> Of course, if you've started with the conclusion that smartphones and social media can't possibly be the problem, you'll be able to deflect anything away from

> Of course, if you've started with the conclusion that smartphones and social media can't possibly be the problem, you'll be able to deflect anything away from that particular cause. Similarly, starting with the conclusion that smartphones and social media must be the problem, you’ll deflect away from a lot of contradictory evidence that suggest a more complex interplay between other societal issues, and that smartphones/social media are—if anything—likely just illuminating and amplifying known and pre-existing root causes of poor mental health in young people: poverty, trauma, discrimination, and pressure to excel[0]. Literature reviews of social media and smartphone use show “conflicting small positive, negative and null associations” and “do not offer a way of distinguishing cause from effect”[1]. Some hypothesised alternative causes of increases in depressive and anxiety symptoms with some stronger effect sizes include: increases in online bullying, decreases in sleep, long-term effects of the Great Recession (and, by extension, the European debt crisis), biological changes[2], restrictions on independent activity[3], and climate change[4]. Even before the invention of the smartphone, psychopathologies in young Americans had increased by a full standard deviation[5] over the previous 70 years. The number of teens that report extremely high levels of stress doubles during the school year[6], yet there is little blame currently being cast in that direction, despite it being the overwhelmingly largest self-reported source of stress at 83%. Claiming causation from such weak evidence is not merely foolish, it’s potentially quite dangerous. Despite the parent commenter’s incorrect claim that this is purely an American issue, they are almost certainly correct that smartphones and social media are currently being used as scapegoats so society can avoid confronting and addressing the deeply entrenched and deeply uncomfortable root causes of harm. I think this can be seen, at least in part, in the casual discarding of evidence that—especially for marginalised groups[7]—access to online spaces can be protective to young peoples’ mental health. Trying to avoid discussing the root problems is bad enough on its own, since it means they will not be fixed, but the proposed solution of using restrictive mediation—that is, shielding young people from harm rather than educating them—is almost certainly worse than doing nothing at all[8]. [0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31697105/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31697105/ [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8221420/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8221420/ [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7015269/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7015269/ [3] https://gwern.net/doc/psychiatry/depression/2023-gray.pdf https://gwern.net/doc/psychiatry/depression/2023-gray.pdf [4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00059-3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-023-00059-3 [5] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19945203/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19945203/ [6] https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2013/stress-report.pdf https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2013/stress-r... [7] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2056305121988931 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2056305121988931 [8] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360131520302244 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S03601...