Dr. Cara Berg Powers: Heard this woman on a podcast I usually enjoy recently, and she literally said that WE KNOW social media is the primary driver of increases in youth suicidal ideation because *nothing else* had significantly changed between *2011-2013* and has continued similarly since www.jeantwenge.com/about-jean/

Social media probably is having some effect on teen mental health but the data don’t allow us to say anything definitive and a bunch of grifters are running around telling adults what they want to hear

Prof. Candice Odgers shares an excellent review of a controversial book that gets things wrong on an important topic. If you study or care about youth and adolescent health in the digital age, please give this one a read. #digitalwellbeing #adolescentmentalhealth www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Heard this woman on a podcast I usually enjoy recently, and she literally said that WE KNOW social media is the primary driver of increases in youth suicidal ideation because *nothing else* had significantly changed between *2011-2013* and has continued similarly since www.jeantwenge.com/about-jean/

About Jean - Dr. Jean Twengewww.jeantwenge.com Dr. Jean Twenge Jean M. Twenge, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University, is the author of more than 180 scientific publications and books. Her books include: • Generations The Real Dif...

Her about page has the unusual tidbit that she gives talks "based on a dataset of 39 million people." Which presents A LOT more questions.

I'm not endorsing what seems like a very silly argument, but isn't the risk of social contagion of suicide behavior well-established by research? If so, it doesn't seem implausible to hypothesize that kids using social media are more likely to encounter suicide behavior online.

Primarily the studies show that exposure to suicide attempts, especially from role models or loved ones can introduce or exacerbate suicidal ideation, especially in adolescents. If she'd made an argument to that effect, it may be defensible. She did not.

Now having fallen down an ADHD rabbit hole of "who is this woman," the titles of her published work make me increasingly infuriated. I have spent my career fighting the stigma of youth as a social problem, and she's trying to codify it in the literature.

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