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I was glad to see this article actually mention societal and tech factors that could be behind this rise. It is rare to see the mainstream discuss the upstream

by EGreg 4y ago

I was glad to see this article actually mention societal and tech factors that could be behind this rise. It is rare to see the mainstream discuss the upstream factors for ADHD, Depression, Gender Dysphoria, Diabetes, and much more. Especially in kids and teens. “Kids are now vulnerable to cyberbullying and critical comments, like ‘I hate you’, ‘Nobody likes you,’” he said. “It’s like harpoons to their heart every time.”

canadianfella 4y ago
[dead]
mattpallissard 4y ago
From an evolutionary standpoint, I sincerely believe that people aren't mentally equipped to deal with society as presented by the internet/media. I make my living due to technology, but if there was a big switch to throw that would turn off television/internet I'd do it without hesitation. I think the long term benefits would outweigh the short term chaos.
- swagasaurus-rex 4y ago
  No I think the internet is unequipped for what we need from it. It runs off ads and shovels enraging content at people. It allows hostile behavior to have no consequences. It’s anonymous except nothing you do is private. There is no dispute resolution, mods have absolute power, and you can’t ever talk to customer support because you aren’t the customer, the advertisers are.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  > I make my living due to technology, but if there was a big switch to throw that would turn off television/internet I'd do it without hesitation. I've had similar thoughts, in similar terms. Put that switch in front of me and I'd toggle it with glee in my heart and a smile on my face. A couple decades ago I was so optimistic about this stuff. In the big picture, it's done little but disappoint, since then. Same as many a great, grand idea—ruined by contact with economics and human "games".
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  Well if you start feeling an urge to mail bombs to people, you might want to tell someone.
- asdff 4y ago
  Even civilization as a whole has not been around nearly long enough for our species to be very well adapted to it. The species we cite as well adapted for civilized life were really adapted for other traits that just happenstance were relevant in an urban environment; like a pigeon's propensity to nest in a building ledge coming from its propensity to nest on a rocky cliff, or how if you kill off all bad for human predators like wolves, you'd be left with urban coyotes to fill the niche and this doesn't mean anything really about the coyote vs the wolf's ability to survive in the city (independent of humans killing them of course). Of course we are all suffering from mental illness and poor physical health and this that and the other thing all the time. All we do is stress out about what others think about ourselves and sit around lethargic. We didn't spend millions of years of mutation and selection to be the most optimal couch potato. We spent it to be a master forager of the environment, setting out on foot by morning for resources when the weather and light is good, and spending the day and evening in engineering or creative pursuits. I'm convinced even language had a role to play in changing our behavior dramatically in this way, since often what we do in life is limited to what we are able to communicate with words or thoughts in our language with its finite set of descriptors.
- fleddr 4y ago
  I couldn't agree more. Life has become too large, unstable, complex and confusing for people to make sense of. It creates an endless amount of stress.
yamtaddle 4y ago
Behavior, including anything bullying-like, seems much more heavily policed among younger kids than ever (nobody thought a thing of the odd "I'll kill you!" or "I hate you!" in elementary school in the 80s or 90s, and I'm told we were far more "coddled" then than in the 70s or earlier—now, even a one-off of that kind of thing gets a call to parents) but much nastier stuff is more prevalent than ever in middle school and up, thanks to social media and smartphones (the Internet being everywhere, all the time, is what made social media take off in the mainstream, and why it's so heavily used).
- asdff 4y ago
  Even just 15 years ago it was a totally different beast online. Future politicians are lucky no one was recording their banter in the halo 3 lobby. You were expected to be thick skinned and not take anything seriously. Maybe it helped that an fps actually gave you a way to dish it back though if you had the skill to back up your talk. It seemed like after halo 3, no one bothered turning on a mic and that culture was over before long.

by EGreg 4y ago

canadianfella 4y ago

[dead]

mattpallissard 4y ago

From an evolutionary standpoint, I sincerely believe that people aren't mentally equipped to deal with society as presented by the internet/media. I make my living due to technology, but if there was a big switch to throw that would turn off television/internet I'd do it without hesitation. I think the long term benefits would outweigh the short term chaos.

swagasaurus-rex 4y ago
No I think the internet is unequipped for what we need from it. It runs off ads and shovels enraging content at people. It allows hostile behavior to have no consequences. It’s anonymous except nothing you do is private. There is no dispute resolution, mods have absolute power, and you can’t ever talk to customer support because you aren’t the customer, the advertisers are.
yamtaddle 4y ago
> I make my living due to technology, but if there was a big switch to throw that would turn off television/internet I'd do it without hesitation. I've had similar thoughts, in similar terms. Put that switch in front of me and I'd toggle it with glee in my heart and a smile on my face. A couple decades ago I was so optimistic about this stuff. In the big picture, it's done little but disappoint, since then. Same as many a great, grand idea—ruined by contact with economics and human "games".
hotpotamus 4y ago
Well if you start feeling an urge to mail bombs to people, you might want to tell someone.
asdff 4y ago
Even civilization as a whole has not been around nearly long enough for our species to be very well adapted to it. The species we cite as well adapted for civilized life were really adapted for other traits that just happenstance were relevant in an urban environment; like a pigeon's propensity to nest in a building ledge coming from its propensity to nest on a rocky cliff, or how if you kill off all bad for human predators like wolves, you'd be left with urban coyotes to fill the niche and this doesn't mean anything really about the coyote vs the wolf's ability to survive in the city (independent of humans killing them of course). Of course we are all suffering from mental illness and poor physical health and this that and the other thing all the time. All we do is stress out about what others think about ourselves and sit around lethargic. We didn't spend millions of years of mutation and selection to be the most optimal couch potato. We spent it to be a master forager of the environment, setting out on foot by morning for resources when the weather and light is good, and spending the day and evening in engineering or creative pursuits. I'm convinced even language had a role to play in changing our behavior dramatically in this way, since often what we do in life is limited to what we are able to communicate with words or thoughts in our language with its finite set of descriptors.
fleddr 4y ago
I couldn't agree more. Life has become too large, unstable, complex and confusing for people to make sense of. It creates an endless amount of stress.

yamtaddle 4y ago

Behavior, including anything bullying-like, seems much more heavily policed among younger kids than ever (nobody thought a thing of the odd "I'll kill you!" or "I hate you!" in elementary school in the 80s or 90s, and I'm told we were far more "coddled" then than in the 70s or earlier—now, even a one-off of that kind of thing gets a call to parents) but much nastier stuff is more prevalent than ever in middle school and up, thanks to social media and smartphones (the Internet being everywhere, all the time, is what made social media take off in the mainstream, and why it's so heavily used).

asdff 4y ago
Even just 15 years ago it was a totally different beast online. Future politicians are lucky no one was recording their banter in the halo 3 lobby. You were expected to be thick skinned and not take anything seriously. Maybe it helped that an fps actually gave you a way to dish it back though if you had the skill to back up your talk. It seemed like after halo 3, no one bothered turning on a mic and that culture was over before long.