that the helmets must be somehow causing new injuries that didn't occur without helmets - but the reality was that the helmets were transforming lethal wounds into nonlethal ones, and thus injuries went up while deaths went down.
In a similar vein, it's not that "everything is disease" suddenly these days - it's that we've only recently started to look at issues that always existed and recognize them as legitimate problems.
People used to smoke like chimneys, openly dismissive of others who suggested it might be harmful to one's health, writing them off as hysterical alarmists who were imagining things - portions of the medical establishment itself even promoted smoking as being good for one's health. People used to consider curium and other radioactive compounds to be wonder products capable of everything from giving you energy throughout the day, to eliminating wrinkles, to curing diseases - and they too were dismissive and derisive of others who suggested radiation might be harmful to one's health.
It may well be that that the mental health of teenagers has gotten worse - it could simply be that our ability to recognize and diagnose mental health problems that were always there has improved, and thus the numbers of reported cases go up without the actual amount of mental health problems changing in any way.
Of course, it is also possible that the above has happened AND mental health in teenagers has worsened at the same time.
In which case, I would suggest considering how modern day young people are different from their progenitors. For example, by virtually all measures, the youth of today are the most liberal in all of recorded history - and they live stuck in a world which has a largely unprecedented degree of gerontocracy. Across the globe, masses of extremely liberal young people are held back by their much more conservative Baby Boomer parents and grandparents who are still at the helms of virtually every major societal institution and government.
Look at the Brexit idiocy, where older conservative voters who wanted to leave the EU overrode liberal youth voters who desperately wanted to stay. Look at the election of Trump, where his supporters were older conservatives and his opponents were young liberals. Look at the pandemic, where those most resistant to vaccinations, mask mandates, and other measures to protect lives are older conservatives - and those most in favor of them are young liberals.
Basically everywhere you look, the biggest issues in modern day society are being determined by the old and conservative generations, and the liberal youth are forced to put up with the catastrophic results. Is it any wonder that teenagers looking around at the world are troubled by what they see?
Basically everywhere you look, the biggest issues in modern day society are being determined by the old and conservative generations, and the liberal youth are forced to put up with the catastrophic results. Is it any wonder that teenagers looking around at the world are troubled by what they see?
ReplyDeleteOh, brooooother. This is the kind of thing I'm talking about. "My generation is the bestest ever and the bad old people are stopping paradise on earth coming about if they just listened to us, the bestest generation ever. So triggered, wahhh.
@Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI agree. Instead coddling today's teens, we should hit them with some strong, character-building misery. Why, back in my day, I starved to death three times, and it did me a world of good!
Of course, my point was made much better by these geniuses:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue7wM0QC5LE
Many years ago there was an animated cartoon series that captured the essence of that YouTube video. Two English guys sitting at a small table smoking cigars, bragging to one another, each outdoing the other. Finally, one guy would tell a hair-raising story that seemed impossible to escape from, death being the only outcome. And each time the other guy would ask how he got out of these jams. To which the storyteller would reply, "I didn't. " Actually I think his reply was "JUST SO!" -- Kipling.
ReplyDelete@Shadow
ReplyDeleteWas that Commander McBragg?
>I agree. Instead coddling today's teens, we should hit them with some strong, character-building misery
ReplyDeleteWell, gee, it sounds like they ARE being hit with some misery, though, yes? Supposedly their mental health is "much worse", no? It just doesn't seem to be character building, though, just misery that is not alleviated by "therapy" and "studies". If it's misery brought about by social media, sorry, the tears just aren't coming.
So which is it, are they being hit with "misery" or not?
@David
ReplyDeleteYour post is emblematic of some of the problem. All of life is reduced to a snarky twitter response followed by a link to youtube. That's what all discussion online has come to. Make your little "funny" response, collects some upvotes, make a meme of it, and post how you 'pwned' the other guy, and collect the 'amens' from the echo chamber.
@David,
ReplyDeleteYes, yes. It is true. I'm using the @ sign. My resistance is crumbling before our very eyes.
Commander McBragg sounds right. Very, good. Now if I could only remember what cartoon show it was on. I don't think it was Rocky and Bullwinkle. I mean, R&B had the Way-Back Machine and Fractured Fairy Tales. Let's spread the wealth around. Wasn't this another show?
Oh, and Dudley Do-right and sweet, sweet Nell. Forgive me for loving them out.
ReplyDelete@Shadow
ReplyDeleteThe Wikipedia article on Commander McBragg says it appeared on Rocky and Bullwinkle, as well as Tennessee Tuxedo and others. Good times.
To quote Daniel Swensen, "If you suffered in life and want other people to suffer as you did because 'you turned out fine', you did not in fact turn out fine."
ReplyDeleteCommander McBragg videos
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL3Ym7LONeFfnHG0_MfZSeFhqYT6jm9cA
CUlture become more toxic, people are encouraged to look around for the troubles and have built-in unrealistic expectations - while at the same time the social fabric deteriorates. In times of my youth I was unusually shy and introvert boy, but still I spent a lot of time outdoors with my friends, and I talked a lot to strangers too. Nowadays kids still have a lot of friends, but often do not talk to them in person.
ReplyDelete