Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Social Networks Science

Social Media Damages Teenagers' Mental Health, Report Says (bbc.com) 99

Teenagers' mental health is being damaged by heavy social media use, a report has found. From a report: Research from the Education Policy Institute and The Prince's Trust said wellbeing and self-esteem were similar in all children of primary school age. Boys and girls' wellbeing is affected at the age of 14, but girls' mental health drops more after that, it found. A lack of exercise is another contributing factor - exacerbated by the pandemic, the study said. According to the research: One in three girls was unhappy with their personal appearance by the age of 14, compared with one in seven at the end of primary school. The number of young people with probable mental illness has risen to one in six, up from one in nine in 2017. Boys in the bottom set at primary school had lower self-esteem at 14 than their peers. The wellbeing of both genders fell during adolescence, with girls experiencing a greater decline, the report said.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Social Media Damages Teenagers' Mental Health, Report Says

Comments Filter:
  • by kenh ( 9056 ) on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @11:57AM (#60997122) Homepage Journal

    I'm old enough to remember when violence in the media was damaging our youth, and when rock 'n roll music was ruining their minds, driving some to suicide, and of course let's not forget that video games corrupted our youth as well. And now Zoom school is leading teens to suicide and countless other mental problems.

    Can't we just cut to the chase and declare teens "highly impressionable" and spend our time and resources studying something useful?

    • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @12:14PM (#60997188)
      While I would like to agree with you that this is nothing but hyper-vigilance, unlike with previous issues there is empirical evidence to suggest this issue is real. While we don't have evidence to allow us to claim causation, at the very least you can see the correlation of many people going demonstrably crazy and mass adoption of social media. This is not limited to teenagers, but it is most visible in teenagers that lack coping mechanisms and social skills to hide the signs.

      Depression, lack of self-esteem, conspiratorial thinking, extreme political polarization, aggressive online behavior are all undeniably present. If not social media, what is causing all this?
      • It's called "Being a teenager."

        Have you forgotten high school already?

        • It's called "Being a teenager."

          Have you forgotten high school already?

          It's not the same. Back when I was in senior public school and high school things were much more insular. I had friends at other schools; beyond those friends I wasn't much on anybody's radar at those other schools, whereas I had a reputation at my own. Social media breaks down those boundaries - today's students have no avenue of escape from judgments and evaluations and rumours and name-calling that extend far beyond the schools they actually attend.

          • today's students have no avenue of escape from judgments and evaluations and rumours and name-calling that extend far beyond the schools they actually attend.

            Neither did the previous generation - their parents would take them to school every single day and leave them at the mercy of other kids for hours.

            • by sjames ( 1099 )

              Imagine if you had remained at there mercy even after coming home in the evening, and on the weekends, and over the Summer.

              • remained at there mercy

                Their.

                And whatever led you to believe that most children (high-schoolers, whatever) spend their summers away from the people their own age? When I was growing up, we all went to the same schools, and played together in the summer, since we lived in the same neighborhood....

                • by sjames ( 1099 )

                  Fingers confused by the homonym, so THEIR! :-)

                  Gen X here. The neighborhood's teen social structure was different. Only friends had your phone number and the bully or mean girls weren't going to call anyway since you'd just hang up. If they called back they'd probably be chewed out by your parental units and then their parental units. Friends got invited over, not others. Fellow students you didn't know (or who you knew and hated) effectively disappeared during school vacations. Opposing cliques might meet a

        • Well, with social media, it is a bit different.

          Back in the day, the TV, and rock records weren't actively manipulating you on a second by second basis to try to keep your eyes on the media and keep you engaged all day and almost directly attempt to manipulate and alter your behavior.

          Social media does.

          Maybe a good start would be, treating social media like Pr0n....make it only available to those 18yrs and older, eh?

        • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          No, this is something far more insidious, manipulative and destructive.

          Real name social media, expose minors without real understand, into exposing their public identity, to all and sundry across the internet and as well as childish choices, which do damage when exposed to the critical analysis of others whose intent is often quite negative.

          They are potentially digitally damaging their entire lives their identity publicly destroyed, the education and employment future permanently damaged and their psycholo

      • but to OP's point, the same things you're saying now were said about video games and TV and movies and hell Penny Dreadfuls. Over time more research was done to find there wasn't any real issues.
        • by sinij ( 911942 )
          There are two possible explanation of what is going on worldwide (as this is not limited to US). Simplistic one - that one individual is singlehandedly responsible for all of it. Nuanced - what we have seen in US is a manifestation of a larger problem that exists outside of politics and conclude that political polarization is a symptom of broader societal issue. If simplistic explanation ends up true, we will find out in a year or so that everything settled.
        • but to OP's point, the same things you're saying now were said about video games and TV and movies and hell Penny Dreadfuls. Over time more research was done to find there wasn't any real issues.

          I don't think the uproar about video games and TV and movies was based on any actual research. If I'm right, then subsequent research easily proved those conclusions wrong because they were based on "common sense" and conjecture.

          I had a quick look at the study linked to in TFA, and I don't think that's the case this time around. This study seems to have been done about as well as you can do one that necessarily relies on self-reporting.

          • by dryeo ( 100693 )

            There may have been studies that really didn't differentiate between TV etc being the problem and kids not getting outside being the problem.
            People have evolved to spend time outside, especially when young. Here Doctors have started prescribing spending an hour in a green space outside a day for depression with good results. When I was a kid, all the kids spent a lot of time in the bush and in the local parks, which seems to be good for mental health. Spending too much time staring at a screen is not the sa

    • by skids ( 119237 )

      I gotta say, while I game and never gave any serious credulity to the moral panic around video games and violence, I really couldn't see how the toxicity that abounds in in-game chat these days, and the associated social media activity with players trying to ridicule other players and exaggerate their PvP prowess, could do anything but depress anyone who participates.

      I used to minimize using any off-console forums/videos/features just because I was sick of working on computers all day and all a wanted was o

      • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @12:58PM (#60997464)
        There's always been trash talk in competition. Anyone who grew up playing organized sports knows this. The only difference is that when you're on Xbox live there isn't a coach to reign the kids in when they've gone too far and become insufferable little shits. The problem isn't the technology but the lack of adult supervision to foster constructive growth as an individual. Is it any wonder that kids without oversight from elders will turn anything into a "Lord of the Flies"-like situation?

        One of the more interesting things I've ever read was an article about the effects of poaching. A group of young elephants that had lost the older members of the pack that would normally raise and socialize them were acting out and harassing other animals in ways that had never been observed. Seemed very much like typical behavior you'd see in gangs.

        If it seems like it's always something new or an ever moving target it's because there's always some new technology and we just keep repeating the same mistakes all over again while thinking that the blame lays elsewhere.
    • I'm old enough to remember when violence in the media was damaging our youth, and when rock 'n roll music was ruining their minds, driving some to suicide, and of course let's not forget that video games corrupted our youth as well. And now Zoom school is leading teens to suicide and countless other mental problems.

      Also Elvis, who rotates his pelvis suggestive and vulgar, tinged with the kind of animalism that should be confined to dives and bordellos.

      And ragtime! Shameless music that that'll grab your son, your daughter, with the arms of a jungle animal instinct, MASSTERIA!

      • There is a house in New Orleans
        They call The Rising Sun
        And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
        And God, I know I'm one

        There is nobody more concerned with the youth, than those who pissed theirs away

      • Don't forget the part just before that "ragtime":
        Right here in River City.
        Trouble with a capital "T"
        And that rhymes with "P" and that stands for Pool!
        Now, I know all you folks are the right kinda parents.
        I'm gonna be perfectly frank.
        Would ya like to know what kinda conversation goes
        On while they're loafin' around that Hall?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      But social media can also cause these same issues in adults, along with extremification of political views. It's a virtual skinner box that reduces social interaction to an addictive loop. I don't think it should be banned, but people need a better understanding of how social media can cause harm.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Can't we just cut to the chase and declare teens "highly impressionable" and spend our time and resources studying something useful?

      Cannot do that. Actually seeing the problem clearly is not conductive to falsely putting the blame on things older generations view with suspicion.

      • To be fair, we do educate our youth, and keeping current on things that they "need to know" is a difficult task

        At this point, we allow the State of Texas to control what goes into our school text-books, and they have proven to be regressive at best. The nation-wide level of sex/birth control education (uneven at best, non existent at worst) is one example of the failings.

        We also educate our children via the emergency services as to the most dangerous things they may encounter, crawling under smoke, stop dro

    • by eepok ( 545733 ) on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @12:43PM (#60997352) Homepage

      Speaking to the Social Media Issue: The physical-social seclusion facilitated by social media, the FOMO, and the unrealistic self-expectations created by manicured online personae, etc. have ALL changed how our young people are capable or even willing to interact in person. I've been working at a major public University for the last 16 years and the difference between an early-2000s undergraduate's socialization to one today is extreme and easily observable. They fact that lectures have to integrate the use of remote/phone based surveys and question submission (mid-lecture!) because people are too anxious to raise their hands says a lot. So many students cannot form in-person groups on their own with extreme anxiety.

      And then there's the non-classroom stuff. Social media systems focusing on follower accumulation are dominated by narcissists who are financially and psychologically driven to convince people to follow them. Those followers get hooked and naturally begin to see those narcissists as role models-- wanting to emulate their levels of perceived success, luxury, style, opinions, consumption, etc. You think I'm talking about Instagram models, but I'm really talking about recent graduates to share their progress "moving up their ladder", moving into a great condo, buying their first Merc/BMW, all after graduating with a 4.X GPA and with a double-major.

      I tell my students all the time: Do not follow/friend/group with anyone on social media who doesn't actively converse with and care about you. Otherwise, that's not social media and likely just volunteering for narcissistic brainwashing and targeted advertising.

    • by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @12:53PM (#60997426)

      Can't we just cut to the chase [...] and spend our time and resources studying something useful?

      This sort of study is useful. Without it, incorrect "common knowledge" is allowed to perpetuate as "fact".

      Take the examples you just brought up: people thought that rock and roll, video games, movies, and other media were damaging our youth, but long-term studies regarding most of those have found little to no evidence to substantiate those claims—and in some cases have even discovered that the effects are positive—or at the very least we've seen that the evidence splits both ways with the net result being a wash.

      Not so with social media. Study after study keeps coming out, with the results nearly uniformly indicating that social media causes measurable harm.

      Without studies like these, we operate on assumption rather than evidence. Not all of our assumptions are correct, so we need studies like these to confirm or disprove the things that we've assumed.

    • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      I'm old enough to remember when violence in the media was damaging our youth, and when rock 'n roll music was ruining their minds, driving some to suicide, and of course let's not forget that video games corrupted our youth as well.

      You're making a false equivalence. Violence in media was a *hypothesized* source of damage, and people did research into it, and found no correlation.

      Now, social media is a hypothesized source of damage, and this article reports research into it, and they DID find a correlation. You should follow the science. Here's an extract from the study that we're talking about:

      Heavy social media use is associated with worse scores on all outcomes in girls age 14 and 17, but only worse wellbeing for boys at age 14. In a model controlling for pre-existing levels of self-esteem and wellbeing, we find that low levels of physical activity remain associated with low self-esteem and wellbeing scores in girls and boys through adolescence, while heavy social media use contributes to low self-esteem and wellbeing in girls, and wellbeing in boys at age 14

    • Rock 'n roll and video games were not all about 'self esteem' - if anything, they were about tribalism and joining 'a club'.

      What social media presents, quite often, is some kind of idealised existence to have to live up to.

      If you don't have the followers, the likes, the cool - you are nothing, a loser.

      Rock 'n roll had nothing to do with that, in many ways, it glorified 'the loser', 'the different' and celebrated that creativity, that idea.
      Video games were escapism - nobody is going to judge you amongst your

      • About the only thing that I have experienced being as dangerous to a child's mental health as Social Media would be Church Youth Groups.

        Can we get them shut down?

    • and spend our time and resources studying something useful?

      Such as? I get mental health isn't your thing, so let's just screw the people with mental health and who are susceptible to them and get to what kenh thinks we should spend resources on.

      Me I'm in favour of a study that looks at the correlation between how grumpy an old fart can be and it's inverse relationship to UID.

    • Rather than waste resources finding the reasons teenagers have susceptibility to mental disorders and suicidal thoughts, how about we dedicate some resources to implementing and making available resources to teenagers to help them combat what's clearly a natural tendency towards mental issues? I thought it when I was a teen and constantly felt like I was right on the edge and there was zero chance anybody would give a fuck if I mentioned it or worse, would attempt to use it against me. It wasn't until yea

    • So then you are also old enough to remember that at one time most people were more balanced then to believe fake news.
      You are old enough to remember a society where the number of raped women was closer to 1 / 20 where as now it is 1/3.
      You are old enough to remember a society where believing in right and wrong was the norm , as opposed to now when more then half the people's definition of right and wrong is 'whatever most of us feel'.

      If you think those things you listed are in no way contribute to the declin

      • I was going to respond to this, but after writing a few paragraphs and clicking "Preview", /. tells me "Filter error: Lameness filter encountered". No idea what this means, or who to avoid it. But basically I was going to disagree with the first line of your post, saying it has nothing to do with people being balanced, and everything to do with the news feeds (especially, but not limited to, social media) being unbalanced. I guess /. doesn't like me saying that, so I'll try an abbreviated post.

      • As per my 9:15 PM post, /. didn't like s.t. I was saying in my original reply. I saved the text, so I'm going to try posting it a couple paragraphs at a time to see if it still calls me lame. (Lame? Heck, I ran 6 miles on trails this afternoon, and I'm not lame. What are you talking about?) First para:

        "then you are also old enough to remember that at one time most people were more balanced then [sic, than] to believe fake news": No, I don't remember such a time, and I'm pretty old. What I do remember

        • next para [edited to abbreviate some terms that /. apparently doesn't like]
          Now try reading F__ N___ and C_N. There are days I wouldn't know they were reporting about the same country, or that there was a difference between news and editorials. And C_N feels it necessary to repeat "baseless" every time they refer to Trump's claims. You know, I got it, you don't have to keep repeating that. And that's the "mainstream" (more or less) news; half of social media about politics might as well be written by [ol

          • Final paras, and I'm done:
            (I'm tempted to put something in here about the clickbait that you are exposed to, particularly on MSN, but I'll leave this out.)

            So no, I don't believe people these days are any less balanced or less inclined to believe fake news. I think there's just a ton of it now, vs. hardly any some decades ago. And if by some magic social media disappeared today, I think it wouldn't be long before the average level of belief in fake news dropped off a cliff.

    • by clovis ( 4684 )

      Can't we just cut to the chase and declare teens "highly impressionable" and spend our time and resources studying something useful?

      Nope.

      The summary, as usual, is clickbait crap. Social media usage is only one of the 13 parameters studied, and it's not the most significant.
      Here's the actual study.
      https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/... [epi.org.uk]
      You'll notice that social media use is positive if done weekly, bad if done daily or monthly. The worst outcomes are for those who use it "never".

      Most kids are OK, but we want to know why the ones with mental health issues got that way. we want to know what's different about them, and what can we do to prevent t

  • I believe the entire premise is an assumption of facts not in evidence.

    • Social Media Damages Teenagers' Mental Health, Report Says

      Teenagers damage their parents' mental health

      • It's true, it's been observed before that parents become stupid during their children's teen age years. Fortunately we recover later.

  • The title is misleading but the story acknowledges this:

    "Those who feel worse may turn to social media for solace or community," Dr Amy Orben, research fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, said of the research. "It's not a vacuum, it works both ways."

    • "Those who feel worse may turn to social media for solace or community," Dr Amy Orben, research fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, said of the research. "It's not a vacuum, it works both ways."

      A->B: sad people choose social media

      B->A: social media causes sad people

      Aristotle considers the fallacy of consequent to be a special case of the fallacy of accident, observing that consequence is not convertible, i.e., “if A is, B necessarily is, men also fancy that, if B is, A necessari

  • Once you go testosterone will you never come back! Muuhahahaha!!

  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @12:05PM (#60997162)

    The thing about social Media, Is that people will often post about things that they do when they are at their best. So when you read it, it looks like everyone is doing much better than you are. While people who see your posts are thinking the same about you.

    My feed may be from some people who are going on a fancy vacation, and I am like, gee I would love to visit their, but I cannot afford it, I must be a looser. But I had say a few years ago posted about my big vacation, so the people then thought the same thing.

    We have a natural instinct to want to keep up with the Jones, but social media gives us a distorted view on what the Jones are doing. Because we don't see posts about them having to save up for 3 years for that vacation, or have been driving an old beater car for years before they got that sports car. Or the fact they got money for that home upgrade was because they collected on life insurance from a beloved passed away family member.

    We see successes without the hardship on social media, so especially to younger people who haven't fully grasp that concept, they just see everyone being better than them. While in truth they may not be at all.

    • Someone explained it to me as “You end up comparing your entire messed up life to someones highlight reel.”
  • by OrangeTide ( 124937 ) on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @12:09PM (#60997176) Homepage Journal

    All the kids in my family and my friend's kids are a hot mess when it comes this. I get that kids these days socialize online more than we did 30-40 years ago when I was a kid. We used the telephone for hours, same thing in some ways.

    But the emotional investment kids have in their phone is staggering. They become almost completely isolated from their friends if they try to get away from their internet access. It's not even feasible for them to take a break without losing status.

    And the amount of shit talking and bullying that occurs is horrible. And while adults usually are able to deal with it (not always, if /. trolls are any indication), kids aren't experienced or mature enough to handle a lot of this stuff constructively on their own. It was heartbreaking talking to a family member, a mother of a 9 year old, and her child's suicide attempts because of a lot of the scheming shit that goes on with kids. Dealing with being excludes is part of growing up. But taking things to an aggressive level of harassment and giving a victim no option but to either cut themselves from all friends or continue to be harassed. For no reason other than kids finding torturing a peer to be an amusing past time. That's vile. And it was much harder to do when we had to use the telephone where our conversations may be overheard.

    • you're just noticing it because it's on a phone and there's a record of it. Nothing's changed, kids are awful and always have been. But now we have a record of how awful they are that researchers can pour over and use to quantify it. We can measure something that we all just kinda used to pretend wasn't there.
      • It's not the same. If a child is bullied at school, they have respite when they are at home with their family or out with friends. Social media bullying is 24/7.
        • Not really true. It was bad back in the good old days too. Bulling occurred outside of school as much if not more than in school. On the bus, at the popular hang outs (back when kids used to hang out at the mall and skateboard at a few key spots). Phone pranks. Nasty or ominous message left in a locker or bookbag.

          To truly terrorize a child, the psychological attacks can occur at any time. It's a 24/7 threat. Kids lose sleep worrying about the next day. They never know if something they own will get vandaliz

        • I did. Lots. They came and harassed me at my home.
          • And how many people witnessed it? Was there a permanent record? I'm not minimizing the impact of in-person bullying, I am just saying the online version is different.
      • you're just noticing it because it's on a phone and there's a record of it. Nothing's changed, kids are awful and always have been.

        See my last sentence: And it was much harder to do when we had to use the telephone where our conversations may be overheard.

        I think correction of a child's behave by an adult was more feasible in that (long gone) era. Of course some parents didn't give a crap and let their kids do awful things anyways. The difference I see in the internet age is that it takes a lot larger effort on the parts of parents to even notice what their child does online.

        Parents might wish to assume their kid just watches videos al

        • you'd just hang up on a bully. Though as somebody who got bullied a lot they don't call you, they come over in person and harass you when your parents aren't around or you're out playing.

          Again, just as much bullying, it's just that the parent can grab the kid's phone and see recorded evidence of it. Where in the past what happened on the playground stayed on the playground. Plus the bully could deny anything you said, and, well, they were usually more personable, athletic and likable kids. So people wer
          • they come over in person and harass you when your parents aren't around or you're out playing.

            A friend of mine shut down his BBS basically because some users thought it would funny to harass him outside his house while his Mom was gone.

            Finding notes in your books or whatever, or an old rotten cup of yogurt in your backpack. That kind of stuff you can't just hang up the phone on. You find out about hours if not days afterwards. It presents a constant source of anxiety.

            Again, just as much bullying, it's just that the parent can grab the kid's phone and see recorded evidence of it.

            I think the prank calls and harassment went down a lot when caller id and *69 was a thing. Of course you can block or spoof caller id

  • by cellocgw ( 617879 ) <cellocgw&gmail,com> on Wednesday January 27, 2021 @12:09PM (#60997178) Journal

    $NAME is damaging our children!!!!

    SELECT FROM
    social media
    video games
    violent movies
    TV
    rock n roll
    comic books
    Communists
    jazz
    The Walz

    • by ljw1004 ( 764174 )

      $NAME is damaging our children!!!! SELECT FROM social media video games violent movies TV...

      You're conflating very different things. Video games were a *hypothesized* source of damage, and people did research into it, and found no correlation.

      Now, social media is a hypothesized source of damage, and this article reports research into it, and they DID find a correlation. You should follow the science. Here's an extract. https://epi.org.uk/wp-content/... [epi.org.uk]

      Heavy social media use is associated with worse scores on all outcomes in girls age 14 and 17, but only worse wellbeing for boys at age 14. In a model controlling for pre-existing levels of self-esteem and wellbeing, we find that low levels of physical activity remain associated with low self-esteem and wellbeing scores in girls and boys through adolescence, while heavy social media use contributes to low self-esteem and wellbeing in girls, and wellbeing in boys at age 14

    • You left off rap music. And misspelled Waltz.
  • They compare kids from secondary schools with kids from primary schools and draw a conclusion based on that .. BTO: I can't see bias yet?

    Also it is long known EVEN BEFORE SOCIAL media bashing was the fad that a certain part of the teens were unhappy with their body and so on also the suicide rate in teens is higher than in grade schoolers.

    And in times before social media it was said the reason is:
    - punk music
    - wave music
    - rock&roll music
    - swing music
    - computer games (even when a blood splash was only a

  • Pschologists only do media friendly "research" that gets printed but not replicated.

    Psychology is NOT a science. It does not progress like real science does. It is not trustworthy like real science is.

    When psychologists start doing science, replicate before doing new bullshit research, are good enough NOT to let murderers out on parole to murder again, THEN we can let psychologists tell us about their latest dippy research.

    Until then, they must FIX THEIR DEADLY DISCIPLINE and SHUT THE FUCK UP.

    • Speaking of bullshit, might want to consider reading a few interesting (and relatively easy reading) books:

      Calling Bullshit
      Thinking, Fast and Slow
      Predictably Irrational
      Behave
      Nudge
      Misbehaving
      Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers

      Psychology, while not a "hard" science, has some great insights into human behavior. As an engineer, this literature has been most illuminating for my daily practice.

      Or, you can just thrash around being angry.

      • Since psychology isn't science it is neither a hard science nor soft science, just a bunch of guessing and inferences without proof. The "insights" are of dubious value, since each generation of psychologists loves to debunk previous ones. A real soup sandwich, psychology is.

      • Psychology, while not a "hard" science, has some great insights into human behavior.

        Without science to back them up, those "insights" are just more bullshit.

        But psychologists use their "insights" to make LIFE AND DEATH DECISIONS.

        That is a disgrace.

  • file that study into the LONG list of studies where lots of $$$ spent and the results fall under the category "No shit !?!"
  • I'd argue that the social media model as in Twitter, Facebook, etc. has impacted the mental health of just about everyone that uses that crap on a daily basis.

    --
    You affect the world by what you browse. - Tim Berners-Lee

    • Remember, all you see on those platforms is people showing their “Best of” highlight reel. In reality they are just as screwed up as everyone else.
  • Real human interaction, quality news, democracy, the Truth... Teenagers are way down the list of things social media should be reined in for

  • Social media is just other teens....

    So teens interacting with themselves, is bad for their mental health?

    Well no shit, have you ever been around a group of teenagers?

  • Should be "Teenagers' mental health in decline due to several socio-economic factors"...
  • If the events of the last few years, and especially the last few months, have shown us anything, it's that adults' minds are pretty easily warped by social media, too. I don't think QAnon could have existed without social media. Oh, there have been plenty of conspiracy theories before, but the breadth and depth of the QAnon phenomenon, and its effects even on near-believers, are unprecedented.

    • That's an interesting question. I would argue that a close parallel would be the Day-care sex-abuse hysteria (and ritual abuse) of the 1980s and 1990s. Even today you still have psychologists who are convinced it's a real, ongoing thing.

  • There is nothing as infuriating as seeing hatemongering on a plate of loudly screaming utter retards all day.

    And the modern fashion of wrapping it in p.c. words, while what is being said stays the same, does not change that. It actually makes it more persistent before people avoid it, making the total damage even bigger.

    Social media: Just fucking don't.

    And a nice saying from my country: "Nature knows no boredom. It is an invention of the city dwellers."
    The same holds true for social media and this feeling y

  • The memtal health problems resulting from heavy reliance on social media for personal interaction are well-known, and have been for several years.
    New to the equation is the impact of the large reduction (often elimination) of normal patterns of in-person social interaction required by COVID-19 restrictions. .

    The forced reduction (or elimination) of these are negatively impacting children now, and, may very well be creatring serious long-term issues and problems for them. Same applies to exercise.

    Thanks to

  • Even if people are forced to use their real names, and you actually have met them in person, people on 'social media' will say things that they'd never say to your face; there are no real-world consequences, not in the same sense of things said face-to-face; so-called 'social media' becomes a weapon in the arsenal of bullies.

    My solution? Ban 'social media' for anyone under the age of 18.
    Preferably: Ban 'social media' entirely. I think it's a failed experiment, it's gone rotten, and is contaminating our
  • I think the US is a prime example, social media is destroying EVERYONE'S mental health.

    My wife showed me a blog last night about a Japanese woman (expat) who is so deeply ingrained in qanon that she believes Trump is still in DC and will become the president again in March.

    My response... well at least we don't have a monopoly on crazy. But on a more serious note, social media gave a platform to unsubstantiated claims. In the past, it was typically reserved for that homeless guy on the corner with the
  • If I am banned on social media, I am old enough to not care because I recall life before it. For people who grew up on social media, it is literally everything to them. Vankin here makes a compelling case on the toxicity of social media... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
  • The study basically says social media makes you feel bad about yourself.
    It includes self esteem in mental health, so low self esteem is "damaging" to mental health.

    When I hear the term "mental health" I usually think of memory, reasoning, and perception.
    To me, damaging mental health would mean reducing cognitive ability, or inducing illusion.
    But I suppose if you include "emotional, psychological, and social well-being" in "mental health" then, yeah, social media is going to affect it (apparently negatively,

  • Social media apparently damages a lot of adult minds as well.
  • Another article from the "No Shit" department.

  • It's not just teenagers.

  • I'm sure I read this same thing 5 years ago, 10 years ago.

Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend. -- Theophrastus

Working...