Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Mr Penguin (mr_penguin@social.freetalklive.com)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 10:47:18 JST Mr Penguin

   "At the core of the social media ban is emerging research indicating that for some teens, extended time spent on social media is associated with depression and anxiety. A 2022 study found nearly half of adolescents reported social media making them feel worse about their body image."

   umm your literally surveying a population that fills out these questionnaires by making faces with the scantron (ok, not sure if that is something still in use, but while it's dated it's literally what I saw EVERY KID in my 9th grade, so about 14, class doing when required to take a survey to this end in the late 1990s early 2000s). The point is the survey data is likely completely and utterly inaccurate in the first place.

   However even if it wasn't there is no evidence to suggest that this is anything other than normal teenage behavior. Hormonal changes, etc. and the implication of the wording of the question is what leads to youth to whatever degree there is anything behind the question to answering yes when there is ZERO evidence of correlation between the two.

   • Embed this notice
     iced depresso (icedquinn@blob.cat)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 10:57:27 JST iced depresso

     in reply to
     @mr_penguin i've been hearing that my whole life. including just using computers or something. parents were even like "we wouldn't have given you one if we had to do it again"
     
     i think it'd be possible to do A/B studies on the subject. you'd also need to deal with a handful of other controls, though, because i have a feeling if they had access to social media and choose not to use it they probably have a more supportive environment and those are already known to result in less depression. if they have the same helicopter parent enforced isolation and now don't have the computer outlet, they're probably not going to be less depressed. there's a lot of confounders.
   • Embed this notice
     Mr Penguin (mr_penguin@social.freetalklive.com)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 11:03:50 JST Mr Penguin

     in reply to

     • iced depresso

     @icedquinn It doesn't even make sense that someone is going to be depressed because of social media. If it's making you sad you'd stop using it. If anything your going to find the sorts of people you like online where you can't otherwise find them in the real world.

     No, kids are online as a result of control freak parenting and authoritarian institutions they're facing in the real world. They're already got lots of reasons to be depressed and it's half the reason kids are depressed. Not computers.

   • Embed this notice
     iced depresso (icedquinn@blob.cat)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 11:24:05 JST iced depresso

     in reply to
     @mr_penguin millions of dollars goes in to tuning the platforms to avoid psychological triggers where someone would organically walk away from it. they like them just under the level where you'd have any sense of fulfillment.
     
     something that took me a while to identify as an adult and paying a lot of attention to time records. somewhat publicly documented nowadays.
     
     then there's the issue that alternatives may not really be available. as a child i couldn't get any encouragement from anywhere to keep doing other more productive things.
   • Embed this notice
     iced depresso (icedquinn@blob.cat)'s status on Sunday, 26-Apr-2026 11:28:34 JST iced depresso

     in reply to

     • iced depresso
     @mr_penguin the thing with the torment nexus is you don't use it and then become demonstrably sad. you experience it and time passes but you neither feel particularly happy for having used it or frustrated enough to walk away. by comparison people who do something they actually like (say they were decent at music, got an instrument, weren't socially destroyed trying to learn it..) by comparison they are a lot happier doing that.
     
     afaik the 'happier without social media' crowd tends to have an actual tribe instead, which is why they are happier by comparison.
     
     like i mentioned originally if they're just locked in a closet they won't be happier, i don't think.