[morpheuskafka]

By contrast, however, they offer no positive feedback whatsoever. At my school social media contributes positively to most people's self esteem because it is a constant source of positive feedback from friends on personal activities and memories. IDK why we are blaming Instagram for bullying and issues that have been around for years.

[bspn]

> At my school social media contributes positively to most people's self esteem because it is a constant source of positive feedback from friends on personal activities and memories

But that's the problem. People get a "like" or equivalent on a photo or post and they conflate that with self-worth. They then see their friend (or worse, enemy) get more likes and either feel unworthy or a need to compete. I get the short-term self-esteem boost from a popular post, but the long-terms effects of chasing such positive affirmation are not healthy and will likely to lead to deeper issues later in life particularly once you enter the workforce.

Disclaimer: I went to school pre-social media so insert appropriate dinosaur reference.

[morpheuskafka]

Having friends and others that care about what you do is inherently part of social species' self worth--that doesn't imply "chasing positive affirmation", which is a problem. Nor does it necessitate a quantitative approach to counting likes. "Likes" are just the modern day version of getting a verbal "that's cool" from a friend. If someone goes around and counts how many positive things are said to them and compares it to others, that is an issues but it's not an issues of technology

[skohan]

That's an interesting perspective. I also did not like it when things I liked in school like TV and video-games were blamed for ruining my generation.

What do you think about the evidence that more teenagers than ever are suffering from severe anxiety?(https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/magazine/why-are-more-ame...)

[tomc1985]

Well now we are raising a society where previously neutral social spaces are changing to only permit encouraging and positive things, everything-else-be-damned. Allowing people to constantly pat each other on the back without criticism is going to make people even more spoiled and insufferable