[atmosfir]

Everyone who is skeptical of the proposed plausible cause of social media in causing depression in this thread should explain why their alternative theory holds up to the evidence that no significant increase happened both pre-2010 and is global

To my knowledge there is currently no other better theory other than the rise of social media use that explains the phenomenon. Other proposed explanations such as Bad economy, capitalist alienation, terrible politics, parenting habits, global warming, atomic individualism, and lack of purpose all either cannot be generalized globally or did not start in 2010.

[navane]

I'm an early millennial and even I feel that the very capable smartphone totally fried my brain. I tried to postpone having one for a very long time because I knew I was prone to screen addiction since my first 486. Now I'm in a point in my life where it's very easy and socially accepted to stagnate my life, so my fried brain is everything I need to get by. But kids still need to grow, the fried brain must hamper them so much more.

[wiether]

> [...] global warming [...] either cannot be generalized globally or did not start in 2010

I guess global warming _can_ be generalized globally?

It sure didn't started in 2010 but neither did social networks.

Facebook opened public access in 2006 which about the same period when Twitter was launched.

_An Inconvenient Truth_ was released in 2006 and it seemed like the start of a global discussion about global warming. And behind _global warming_, there's actually the overall destruction of our environment by mankind.

I agree that social media is a cause, but the given arguments cannot exclude _global warming_. Quite the opposite.

[defrost]

The 1972 UNEP First Earth Summit seems a lot more like the start of a global discussion about global warming.

It marks the start of concerted white anting of the message and Koch et al funded think tanks to antiprop the fossil fuels are bad message.

An Inconvenient Truth was more the start of some limited central north american awareness starring some local politician or something.

[FrankyHollywood]

global warming is actually peanuts compared to worries of previous generations, like the cold war, school kids got instructions on what to do if an atomic bomb would fall on city!

stress and worries are from all times

[defrost]

* It still needs to be dealt with,

* the dangers are very real,

* unlike the risk of Cold War, doing nothing does not lead to the best outcome.

Forget about the stress, focus on the reality and mitigation.

[z7]

>I guess global warming _can_ be generalized globally? It sure didn't started in 2010 but neither did social networks.

As another poster pointed out:

>Folks in the 60’s thru 80’s expected global nuclear annihilation with some probability.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38936280