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Millennials and especially Gen Z are thought to have higher rates of depression and anxiety than previous generations. I would be very surprised if social media

by rlt 5y ago

Millennials and especially Gen Z are thought to have higher rates of depression and anxiety than previous generations. I would be very surprised if social media weren’t a factor. Despite making a career in tech I believe some of what we’re doing is very harmful to culture, mental and physical health, the environment, and democracy. At some point I would like to focus on mitigating these problems.

jat850 5y ago
Do they have higher rates, or better access to information, introspection, tools, awareness, and common understanding of these things? I am curious about that.
- xvilka 5y ago
  A bit of both, I guess.
- moffkalast 5y ago
  And a war torn climate hell future to look forward to, while not being able to afford a house to live in.
Nasrudith 5y ago
I disagree with tbe self-flagellation Zeitgeist. If we didn't have social media we would still have problems with all of those things. It isn't the well of all sorrows that the Zeitgeist is set on scapegoating it as. It just displaced several of the other ills for more or less no difference. Remember obsessive tabloid celebrity culture and reality TV being big things? Things like news media unironically going "we interupt this story from Iraq for news about Britney Spears being released from jail?".(Ah yes, the same media claiming them going out of business would be terrible for democracy.) The Paris Hilton obsession? Innane instagrammers and the pyramid scheme of posers selling guides to being posers are the same societal sickness more or less, manifesting its symptoms differently with the era. There will always be some innanity that is with us long before. From their obsessive focus from the dress at the court to the beads in Ugg's hair and bones spiked through his club!
mFixman 5y ago
Why could social media be a factor and not video games or movie streaming? You are believing things without evidence and falling at the same old-person moral panic as "video games cause violence" or "D&D causes suicide".
- Mezzie 5y ago
  Or, you know, any of the 50 billion other things that have changed in the past 20 years. Plus it's questionable how much the issue is social media versus just that some things suck and we don't have the option to put our fingers in our ears and go 'la la la everything is fine' anymore. I used to be deeply depressed and angry over climate change; is social media to blame since that's part of what kept it in my head for so long, or maybe it's just a normal response to be depressed and mourn when you learn a bunch of things are dying? Likewise, 20 years ago I would have been SURPRISED to wake up to news about a school shooting in my state, but now it was just 'yup, we were due.' Tech and social media are definitely entwined with these changes, but I side eye the recent attempts to put all the responsibility on tech. It's shared responsibility in my opinion: Tech and its incentives are a problem, but there's also a lot of social rot that we can't ignore and that does tend to make people unhappy.

by rlt 5y ago

jat850 5y ago

Do they have higher rates, or better access to information, introspection, tools, awareness, and common understanding of these things? I am curious about that.

xvilka 5y ago
A bit of both, I guess.
moffkalast 5y ago
And a war torn climate hell future to look forward to, while not being able to afford a house to live in.

Nasrudith 5y ago

I disagree with tbe self-flagellation Zeitgeist. If we didn't have social media we would still have problems with all of those things. It isn't the well of all sorrows that the Zeitgeist is set on scapegoating it as. It just displaced several of the other ills for more or less no difference. Remember obsessive tabloid celebrity culture and reality TV being big things? Things like news media unironically going "we interupt this story from Iraq for news about Britney Spears being released from jail?".(Ah yes, the same media claiming them going out of business would be terrible for democracy.) The Paris Hilton obsession? Innane instagrammers and the pyramid scheme of posers selling guides to being posers are the same societal sickness more or less, manifesting its symptoms differently with the era. There will always be some innanity that is with us long before. From their obsessive focus from the dress at the court to the beads in Ugg's hair and bones spiked through his club!

mFixman 5y ago

Why could social media be a factor and not video games or movie streaming? You are believing things without evidence and falling at the same old-person moral panic as "video games cause violence" or "D&D causes suicide".

Mezzie 5y ago
Or, you know, any of the 50 billion other things that have changed in the past 20 years. Plus it's questionable how much the issue is social media versus just that some things suck and we don't have the option to put our fingers in our ears and go 'la la la everything is fine' anymore. I used to be deeply depressed and angry over climate change; is social media to blame since that's part of what kept it in my head for so long, or maybe it's just a normal response to be depressed and mourn when you learn a bunch of things are dying? Likewise, 20 years ago I would have been SURPRISED to wake up to news about a school shooting in my state, but now it was just 'yup, we were due.' Tech and social media are definitely entwined with these changes, but I side eye the recent attempts to put all the responsibility on tech. It's shared responsibility in my opinion: Tech and its incentives are a problem, but there's also a lot of social rot that we can't ignore and that does tend to make people unhappy.