Thanks to bestselling authors like Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge, the public has become increasingly aware of the rapid rise in mental health issues among younger people […] Their warnings about the destructive impact of social media have had an effect, reflected not least in a wave of schools across Europe banning smartphones.
While it’s good to draw attention to the rising rates of depression and anxiety, there’s a risk of becoming fixated on simplistic explanations that reduce the issue to technical variables like “screen time”.
[…]
A hallmark of Twenge and Haidt’s arguments is their use of trend lines for various types of psychological distress, showing increases after 2012, which Haidt calls the start of the “great rewiring” when smartphones became widespread. This method has been criticised for overemphasising correlations that may say little about causality.
[…]
Numerous academics […] have pointed to factors such as an increasing intolerance for uncertainty in modernity, a fixation – both individual and collective – on avoiding risk, intensifying feelings of meaninglessness in work and life more broadly and rising national inequality accompanied by growing status anxiety. However, it’s important to emphasise that social science has so far failed to provide definitive answers.
[…]
It seems unlikely that the political and social challenges we face wouldn’t influence our wellbeing. Reducing the issue to isolated variables [such as the use of smartphones], where the solution might appear to be to introduce a new policy (like banning smartphones) follows a technocratic logic that could turn good health into a matter for experts.
The risk with this approach is that society as a whole is excluded from the analysis. Another risk is that politics is drained of meaning. If political questions such as structural discrimination, economic precarity, exposure to violence and opioid use are not regarded as shaping our wellbeing, what motivation remains for taking action on these matters?
I’ll be honest, I really do not like how we’re getting hammered for our risk-aversion.
“Don’t do [risky behavior with bad consequences], otherwise [bad thing will happen]! And don’t give into peer pressure telling you you have to do [bad thing]!” is what I was taught in school and by my parents.
I listened instead of rebelling. This made sense to me, and besides a lot of the risky behaviors held no appeal for me anyways.
OMGWTFBBQ THE YOUNG GENERATION IS RISK-AVERSE :((((
I’ll keep living this way, thanks.
If they are talking about more calculated risks that we kind of need people to take, like people starting small businesses, I feel like people will always be taking that kind of risk. If they are talking about just “basic safety” risks like people not wearing seatbelts in cars, driving drunk, it’s good that that kind of risk is becoming unpopular. Whatever part of society is dependent on us taking that kind of risk can adapt or die. And if they are sad about lifestyle type risky behavior, neither good nor bad, stuff like bungee-jumping off cliffs, I have no words for older generations believing living a quiet, straight-edge life is a problem and wanting us to change that.
I look as it less being blame and more trying to understand the issue.
When was the last time you brought/did something without checking an online review? Got into a conversation with a complete stranger? Left the house without a phone?
I think that’s the kind of risk they are talking about.
It’s capitalism coupled with access to education.
You get more anxious when you’re super educated about how badly you’re getting fucked by capitalism and have zero power to change it!
I suspect this is part of it, but I also suspect that it’s even little things like more people living in dense cities and spending less time in serene nature.
The rise in near sightedness is tied to kids not spending enough time outdoors literally just focusing on things far in the distance, it seems to me that it would be more surprising if there weren’t also related mental health consequences.
It was common for kids to have a day without being watched by parents in dense cities a generation ago.
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Actually near nearsightedness is due to brightness levels being much indoors rather than focal points. Even on cloudy days it’s much brighter outdoors. There’s also evidence that natural light has a calming effect on people.
Here on Lemmy, most problems are simply caused by capitalism. Period. It’s all you need to know. (/s, just to be safe)
It’s not just lemmy but anywhere that reasonable people have an accurate perception of reality.
Yeah, and you don’t need to think on your own. Whatever the problem is, the cause is always the same. No mistake possible.
I just want people to be happy and to not get exploited. As far as I know, people have been exploited under both capitalism and communism. I am not sure if it’s inherent to either economic structure, if there are safe guardrails you can put on either to make them not harmful, if it’s not inherent to the economic structure and what matters is also what other government type is happening alongside that economic structure, etc. Something that really doesn’t help is that often, if you grow up with one structure, you’re also taught the other one is a virus of evil that no good human being would ever support. Well, maybe a misguided one, but nobody good and smart who thinks for themselves.
It would be nice to see a civil discussion with people actually trying to figure out which one is best and least harmful, because as an outsider looking in all I see is
“capitalism is the problem”
“no it’s not, also you’re not a free thinker”
Is everyone coming in here with some prior knowledge I don’t have? Is there somewhere where people have tried to have this civil discussion that I could look at where it stayed civil?
I do think one thing I can certainly say is that there are people who lived under communism who worked hard and tried their best and still suffered in poverty under it and wanted out. And there are people who lived under capitalism who worked hard and tried their best and still suffered in poverty under it and wanted out.
Is there somewhere where people have tried to have this civil discussion that I could look at where it stayed civil?
I find that place can be here, with some liberal blocking of asshats.
I was surprised how much thoughtless angry contrarianess was from the same accounts over and over, once I started blocking them.
Communist governments took power in poor countries and had to endure ‘primitive accumulation’ before they could start building a socialist economy. At best they created workers’ states where employment and basic services were guaranteed to all.
Communist governments took power in poor countries and had to endure ‘primitive accumulation’ before they could start building a socialist economy. At best they created workers’ states where employment and basic services were guaranteed to all.
Where was that?
Economic systems are mostly about incentives. What are people incentivised to do by receiving the most reward.
Capitalism incentivises destroying competition, creating monopolies, expanding the wealth gap, donating to ineffective charities for tax breaks, paying employees as little as possible to protect profits, lobbying congress for no labor protections, and filling the media with nonsense to distract from all this.
Communism makes it so, in principle, you have no reason to overwork yourself, other than if you enjoy what you are doing.
At least that is my understanding.
I remember when the rise in anxiety was blamed on the cold war.
Buh we gotta ban TikTok!!! Block kids from the internet!!! As long as they’re completely unaware of reality, we can force them to be happy.
I’ve been trying, but it’s tough. Is there a book club or something where we can share tips?
(I’m kidding. Instead I’ve settled for making sure they experience the great movies, books and videogames.)
yeah. I have had anxiety issues long before I had access to internet.
Correlation may not equal causation, but causation equals causation, and social media has caused enough documented strife among young people to make me question who bankrolled this research group.
make me question who bankrolled this research group.
Yeah. This reads a lot like “well known harmful but profitable product not as harmful as previously understood”. I’ve seen that headline a lot of times over the years, and rarely was it honest.
However, it’s important to emphasise that social science has so far failed to provide definitive answers.
Yeah thats traditionally not the job of the social sciences or science in general.
