Submission + - Young People's Mental Health Is Improving. Tech Alarmists Take Note. (reason.com) 1
fjo3 writes: When you're motivated to find evidence that today's tech is dooming young people, it's certainly easy to do so. But when you consider the totality of the data, the picture becomes much, much more complicated. Suddenly we see evidence that tech may have both negative and positive effects on young people—sometimes simultaneously; that its effects may differ greatly based on individuals' pre-existing circumstances and psychological makeups; that there are at least other plausible explanations for negative developments that many attribute only to technology; and that even where tech usage could credibly be causing damage, the effect sizes are often much smaller than folks make it seem.
False conclusion. (Score:2)
It's about college students: https://sph.umich.edu/news/202... [umich.edu]
“For the first time in roughly 15 years of collecting Healthy Minds data, we have seen two consecutive years of improved outcomes from fall 2022 through spring 2024,”
You don't trend downward for 13 years and suddenly claim the issue is overblown because of small improvements over the last two.
"A decrease in severe depressive symptoms from 23% in 2022 and 20% in 2023 to 19% in 2024."
More students reported taking psychiatric medication: 31% this year vs. 29% in 2022 and 2023.
Related? Hmm!
None of this disproves the idea that elevated pandemic-era tech usage could have contributed to well-being declines in young people
Important to what reason.com is trying to claim.