Why This Growing Trend?

[Left Coast]

Our lives? Maybe. Our bodies? I think society does more harm at that than social media ever will. To that end, social media carves out spaces of acceptance and community (though yes, you'll get the keyboard-brave trolls and such). But go to a mall and walk past any Victoria Secret, and there's plenty beyond the phone that affects our body images.

Obviously Western culture has given us unrealistic body image expectations for a while now. But I think social media ratcheted the trend up by making those images and ideals even more accessible. I'm betting Gen Zers look at their phones far more often than they go to the mall.

Why do you think increased social media usage is linked to mental health issues like depression?

 

[nPeace]

One key part of the big picture answer has been given a few times I bet, I saw already in post #3, the isolation that comes from social media. Here's my theory on why that is going to be depressing for very many people in a bit more detail:.

On social media a person will normally post, and then have to wait for someone to respond (or not...) for a while.... but on the unconscious level of how the brain is wired...that's sorta like if you went to a party and said hello to a few people, and for some time (minutes, or even longer) no one responds (yet...). (That would be unconsciously depressing if you weren't in a ongoing conversation already on the side)

Even though later some people come by and say hi back, it might feel like only charity at that point, in an in-person party...you'd already be a bit sad unconsciously, even if you had the idea you had to wait... In contrast, a live phone call for instance doesn't have that experience of you say "hi" and then for minutes no one responds.

So, it's often wired to be depressing, at least for many, in that they don't have some other ongoing interaction on the side. Contrastingly, a person with a lot of love already in their life is perfectly ok if they say 'hi' and no one responds quickly, because their love tank is already full, etc. But see, many don't have a full tank.

Would that person not have to be insecure, or have a low self esteem, to begin with?
In such a case, would that not beg the question, as to why they have a low self esteem?
Perhaps they feel left out, and are trying to bond... with someone... for a reason.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

None of these are hyperbolic. For as much of a dumpster fire social media itself can be at times (@Shadow Wolf), those same things can be found in every form of media from billboards to national news stations. And there's always someone out there that will take the National Inquirer as the gods' honest truth. Yet news outlets and governments hate social media so much because more people are able to get their news from social media than from their media.

And that's all problematic, including the advertisement pollution. But the unique problem of social media is it appears addictive and it's often holds a constant and frequent presence in people's lives to the point they ignore people around them to check in on a world that exists on their phones. Add in people portraying themselves as better off than they are, comparing ourselves to others, and radioactive toxicity of the internet and it's a recipe for poor mental health, especially for kids and young adults.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

See above - it's a matter of frequency.

True. It is vastly easier to access, and being plugged into the Matrix may even just appear normal to those who grew up with people plugged into it being the norm.

 

[Sand Dancer]

I'm always amused at the "It must be the social media!" as though that's not the light being shined on the fact that a lot of the world - particularly the US - is a dumpster fire. Can't possibly be the latter, no no. It's that damn Ticky Tok with all the dances and whatnot.

The thing is kids' brains are developing into their 20s. The ease of information found online, as well as the lack of face to face interaction, is detrimental to the brain's development. No one has to really use their brain anymore. Everything is on the computer or phone. There are very few things to conquer anymore. That and, IMO, the chemicals in our food and water are also harmful.

 

[InChrist]

I was just reading an article, which was both surprising and sadly disturbing.
On Monday, February 13, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States released a report on the mental health of U.S. teens. It noted that over 40 percent of high school students experienced persistent sadness and hopelessness.

“Although we have seen worsening trends in mental health for young people over the last 10 years,” stated Dr. Kathleen Ethier, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), “the levels of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors reported by teenage girls are now higher than we have ever seen.”

With all the problems we face, it's sad that many youth face this as well.
What do you think are the reasons or contributing factors for this?

I have read similar statistics concerning young people and their state of sadness and hopelessness. I think social media does play a large role, but more importantly the breakdown of a stable family life and exposure to so many things which are stealing childhood, innocence, and security. I believe this is causing kids to feel insecure and unloved, causing many to become anxious, confused, and hopeless. Ultimately, as society has turned its back on God and His wisdom for life, family, and relationships choosing human wisdom instead; problems, heartaches, and hopelessness has increased.

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

I'm going to have a very hot take on this subject...

I believe it has to do with the overuse and abuse of medications they now give children and teenagers. When you are diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Ritalin, then expected to perform perfectly because of that, it's going to put a lot of stress to people that haven't even finished developing.

While I'm not fully against medication, I don't believe we should medicate children unless it's absolutely necessary to do so. And I've been on them long enough to realize they do more harm than good. Take two kids with ADHD, put one of them on Ritalin, the other without it, and then after six months stop the kid who had Ritalin from getting their medication. It would be disastrous for the kid to come off the medication. The kid that never got Ritalin would still have problems, sure, but nowhere near as severe as the one who had to come off of it.

People don't realize that the brain is flexible and partially adapts to the medication you give it. I am in such a fragile state right now because on my three psych meds and if I can't get them for whatever reason, like I develop an allergy to one of them that actually happened recently, I have to be rushed to a psych ward while they monitor me adapt to a new medication. Thankfully the transition between Lithium to Tegretol wasn't too harsh, but I was in a wreck as the doctor was trying Trileptal that wasn't strong or potent enough to do its job against my bipolar agitation and irritability.

We need to let children be children and if they get sad once in awhile not jack them on anti-depressants or other drugs that could make the situation significantly worse, to a developing mind, than actually treat the situation. I get it. In clinical depression, some people are just sad for no particular reason, and meds can resolve some of those issues. But anti-depressants are being thrown into the mix to treat a variety of issues now - Wellbutrin is even given as a dietary aid and/or smoking cessation product.

We need to stop overmedicating society and our children before they all end up like me - on welfare, taking a handful of medications every single day just to feel okay, and having the feeling of the void without a nuclear family, job, car or significant other.

Before I was diagnosed with mental illness, my mom used to try to sympathize with me and tell me to do better, but after she treats me like I'm not even human anymore, blaming all of my problems on either a lack of meds or being on too many of them.

We have become the medicated society. Had I not gotten my first antidepressant that swung me psychotically manic, my mania would have kept being in remission. Medication should be used as a last resort, not the first.

 

[halbhh]

Would that person not have to be insecure, or have a low self esteem, to begin with?
In such a case, would that not beg the question, as to why they have a low self esteem?
Perhaps they feel left out, and are trying to bond... with someone... for a reason.

A lot of people tend to get depressed or sad because it's so hard to find anyone that loves them, is my impression. The human need to love and be loved is wired into our brains.
Not having enough love hits some worse that others though, just like you suggest, according to things like low self esteem (such as from not being treated as valuable or such by one's parents, etc.). And temperament is also important, as some people are more wired to be extroverted, etc., so that they really need that relatively constant (or near constant) level of relationship interaction to feel more energetic.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

That's some of it.

But most of it is environmental. By "environmental" I don't necessarily mean nature, I mean both the ecological and cultural environment kids are growing up in.

Basic animal behavior 101 - when an animal is in a stressful environment, you can expect it to exhibit behaviors associated with being in a stressed environment. That's what is happening now.

Maybe...

I was listening to a pretty interesting podcast today, and the impact of stress...and more importantly our assessment of how stress impacts us...is somewhat counterintuitive.

On the one hand, reducing systemic stress is good. By that I mean society should do what it can to reduce stress in broad terms. But at an individual level it's actually quite harmful to see stress as negative, or to feel too strongly that reducing and avoiding it is preferable.

Something like parental styles can therefore negatively impact on children's belief on the impact of stress and their own ability to cope and even thrive in stressful situations.

In addition, we are increasingly sedentary. Exercise has biological impacts on stress..we tend to see stress as a mental reaction, but there is also a strong physiological component.

Meh...
I get that it's tempting to blame environment on stress and see it as rampant and in a downward spiral...I'm just less convinced it's accurate.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

With all the problems we face, it's sad that many youth face this as well.
What do you think are the reasons or contributing factors for this?

The cause of all these problems, and more, is the turning away from God, virtues and morality and the breakup of the family unit.

There is no hope until humanity again embraces God and the Message given for this age.

That's just the plain awful truth, our bad choices, that was given in MHO.

Regards Tony

 

[Rival]

I would argue some perhaps more controversial reasons.

I. Everyone expects to be happy, as though being happy is some kind of right. As though you have the right to a perfect life, money, job, sex, family, and so on. You haven't, and often life is suffering. Society doesn't accept this model anymore, so instead of learning to suffer better we just give in to hopelessness and depression. Basically everyone who came before us had it worse and their lives were beyond unimaginably hard, even princes'. You simply haven't the right to nice things, not to suffer.

II. Loss of order in society. No one knows his role anymore. When you allow people as much choice and freedom as the West does, this becomes overwhelming and can actually leave you paralysed, not knowing what do do with yourself. There's no roadmap or expectation. No way of being "good" anymore. When there's no sense of duty you can't fulfil any. Sisyphus illustrates this somewhat well.

III. Information overload.

IV. Everything is catastrophised. Everything is polarised. Nobody wants to listen to anybody.

V. Bad food. Horrible food. Lack of exercise. Lack of spending time with parents. Lack of proper socialisation. Lack of local communities. No real wholesome activities anymore unless you're in the Scouts.

VI. No sense of purpose. We live in a post-Nietzschean world and it shows.

 

[viole]

I ripped this from Google.

"While most countries in the world have no official religion, Sweden is in fact the only Nordic country without a state church, as Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Finland have all retained theirs.Jun 16, 2022"

Only Sweden is secular.

Well, Sweden used to have a state church until recently. But what counts is not necessarily having a state church, but how many people go to it, and how independent it is. For instance, being a state church in Denmark also meant that the state could dictate it to marry gays, i think.

so, if the state is the one ultimately in control, then I think those countries are secular too.

Ciao

- viole

 

[viole]

I thought that was both very funny, and creative.
Being the kind of guy that loves learning, I did what I usually do... research.
Sweden Suicide Rate 2000-2023

Scandinavia seems to do this SeeSaw style.
What do you suppose is the cause, or causes, if not religion?

Long winters. Not many people react well to vitamin D deficits.

anyway, I think that overall the level of happiness in Scandinavia is highest, at least according to recent polls.

Finland is in the top position in the world happiness report in 2022. Followed by Denmark and Iceland in second and third place. Switzerland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, Norway, Israel and New Zealand, were among the top 10 'happiest' countries in the world [1].

please note the very high level of secularism on those countries. Now the wuestion is: are we happy because we are secular, or are we secular because we are happy?
ciao

- viole

 

[Colt]

I was just reading an article, which was both surprising and sadly disturbing.
On Monday, February 13, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States released a report on the mental health of U.S. teens. It noted that over 40 percent of high school students experienced persistent sadness and hopelessness.

“Although we have seen worsening trends in mental health for young people over the last 10 years,” stated Dr. Kathleen Ethier, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), “the levels of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors reported by teenage girls are now higher than we have ever seen.”

With all the problems we face, it's sad that many youth face this as well.
What do you think are the reasons or contributing factors for this?

A spiritual malady.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

I was just reading an article, which was both surprising and sadly disturbing.
On Monday, February 13, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States released a report on the mental health of U.S. teens. It noted that over 40 percent of high school students experienced persistent sadness and hopelessness.

“Although we have seen worsening trends in mental health for young people over the last 10 years,” stated Dr. Kathleen Ethier, director of CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH), “the levels of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors reported by teenage girls are now higher than we have ever seen.”

With all the problems we face, it's sad that many youth face this as well.
What do you think are the reasons or contributing factors for this?

I'm gonna go ahead and blame it on "social" media.
It's not gonna be all about that, but I'm guessing it plays a big role.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Seems persons mostly think the social media trend is a contributor.
I should have done a poll. That might have been interesting.
So maybe socializing isn't as good as people say, or is it where and with whom one socializes?

"Social" media has diddly squat to do with socializing.
Like... literally NOTHING.

Actual socializing is GOOD and HEALTHY. It's about going out and like actually talking to people face to face.

Social media on the other hand is about sitting alone behind your computer trolling, being narcistic, being lied to about how "perfect" other people's lives are, about jealousy, about pettyness, about body shaming,...

It's pure poison for the mind.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

The problem is that social media exposes us to things going on in the world that we wouldn't have any clue about without it, and that don't affect our daily lives. A recent earthquake in Turkey killed tens of thousands of people - would you have known about that event if not for the internet? I wouldn't. It didn't impact my lived experience at all.

That's the change from prior generations. We're coping not just with the tragedies of our local village or city, but the entire world. And media very intentionally gives the most air time to stories that are the most disturbing, heinous, and sensational.

No. That's just news.

"social media" is not about that. It's about narcisism and collecting "likes" and algorithms that are designed specifically to exploit human weaknesses to get you addicted to staring at your screen.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

Obviously Western culture has given us unrealistic body image expectations for a while now. But I think social media ratcheted the trend up by making those images and ideals even more accessible. I'm betting Gen Zers look at their phones far more often than they go to the mall.

Why do you think increased social media usage is linked to mental health issues like depression?

My 16-year old niece and her friends actually never go to the mall.
They buy their clothes online, try them on, post them on "instagram", keep the ones that get likes and send back the rest.


I'm not joking.

I get depressed just hearing how they live.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

But the unique problem of social media is it appears addictive

It doesn't just "appear" addictive.

It is litearlly designed to be addictive.

Take it from a software engineer.
Every single one of those teams also have consultants that are psychologists.
And the reason for that is simply to help the software designers to exploit human psychological weaknesses.

The like button = a psychological feedback loop
The endless scrolling list = a psychological trap for instant dopamine injections.
...

Literally.

and it's often holds a constant and frequent presence in people's lives to the point they ignore people around them to check in on a world that exists on their phones.

Yep. Worse even. Those things are also designed to send seemingly random "notifications" when you haven't touched a certain app in a certain amount of time.

So if and when you manage to resist to check it yourself, the "social" media will call you for your attention.
Like an evil whisper in your ear, in the form of a bzzzzzt in your pocket.

Add in people portraying themselves as better off than they are, comparing ourselves to others, and radioactive toxicity of the internet and it's a recipe for poor mental health, especially for kids and young adults.

Bingo. That's the nasty side effect of it all.
The addictive design is meant for generating ad money.
The side effect is psychological destruction due to the toxic content.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

The cause of all these problems, and more, is the turning away from God, virtues and morality and the breakup of the family unit.

There is no hope until humanity again embraces God and the Message given for this age.

That's just the plain awful truth, our bad choices, that was given in MHO.

Regards Tony

This is demonstrably false.
There is no correlation at all between these data points.

But there absolutely is between social media use and mental health. Regardless of religiosity.