The damage that online social media can do to you is becoming apparent

[dubcity]

Any time a marketing machine gets ahold of a character like that, and you see merch everywhere, AND it's a kids show so kids want to watch it on repeat for hours and hours, you're going to get some hate. Power Rangers got some hate back in the day too.

But at least they weren't Captain Planet. That one I will never defend lol.

[oneamongthefence]

Quote: Originally Posted by dubcity

Any time a marketing machine gets ahold of a character like that, and you see merch everywhere, AND it's a kids show so kids want to watch it on repeat for hours and hours, you're going to get some hate. Power Rangers got some hate back in the day too. But at least they weren't Captain Planet. That one I will never defend lol.

But he's our hero...he's gonna take pollution down to zero.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[divehard]

I only have Facebook with the main purpose to follow some meme pages, I don't really share stuff or anything.

[studbucket]

If you all aren't following some of the research from folks like Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff, and Jean Twenge, I'd recommend it.

The CDC has a report showing that teens are more depressed than ever. Haidt and friends dug into the data and have shown that it's not due to politics, COVID, the economy, etc. Controlling for all those factors, it all went to crap in 2012 and beyond (iPhone front facing camera) and that social media, especially Tik Tok and Instagram, are the biggest problems for mental health, especially teen girls.

All demographics are impacted, but teens are impacted more than older folks, and girls more than boys.

All of Haidt's articles on the Atlantic can be found here: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/jonathan-haidt/
A lot of great thoughts on social media, teens, anxiety, and depression can be found here for free: https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/

Some of the substack stuff is great. I totally recommend checking it out.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by studbucket

If you all aren't following some of the research from folks like Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff, and Jean Twenge, I'd recommend it. The CDC has a report showing that teens are more depressed than ever. Haidt and friends dug into the data and have shown that it's not due to politics, COVID, the economy, etc. Controlling for all those factors, it all went to crap in 2012 and beyond (iPhone front facing camera) and that social media, especially Tik Tok and Instagram, are the biggest problems for mental health, especially teen girls. All demographics are impacted, but teens are impacted more than older folks, and girls more than boys. All of Haidt's articles on the Atlantic can be found here: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/jonathan-haidt/ A lot of great thoughts on social media, teens, anxiety, and depression can be found here for free: https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/ Some of the substack stuff is great. I totally recommend checking it out.

wow, yeah the first foster kid we took in was a teen girl and it was due to her phone addiction. She hated computers, didn't care to play any videogames, for her the entire world was her phone. She begged us for apps that would allow her to post and then the post disappears a bit after it's sent and we said no. It was total cluster and eventually she ended up running away and that was it for us being foster parents as the State of Ohio terminated us.

I still find it hard to fathom but I guess it's because I'm 53 and didn't grow up with any phone other than the old landline. It's pretty depressing hearing about the studies you cite, it's going to be a very different world here in 100 years, that's for sure!

[Jr.]

Quote: Originally Posted by studbucket

If you all aren't following some of the research from folks like Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff, and Jean Twenge, I'd recommend it. The CDC has a report showing that teens are more depressed than ever. Haidt and friends dug into the data and have shown that it's not due to politics, COVID, the economy, etc. Controlling for all those factors, it all went to crap in 2012 and beyond (iPhone front facing camera) and that social media, especially Tik Tok and Instagram, are the biggest problems for mental health, especially teen girls. All demographics are impacted, but teens are impacted more than older folks, and girls more than boys. All of Haidt's articles on the Atlantic can be found here: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/jonathan-haidt/ A lot of great thoughts on social media, teens, anxiety, and depression can be found here for free: https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/ Some of the substack stuff is great. I totally recommend checking it out.

Working in a high school, it's scary how addicted these kids are to social media.

And the major developmental milestone through adolescence is identity formation. We start comparing ourselves to others at a really early age, and now that we have access to other peoples' lives more than ever, it's easier than ever to make those comparisons.

It creates an incredibly unhealthy self-image for a large number of teenagers and young adults.

[studbucket]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jr.

Working in a high school, it's scary how addicted these kids are to social media. And the major developmental milestone through adolescence is identity formation. We start comparing ourselves to others at a really early age, and now that we have access to other peoples' lives more than ever, it's easier than ever to make those comparisons. It creates an incredibly unhealthy self-image for a large number of teenagers and young adults.

Absolutely. It's damaging for anyone to put themselves out there to be "judged" by others every day, even more so for adolescents. Yet that what IG and TikTok do: every day these students are asking the world to judge them via likes/comments/etc.

There's also a very strong correlation (no causation proved here) between the age a kid gets a smartphone and various mental health problems. The After Babel Substack page has quite a few articles on that.

I coach 8th grade girls basketball, and the difference between the girls whose life revolves around phones and selfies and those whose life doesn't is stark.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by studbucket

Absolutely. It's damaging for anyone to put themselves out there to be "judged" by others every day, even more so for adolescents. Yet that what IG and TikTok do: every day these students are asking the world to judge them via likes/comments/etc. There's also a very strong correlation (no causation proved here) between the age a kid gets a smartphone and various mental health problems. The After Babel Substack page has quite a few articles on that. I coach 8th grade girls basketball, and the difference between the girls whose life revolves around phones and selfies and those whose life doesn't is stark.

I first found out just how crazy it is when our foster daughter posted a pic of herself in a bikini with her friend at a beach. Well her friend's dad called me and said that his daughter thought she looked fat and we needed to take that picture down ASAP. I told him I would.

So I go to the girl and ask her to remove it and she gets really freaked out. She starts screaming about how she would never remove it, blahblahblah and so I proposed a solution:

I would remove the pic, edit the other girl out, then she could re-post. I thought it was a sensible solution that she'd agree too.

Nope!

She said her pic had 46 likes and if we did that she'd go back to 0 likes on the picture. I laughed and said, yeah well so what, most of your friends can like it again... SHE FREAKED OUT!!

Started screaming about how those likes were a huge amount for a pic and she loved how she looked and her friend could go to hell, etc, etc, and I was like, you're willing to possibly lose a friend for 46 likes and she said YES!! Of course!!

After that she threw such a fit we had to have the police come to our house as she trashed her room and was banging her head against the wall, screaming she was going to kill herself and they sent out a mental health therapist.

I deleted the pic in the meantime and called the other parent. After the therapist talked to her for hours and everyone calmed down and left, then she just cried in her room most of the night. It was nuts.

It was also the first sign to us as foster parents that we were maybe up against a lot more than we had imagined. We had no idea that it was only the beginning of one hell of a crazy, horrible, awful, terrible, no-good ride as a foster parent.

I can safely say although it's unfortunate, I don't recommend fostering to anyone now, and if you do then don't get a teen.