@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 plutonomy working an honest job" or whatever.

@quinn

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)

@quinn so the answer is "yes", I guess?

@quinn

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 Ha! I was suicidal at, like, 10 (well before I had a smartphone). I win.

Medien: 1

@quinn
*Fixed*
Is the reality of a corrupt socioeconomic system plagued by a legacy of descriminatory systemic social norms and maintained by a sociopathic media sphere, somewhat depressing?

@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.

@quinn I'll play devil's advocate and say there is definitely correlation (not causation), yes.

@quinn@social.circl.lu in fairness to the New York Times, Smartphones are where the teenagers are learning about war, genocide, dead children, the burning planet, and so on.

So you can understand their confusion.

🙄

@quinn i was a teen long before cell phones even existed and i had chronic depression

so, sure, it could contribute, but it isn't the only reason

@quinn and they are being told to shut up about it or they’ll be arrested.

@quinn These aren't mutually exclusive things.

@quinn THIS.

@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 this.

@quinn ah yes
/smartphones/

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! 🤡🥴

@quinn

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 Maybe it's the news!

@quinn
Alternate title suggestion: "We live in a dystopian nightmare. Being conscious of it could affect your mental health!"

@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.

@quinn Hell, I haven’t been a teen in decades and what I see depresses me. I think if you’re not at least end bummed out somewhat by the state of the world, there might be something wrong making the accusation of “smart phones are the real problem” < principle Skinner broken window meme>

@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
"...Waking up every day to media..."
We had violence and wars and genocides, famines, recessions, unaffordable housing, unemployment, in "the late 1900s" too. But we heard about it for maximum 1hr a day on the "TV" then went on with our lives. Y'all have a tiny box that blares the worst news of the worst people in the world at all hours of the day -- it's at least a contributing factor. . .

@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.

@quinn

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 forgive me

Medien: 1

@quinn my RSS news feed is indeed terribly depressing.

@quinn

"Wait! Wait! What if it's rock music?" - clueless adults

@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
Understandable. Taking USA as an example I see probability of say USA: purging (genocide or flee) immigrants; oppression of dissidents (incl CC); beating & maiming dissidents; growth of child marriage & forced pregnancy; increasing shootings (police & extremists);.... chaos ...
The oppression is important (eg demonstrations, tiktok), democracy dies in silence.

@quinn in all fairness there’s a lot of misinformation out there.

@quinn same tbh

@quinn Not only our children. It makes all of us crazy and is going to be the reason for the next civil war.

@quinn Or they could be waking up in the UK where the actual governing party, after 14 years in power, is seriously suggesting a year's National Service (mandatory conscription into armed services that I doubt would handle such an influx of reluctant teenagers) as a headline policy for why they should be elected back into power for another few years

@quinn Close your eyes to the horrors of the world, youth! Your mind needs not to be informed of the maladies visited upon you unwillingly by the most greedy of your elders!

@quinn@social.circl.lu What they are waking up to is the reality that they have no future, plus a lot of people selling them lies about how to be more wealthy, more beautiful, and what to buy and what not.

@quinn The pandemic is still ongoing!

@quinn@social.circl.lu NYT’s entire angle is “shut up and give rich people more money”. They could shut down today and there would be no effect to the world.

@quinn As long as you're always bent over your phone you don't have to notice that depression...

@quinn yes and no...... screentime and excesive consumation of content is harming your mental health. Platforms like meta or X does not care about your mental health issues caused by their products..

@quinn they don't want young people to have access to.information on hopes of hiding how bad they're screwing us. We have to fight back