Michael Hobbes: 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

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...

Literally the only thing in the world that has changed in the past few years is phone usage in teens. Nothing else at all. ::hears HVAC unit straining to cool environment while lawn outside burns:: Not a single thing.

It's like a lot of Maintenance Phase stuff. Is it better generally to be on your phone less? Yes Should you pay someone money for a phone detoxing course? No

Always depressed that none of the people who lap this shit up ever step back and ask, "Hey, is this the same thing people have said about every new technology every decade?"

prolly would have killed myself as a (rural, queer) teen without it, tbh

I would take any of these anti-social media people more seriously if they used “post-Floyd crime panic” as their example of an obviously false belief that reached widespread acceptance.

Would love to see someone draw a graph that shows mental health numbers next to one that shows the number of kids who walk or bike to school. I bet you’d see correlation there, too!

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.

and how much of that is due to the social media aspect of it, and how much is due to algorithms rewarding conflict with engagement? is there a safe form of social media, and is it achievable without burning everything down and starting over?

Many people also have some vocabulary for mental health phenomena that used to be explained by "demons." Both religious demons and as in "they are tormented by their demons".

What do the kids say on social media about social media?

Right. Now do senior citizen mental health versus those gambling apps.

And the lack of pirates is causing global warming

Nature Haidts a Void (of data)

I’d love a bonus @ifbookspod.bsky.social episode about The Social Dilemma

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