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Originally Posted by PepsiFree
The link could also be attributed to the fact that with social media, you have access to a much wider array of people sharing experiences, and thus you are able to compare them to your own. This might come with a greater realisation of "this thing I thought was just being sad, actually sounds like depression, I should talk to someone."
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It also comes with a gnawing anxiety that you don't measure up. Because the images people present on social media are curated. Older adults usually recognize that their friends' Facebook pages are self-aggrandising bull####. But teens are often naive enough to think those Instagram pics are an accurate depiction of the awesome life everyone else has, which is why heavy use correlates with anxiety and depression - everyone else is having fun all the time, why aren't I?
Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
I'll never really understand why people demonize social media as an all-encompassing entity, but I usually get the feeling that they're older people still struggling with the shock of expanded access to society.
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I know you enjoy your Old vs Young narrative, but it's experts raising the alarms bells here, not Olds. Again, why do you think the elite, especially the tech elite, are pulling back severely on social media use by their children? They have the expertise to understand what this stuff is doing to young minds, and the discipline to try to protect their kids from it (just as the educated elites were the first to stop smoking in front of their kids and feeding them count chocula every morning for breakfast).
Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Social media, the core of it, is really just other people.
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Sorry, but it really isn't. Social media is facile, largely fabricated, and has perverse incentives baked into it. It's simply no substitute for close proximity to real, breathing people who care about you. That's not old man yelling at clouds stuff, but substantiated science.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...1005080109.htm
We're social animals. Apes. We get sick without regular physical contact with other humans.