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I have a somewhat similar question. Don't get me wrong, I don't think moving more of teen social life onto the internet and less in the physical world is going

I have a somewhat similar question. Don't get me wrong, I don't think moving more of teen social life onto the internet and less in the physical world is going to lead to happiness, so I agree on principle. But this obsession with social media in particular as the cause of all ills seems overblown. I am a huge fan of Jonathan Haidt, and think he's done a great job in explaining some of the cultural shifts going on, and the changing of morality/psychology in our society. But I feel like he is overselling social media's impact. He even mentions in his testimony, that the correlation between social media use and mental illness may be around r=0.10 . That is a fairly weak correlation. I also have not seen a study (note that this doesn't mean one doesn't exist) that has done a good job of controlling for the selection effects involved with the data, to attempt to understand if there is any causality involved and what direction it would go. My hypothesis is that those with mental illness would be more likely to use social media more in the first place. Social media feels like a bit of a bogeyman in our society. There are 100% issues with it, and I don't necessarily think it's net-positive for humanity, but it's only one part of the ever-changing environment we as humans are now finding ourselves in. Blaming social media won't solve our issues, I feel like they run much deeper. Some of the deeper issues are around meaning, identity, belonging, status, decreasing tolerance for discomfort/inconvenience, increasing detachment from physical reality, etc. Our amorphous culture is guiding us down this path and it's really hard for us to grasp...

twayt 4y ago
I completely agree with you. Not to mention the other obvious contributors to poor mental health (war, isolation, health, economic, etc.) that surround us that are being: 1. Ignored due to increased ability to distract one's self 2. Being constantly amplified via social media In differing conditions, social media may not pose as much harm as it does today. I sure hope they factor this into account when legislating anything.
s1artibartfast 4y ago
I think there are powerful second order or related effects here. There is both what screens and social media replace, and what they enable. This is the most risk adverse, most monitored, and most policed generation of Americans. I think this results in less freedom to experiment, explore, grow, and find happiness. In about 25 years we have gone from teens behavior being largely untraceable, to them being reachable by cellphones, to the majority of their behavior and communication being recorded and available for later scrutiny.
- glitcher 4y ago
  These are all great points. And my take on seeing these debates about the effects of social media is that too many people tend to fall on one or the other side of a false dichotomy: social media is the root of all evil, or social media is being used as a scapegoat and the effects are grossly over-exaggerated. My opinion is that social media is a contributing factor to much larger problems in our current tech driven society. It shouldn't be blamed for everything, nor casually dismissed in these important discussions.
  - s1artibartfast 4y ago
    Totally agree. My other related hobby horse is parenting. I have seen so many people who literally mentality handicapped their children by giving them tablets instead of raising them so that they can watch TV or surf the web themselves. American parents watch an average of 4 hours of TV per day. Alternatively, I have friends who don't have tvs or tablets in their house and the developmental differences are night and day.

twayt 4y ago

I completely agree with you. Not to mention the other obvious contributors to poor mental health (war, isolation, health, economic, etc.) that surround us that are being: 1. Ignored due to increased ability to distract one's self 2. Being constantly amplified via social media In differing conditions, social media may not pose as much harm as it does today. I sure hope they factor this into account when legislating anything.

s1artibartfast 4y ago

I think there are powerful second order or related effects here. There is both what screens and social media replace, and what they enable. This is the most risk adverse, most monitored, and most policed generation of Americans. I think this results in less freedom to experiment, explore, grow, and find happiness. In about 25 years we have gone from teens behavior being largely untraceable, to them being reachable by cellphones, to the majority of their behavior and communication being recorded and available for later scrutiny.

glitcher 4y ago
These are all great points. And my take on seeing these debates about the effects of social media is that too many people tend to fall on one or the other side of a false dichotomy: social media is the root of all evil, or social media is being used as a scapegoat and the effects are grossly over-exaggerated. My opinion is that social media is a contributing factor to much larger problems in our current tech driven society. It shouldn't be blamed for everything, nor casually dismissed in these important discussions.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  Totally agree. My other related hobby horse is parenting. I have seen so many people who literally mentality handicapped their children by giving them tablets instead of raising them so that they can watch TV or surf the web themselves. American parents watch an average of 4 hours of TV per day. Alternatively, I have friends who don't have tvs or tablets in their house and the developmental differences are night and day.