The evidence is equivocal on whether screen time is to blame for rising levels of teen depression and anxiety — and rising hysteria could distract us from tackling the real causes.
Parents are the first step to blame. Kids are spending too much time on “a screen”? Well, why are the parents leaving “the screen” to do their job? Oh, right, because both have to work their asses off in order to provide the bare minimum for a single child and anything remotely like a “community” or “safety net” have slowly been eroded by capitalist greed, something that one can allude from the following paragraph
The onset and development of mental disorders, such as anxiety and depression, are driven by a complex set of genetic and environmental factors. Suicide rates among people in most age groups have been increasing steadily for the past 20 years in the United States. Researchers cite access to guns, exposure to violence, structural discrimination and racism, sexism and sexual abuse, the opioid epidemic, economic hardship and social isolation as leading contributors
In a way, social media is like TV in the 80s and videogames in the late 80s, early 90s, that despicable thing rotting children’s brains. The main difference is that they didn’t have the means to spy on you in order to more effectively “serve content you may like” and keep you “engaged”, because you clearly enjoy spending all day in pointless arguments with trolls, otherwise why would you spend so much time arguing?
As back then as now, those screens are our escapism. If we feel such a big urge to escape reality, chances are that reality fucking sucks. In 10 years we’ll probably have a better idea of the harms done to current teenagers.
Parents are the first step to blame. Kids are spending too much time on “a screen”? Well, why are the parents leaving “the screen” to do their job? Oh, right, because both have to work their asses off in order to provide the bare minimum for a single child and anything remotely like a “community” or “safety net” have slowly been eroded by capitalist greed, something that one can allude from the following paragraph
In a way, social media is like TV in the 80s and videogames in the late 80s, early 90s, that despicable thing rotting children’s brains. The main difference is that they didn’t have the means to spy on you in order to more effectively “serve content you may like” and keep you “engaged”, because you clearly enjoy spending all day in pointless arguments with trolls, otherwise why would you spend so much time arguing?
As back then as now, those screens are our escapism. If we feel such a big urge to escape reality, chances are that reality fucking sucks. In 10 years we’ll probably have a better idea of the harms done to current teenagers.