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by madaxe_again
3897 days ago
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Right. As their own statistics show, the average age in the groups from least to most use increases from 13.8 to 15.8, and there's a big separation by grade level in terms of use that supports that observation, too. That's a pretty big gap in terms of developmental status and, bluntly, levels of teenage angst, so perhaps while there is clear correlation here, there is not causation. I think this is the clincher - "Conversely, studies conducted among university students found no such relationship [between mental health and SNS use]." What's the main difference? Lack of the steep developmental range seen in early teens. They also openly state this: "The cross-sectional nature of the data precludes evaluation
of temporality and causality of the observed relationship
between use of SNSs and mental health problems." So, when the press run with "Social media causes brain damage in children, think of the children!", remember what the paper actually says. Personally, I think from anecdotal experience that heavy SN use fucks you up no end, but these findings don't prove this. |
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Now imagine your entire friend network is nonstop angst. I'd go mad, too.
It could be a just-so story, but I think overuse of SNSs allows our social skills to atrophy. The brain repurposes structures that go underused, and the structures that maintain one's face-to-face social functioning are no different.
Maintaining relationships in realspace is different than maintaining them in the async-y & memetic environment of cyberspace. Of course there is granularity--one can have a healthy analog&digital relationship, but if a SNS connection is a part of an individual's requirement for a friendship, then there is probably some deficit the individual is unaware of.
I'd also argue that this is symptomatic of the growing pains heavy internet users experience in their adolescence-to-young-adult stage. The group self-selects for introverts who have a preexisting difficulty with social interaction. However, we all require some social interaction (analog or digital), to greater and lesser extents, and so it perpetuates.
Books and art end up being a better outlet, but in my experience that's a discovery which people can only make for themselves.