Social media harming our young girls
 

...sounds like a joke title but... no

Social scientist Jonathan Haidt was on the Rogan podcast and presented some pretty astounding graphs about depression in Generation Z. I captured them to bring them here

Just the boys' rise, from about 5 to about 7% saying they had a major depression, would be concerning - but look at the girls' rise. From about 12 to about 20%. 1 in 5.

http://cellar.org/2017/genz-disorder0a.jpg

When the question is asked of college students, slightly older:

http://cellar.org/2017/genz-disorder1a.jpg

Is this just a matter of people answering the question differently? To figure that out, look at hospital admissions for things like suicide attempts and severe cutting. It's not affecting boys:

http://cellar.org/2017/genz-disorder2a.jpg

It's REALLY affecting girls.

http://cellar.org/2017/genz-disorder3a.jpg

They can't say for certain this is all social media at work. Haidt thinks so. The social media age begins around 2009, when the iPhone gets cheaper and teens start getting them. It really ramps up by 2011-12, that's when everybody moved to FB.

Haidt points out that girls' bullying, always socially-focused, is now hyper-charged.

I believe it, the social pressure on Girls is tremendous. Remember the elite can't be elite unless they create also-rans to look down on. The pressure to look, act, and dress to Disney Princess standards, where one faux pas can kick you into the also-rans for the remainder of your school years. Don't forget the also rans need someone to look down on too.

Maybe keep 'em off social media, then?

At some point, that hurts their social status too. Haidt recommends trying to hold it off through middle school, and getting the buy-in from teachers and other parents if at all possible.

I'm really hoping they reveal [something?] that links this to "social media" or "cell phones" besides "it's common sense that technology is bad." Like, I'm sure there may have been other salient events that occurred in 2009..? I'm not seeing the connection, here, and I'm not listening to a 2-hour podcast to find out.

Yet another reason to live life childless.

:devil:

It's one of those things - how to isolate for just phones/social media, that's a tough one. There was a recession then as well, and a troubled working class. But you have to figure, how does whatever it is, affect girls at nearly twice the rate of boys?

It happens at a time when anti-bullying programs are kicking in... maybe those programs affected boys differently, prevented boys' bullying but not girls...?

~

Haidt also suggests that anti-bullying measures have resulted in a change in the meaning of the word "bullying". Before, it was where someone uses their power to threaten/beat up weaker/less intimidating kids. Now, just simply being mean/inconsiderate is called bullying.

I've seen that... a week ago, family-adjacent as I am now. I saw the 7-year-old girl was keeping a toy to herself, instead of sharing with her 10-year-old brother. The 10-year-old told her to "stop bullying". And I'm like, that's not bullying. In my world, a 7-year-old girl cannot reasonably bully a 10-year-old boy, unless he's really weak or mentally troubled or something.

I don't think that example is necessarily a change in the definition of "bullying" as it is a kid using a word that was used on them. He probably was told to stop bullying her at some point.

My nephews will sometimes say that some food is "too spicy" when they just don't want to eat it, even though the kitchen has never seen a hot pepper, because they were allowed to not eat something spicy at a restaurant.

All good points, but let's not forget that teen heartthrob Karl Malden died in 2009.

Rogan breaks up his long podcasts into smaller bits. He's done that for Haidt's discussion of this issue here, for anyone who just wants to see what Haidt says about the graphs and such.

And here is Haidt's Guardian article today. Apparently this is a problem in the UK too so this is not a US-specific issue

My grandmother always said that anyone can have a child. Not everyone can be a parent. The solution to this problem is a catch22. Parents have checked out and become lazy and emotionally unavailable. It's easier to stick a tablet in front of a child then it is to say go on a hike, or go throw a frisby, or go for a bike ride. Social Media is to blame but so are the Millennials-because they are now the lazy parents of the gen z children.

This poorly-informed opinion angers me, but also you're about 2 copied-and-pasted posts away from a spam link, so I won't bother.