 Young people are waking up every day to media about war, genocides, dead children. They are unsure of being able to make a living, scared by debt, violence, addiction, homelessness. They are unsure if the burning planet will even support their lives. They are struggling for secure basic housing after having their lives upended by a pandemic... meanwhile the NYT: 63 comments
 image description: Screenshot of a headline of an article in the Opinion section, published May 1, 2024. Text: Are Smartphones Driving Our Teens to Depression?  @quinn 'Well, I doomscroll and am depressed, so these innoncent little angels (said by someone who has not interacted with a 14-16 year old in a long, long time) must be protected! It is the method of getting the information to blame! In all honestly, they really would prefer that sub 18 year olds (and 25, even) are kept completely 'sealed' from any other information except what they control. Because if they control that, the children will unquestionably agree! (spoiler: Not how kids work)  @Oggie @quinn That hasn’t changed, though. If you’re a minor, your access to information is heavily restricted and monitored by everyone who claims to have an interest in your well-being—which is to say, no one, not a damn person. It’s really hard to feel like anyone cares about your well-being when they’re clearly pursuing an abstraction of what an ideal child ought to be.  Libraries. They saved my sanity as an abused kid. I was able to do a lot of research and reading without adults knowing everything I was studying.  you know the famous @paulisci thread about kids don't want to work anymore ? This "kids are depressed due to X" thing is probably as old  @quinn  @quinn yes, I'm with you. Smartphones have not created behaviours, desires, fears or conflicts that haven't existed before. They haven't changed the core drivers and expressions of human nature. They're not the cause. OTOH, I remember as a teen being really glad I got to go home at the end of the day, away from those bitches who tormented me. Now kids carry their bullies home in their pockets. Now their terrible decisions get memorialised and shared. Phones make some bad things worse. @quinn Well, it is an opinion, and you know what they say about them: "Everyone has opinions and arseholes, and they both stink" So par for the course. To the extent that the smart phones are showing the teens what the asshats at NYT and other oligarchs are doing to the country and the planet, yes. Taking away their phones is not going to solve that, though. @quinn - Blaming technology is as old as, well, technology. Similar "panic buttons" have been pressed regarding DVD players, TV, transistor radios, the telephone, and so on back through history; I'm certain that the printing press was also considered a cause for panic by those who seek to profit from panic. Heck, the same treatment was probably given to flint-knapping! There are always people who want to pin their own disappointments and fears on whatever is the latest technology at the time. "These kids today are running around with stone tablets, wasting their time carving glyphs about Ra and Isis while expecting those pyramids to build themselves." -- Ancient Egyptian Boomer  @quinn Most every psychology study I’ve read has rightly pointed out that #socialmedia and the peer pressure it’s created to be perfect has fueled massive #depression and #suicidal ideation. So we can make fun of the Times, sure, but the issue of #computers in our teens’ pockets and immediate access to the #internet isn’t something to take lightly. For our #privacy OR our kids’ minds and wellbeing. @thetechtutor @quinn Remember what I sarcastically said about blaming the messenger earlier? This is what it looks like when you're foolishly not being sarcastic.   fight like " Educated' We Stand ' . skateparks - @ public avail . every town @quinn is it the smartphones or the old media institutions that thrive on chaos and fear? Old media: it's the phones, duh. @quinn @Adam_Cadmon1 phones and more specifically, apps, do keep kids up later, and schools start too early, which means kids don't get enough sleep and are less equipped to handle all the other stresses. @quinn Are they? I don't know any young people, but just figured that they spend all day looking at tiktok or porn.   @quinn ah yes you know, the box that lets us talk to our friends when we're not at home. @quinn counterpoint: The only thing we need to do is get rid of smartphones and teens will immediately be happy again... Yes I know I slayed you with my logic! 🤡🥴  Also, they live in a world where parents would rather their kids die than have them homeschooled during a pandemic. Or for that matter, die at school rather than have basic gun control.  @quinn @quinn @quinn I have Seen. -'kids', as I am an 'old guy'-have no social skills what-so-ever. No recognition of humor, or compliment- the blank stare is worrisome. 'Oh, that's just the way kids are' parents say--I Say, 'That is Your fault!' "kids' will need to assimilate into society Someday. Your job is to prepare them, parents .  @quinn there’s a looooong history of blaming the medium instead of the message. It’s so much easier to critique inanimate objects. @StephanieMoore @quinn "The medium is the message." — Marshall McLuhan's casual viewin'   @quinn Teen depression was quite high in the 80s as well because, well, the world I grew up in had a massive threat looming over us. These days while social media is creating changes we have to think about they are not the underlying reason for why our youth may be even more bereft than my generation was.  @quinn this shady ass shit drives even more behind the "limit their screen time" mommy bloggers @quinn @ClancyParliament @quinn On the other hand, though, we also had the "inevitable" nuclear holocaust hovering overhead to the point that it shows up in pop songs: Silent Running, Eastern Wind, 99 Luftballons, etc. etc. etc. I mean in German dance clubs we were DANCING to inevitable nuclear holocaust! @quinn Show me a time in history when there hasn't been war, cold war, genocides, hunger and children dying? Today's kids are emotionally weak because they are taught to be weak. Nothing new is going on. The phones may be a vector for information over load otherwise same shit different era.
@quinn I would say the distraction and hopelessness offered on the smartphone is not a good thing. Their government could certainly care less about them. It is a declining empire that sees them as sources of revenue. Dut if they were organized into coalitions of power then the government would have to listen. I am surprised at all the supporters of smartphones for kids. I am a parent of two teens and 1-pre teen and smartphones are an absolute disaster for kids. Sure, all the social anxiety and teen drama has been around for ever, but when I was a teen, you "unplugged" from it at home and on the weekends. Now for many teens it is like a 24/7 IV plugged into their mind causing manipulation and anxiety. I try to monitor it..but unplugging them causes social isolation. Its terrible. @quinn The Times is like the uncle who always has to ruin your day... with his "wisdom."  @quinn I was listening to CBC this afternoon, and report of banning cell phone use while in school... While I *think* there's an argument for reducing how it can be distracting for *some* people (I've seen it more often than I've seen it be useful), the outright ban kind of stinks. @quinn Well, the NYT isn't WRONG as such. I mean it is, after all, smartphones delivering all that media about war, genocide, the death of children, etc. to them. And we all know it's always the messenger who's to blame, right? @quinn @quinn ... climate change is bad for their mental, physical, emotional health & if social media allows expression, let them.   |
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@quinn ...where by "smartphones", they don't mean "tech companies who make smartphones" or "smartphone UX design" or "people who sell smartphones", but of course "kids these days spend too damn much time on their smartphones when they should be out
being abused and underpaid for the plutonomyworking an honest job" or whatever.