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It's the phones. This is one of those things that should be so obvious - but because of the overwhelming use of that thing, nobody will admit it. We spent deca
by 23B1 3y ago
It's the phones.
This is one of those things that should be so obvious - but because of the overwhelming use of that thing, nobody will admit it. We spent decades listening to big tobacco insisting that cigarettes were healthy and cool despite the fact that the science was clear and it should have been obvious that inhaling burning shit into your lungs was bad.
Having unceasing ubiquitous access to all the toxic shit that the internet serves up via a phone should be obvious.
- gretch 3y agoThis article is an about female suicides. How does your theory of it being “the phones” make sense when boys and girls pretty much have equal access to phone? If it’s phones, you would expect male suicides to be up as well. And if it’s how girls react to phones, then isn’t the cause that more specific thing than just “phones”.
- afrazkhan 3y agoThe headline makes it seem like that, but here’s a taste from the article itself: > Since 2010, rates of self-harm episodes have increased for adolescents in the Anglosphere countries, especially for girls Also, I would not expect male and female rates to be the same if it were to do with phones. The two sexes have very different experiences online, just as they do in real life.
- gustavus 3y agoI see people claim this all the time but don't often see any real solutions just general grousing. What would you do? Get rid of mobile computing altogether by government fiat? Ban providing a smart phone to someone under the age of 18? What about tablets and computers, how would one even enforce that? Would you force kids together to socialize for a period of time which is just as likely to develop trauma as relationships? The only reasonable solution I've heard to the phone problem is individual parents getting involved and active in monitoring and limiting their children screen time, and unfortunately, involved parenting is not something that can be legislated into existence.
- ZoomerCretin 3y agoOutright social media ban for under-18s. Or barring that, under-13s, and find a way to minimize harms for 13-18 year olds.
- 23B1 3y agoJust like cigarettes, guns, and driving: Dangerous activities that we all agree, including scientists and psychologists, that children are not capable of using safely.
- xigoi 3y agoFacebook’s terms of service already disallow making an account under 13 and people just ignore it. How would you enforce it?
- life-and-quiet 3y agoI understand where you're coming from, and there might not be a lot of great answers, but off the top of my head let's say we have a high degree of confidence it is the phones. A couple immediate next steps we could take: 1. Encourage education. Explain to young people early and often through a number of avenues that phone use can cause anxiety, depression, etc. Knowledge is power and all that. Will it solve the problem? No. But it might move the needle and save some lives. 2. Fund further and more detailed studies. Are there critical periods of child development where phone use is more likely to lead to suicide? Are there particular patterns of usage? Narrowing down the hypothesis space makes it much easier to develop more nuanced studies and more targeted interventions.
- afrazkhan 3y ago> The only reasonable solution I've heard to the phone problem is individual parents getting involved and active in monitoring and limiting their children screen time, and unfortunately, involved parenting is not something that can be legislated into existence. This! You don’t need laws for this, the solution starts with you. Then more people like you, then you’re the majority and the schools ban phones just like they did in that one school in Ireland recently. Parenting is hard, and just like in the 90s, it’s easier to blame the technology than assume responsibility.