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.
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.
I buy groceries without checking a review, try local activities without checking reviews, etc.—I’m not exactly paralyzed. But something that costs a decent chunk of money I am absolutely checking a review and I don’t think that is wrong to do. The trouble with checking reviews nowadays is how easy they are to fake, how easy it is to get a genuine negative review deleted on certain sites, how a person who has it out for a small business owner can flood them with untrue negative reviews, how often they are gamed in some way such that it does not reflect the true quality of the thing…
Conversations with strangers… I’ll be honest that’s a hard one because I’m not good at social cues and I don’t want to think I’m having a nice conversation when the other half is composing a OH MY GOD STUPID FUCKING EXTROVERTS THE WORLD HATES INTROVERTS CAN’T THEY TELL I DON’T WANT TO TALK story in their head about me (being extroverted and having autism where you suck at social cues and know you suck at social cues is not a fun combination). I learned this behavior after seeing people express annoyance about strangers talking to them. Some things are obvious, like if you’re occupied with a book, but nowadays who isn’t occupied on their phone? I have had plenty of situations where I was on my phone but would have loved if someone started conversation with me—but I might be an anomaly so I just keep following the social rule of “occupied = don’t talk”. If I’m in a space where I think someone is open to socialization I am much more likely to initiate conversation—like a party or something. I’m not afraid of “sorry, not interested,” but I am afraid of “yeah I’m cool with you” (actually no I’m not but I’ll never tell you I have a problem with you until I blow up about it 6 months later).
I like quick and easy access to 911 or a locksmith’s number in case I leave the house and lock myself out and cannot find the spare key but there are other reasons I leave the house with a phone than risk aversion/insurance for screwups I have committed before—for directions, or because it’s nice to have a thing that staves away boredom if I know I’ll probably be sitting in a line for 30 minutes, or because I have a digital wallet on there that is easier to carry around than my real wallet…
The issue with those metrics is how many other things can motivate those behaviors besides being scared of everything, or factors that make what might be an unreasonable fear for most people actually reasonable for you (for example, a phobia of bees suddenly becomes a lot more reasonable if you are deathly allergic, live near them, and aren’t good at recognizing their hives/are accident-prone), but I do get the core of what you are saying. A generation who is more anxious about basic everyday things, which is definitely not good.
Although with checking reviews specifically, I’d argue that given how many times companies lower quality, change stuff, pull the rug out from under you in the name of profit, people have more and more cause to try to verify they are getting something decent when they would not have done so in the past. The more you hear of people getting screwed over, naturally the more you’ll check to make sure you are not getting screwed too. This increased risk aversion is entirely rational in my opinion.
I live on Staten Island. Used to be that I’d hear chatter on the ferry every day. I would have a nice chat almost daily, and a serious conversation a couple of times a month. These days it’s mostly silent and those who do talk came on the boat together. Otherwise, everyone is staring at the phone.
So what would be the solution you think?
I wish I knew.
Left the house without a phone?
What?
Thanks for helping me prove my point.
I look as it less being blame and more trying to understand the issue.
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!
Here on Lemmy, most problems are simply caused by capitalism. Period. It’s all you need to know. (/s, just to be safe)
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.
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.
It was common for kids to have a day without being watched by parents in dense cities a generation ago.
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I don’t think that causation is evident or certainly or obviously factual. The negative interpretation is something you learn and internalize from your environment. You seem to already be in it, so I’m sure it may be hard to see an alternative. But I imagine education is neutral. And having zero power is an absolut defeatist mindset that is a conclusion of a lot of input and experience rather than a natural mindset from access to education.
I’m sure there is an alternative way of life, if the environment were different, if education were different, not less, but a different environment and approach, that people could become concerned but confident and active rather than scared and defeatist.
You said zero power. But looking back, every big social shift was in situations where individuals felt powerless. I can certainly see and feel powerless. But looking back into history, I feel like that individual conclusion should not be extrapolated to our society overall, and in consequence, ourselves as individuals within that society.
I remember when the rise in anxiety was blamed on the cold war.
yeah. I have had anxiety issues long before I had access to internet.
Did it get worse with the internet or social media?
not really. honestly never been much active social media. I will say this though. I was on reddit for a little while and that was bad. Never again will I go back.
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.
I don’t really have much to go off of other than my own experiences, but I don’t think social media caused me more anxiety than normal except for one exception. During the beginning and early years of the pandemic, reddit usage did sometimes cause me more anxiety. Especially when people were hateful/disregarded other people.
Otherwise, the main things that cause me anxiety are a lack of community + a lack of third spaces. Feeling like I have no purpose other than being a cog in a machine/wealth disparity/alienation from my labour. Governments that don’t care for the people they’re supposed to serve. A general feeling of not being able to get ahead in life.
That’s been the major cause of anxiety for me for the past 12 years
I think it really depends on how people are using the internet/ social media. I’m sure we all use it differently, and it might cause more or less anxiety.
Now I might be an old disillusioned fart but nope, social media hasn’t changed a thing… for me. The anxiety, depression, and anger was already there, full force, in the 80s and 90s. I mean come on listen to Punk and Grunge. Coincides pretty well with the rise of Neoliberalism and New Labour, wait why did I use the same term twice. It’s at the tail wave of boomers having had their revolution and subsequently declaring the end of history.
What differs though is that (yeah I’m going to do it) the young’uns who never experienced life without the internet, worse, without a smartphone or tablet, don’t even go to fucking concerts any more where they could touch some grass and get laid. Also media competency falls off drastically again I think somewhere in the middle of gen Z.
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.
What do you mean by that? Isn’t science always searching for answers?
Its capitalism
