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That doesn't seem very obvious to me. Would you mind elaborating?

by squigz 2y ago

SoftTalker 2y ago
It tracks very well with the increase in mental health issues among young people. Mobile tech and social media will be seen as the equivalent of tobacco companies in the history books of the 22nd century.
- abcrawf 2y ago
  Drownings and ice cream sales also track nicely, but it doesn’t mean it’s the ice cream that’s causing the drownings.
  - aklein 2y ago
    Right, you need a mechanism. (Ice cream makes you fat, fat people can't swim, ergo drownings). Haight clearly outlines the mechanisms by which social media and smartphones have detrimental effects on mental health, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l2TdinWoM8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l2TdinWoM8
    - squigz 2y ago
      But ice cream doesn't make you fat. Eating too much ice cream makes you fat.
      - NickC25 2y ago
        And if you swim enough, you can't get fat no matter how much ice cream you eat. Ever seen the diet Phelps was on? Guy ate like crap, has over 20 gold medals to his name.
    - SoftTalker 2y ago
      That's not why ice cream sales are correlated with drowning. Ice cream sales generally peak in the summer, and that's also when most people swim. But if drownings had suddenly increased when ice cream was first introduced, that's a stronger suggestion that there's a relationship. Kids' mental health went off a cliff at the same time that they started getting smartphones and social media. Something else could be the cause, but we all know it's not, even if we earn our living from it.
nequo 2y ago
Apps on your tiny computer are engineered to get you hooked. The time that you spend on it is time that you cannot spend making and cultivating face-to-face friendships. As far as I can tell, friendships are necessary for mental health. So those apps have a negative effect on your mental health. In principle, they could also have a positive effect that counterbalances the negative. But in my personal experience, that's dubious.
hot_gril 2y ago
I was in middle school when the iPhone first became popular among teens. Within a couple of months, everything changed. Kids talked a lot less on the bus, at lunch, etc. If you didn't have an iPhone, your friends probably did, so same issue. It felt a whole lot worse and stayed that way. I ended up becoming closer with my few friends who didn't have phones and further from my old best friends, just because of who was more willing to hang out together.

That doesn't seem very obvious to me. Would you mind elaborating?

by squigz 2y ago

That doesn't seem very obvious to me. Would you mind elaborating?

It tracks very well with the increase in mental health issues among young people. Mobile tech and social media will be seen as the equivalent of tobacco companies in the history books of the 22nd century.

abcrawf 2y ago
Drownings and ice cream sales also track nicely, but it doesn’t mean it’s the ice cream that’s causing the drownings.
- aklein 2y ago
  Right, you need a mechanism. (Ice cream makes you fat, fat people can't swim, ergo drownings). Haight clearly outlines the mechanisms by which social media and smartphones have detrimental effects on mental health, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l2TdinWoM8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l2TdinWoM8
  - squigz 2y ago
    But ice cream doesn't make you fat. Eating too much ice cream makes you fat.
    - NickC25 2y ago
      And if you swim enough, you can't get fat no matter how much ice cream you eat. Ever seen the diet Phelps was on? Guy ate like crap, has over 20 gold medals to his name.
  - SoftTalker 2y ago
    That's not why ice cream sales are correlated with drowning. Ice cream sales generally peak in the summer, and that's also when most people swim. But if drownings had suddenly increased when ice cream was first introduced, that's a stronger suggestion that there's a relationship. Kids' mental health went off a cliff at the same time that they started getting smartphones and social media. Something else could be the cause, but we all know it's not, even if we earn our living from it.

nequo 2y ago

Apps on your tiny computer are engineered to get you hooked. The time that you spend on it is time that you cannot spend making and cultivating face-to-face friendships. As far as I can tell, friendships are necessary for mental health. So those apps have a negative effect on your mental health. In principle, they could also have a positive effect that counterbalances the negative. But in my personal experience, that's dubious.

hot_gril 2y ago

I was in middle school when the iPhone first became popular among teens. Within a couple of months, everything changed. Kids talked a lot less on the bus, at lunch, etc. If you didn't have an iPhone, your friends probably did, so same issue. It felt a whole lot worse and stayed that way. I ended up becoming closer with my few friends who didn't have phones and further from my old best friends, just because of who was more willing to hang out together.