[netik]

Articles like these which blame technology as the great evil, with a “what about the children! think of the children!” bent, are biased and troubling.

The article starts by blaming then iPhone and social media and goes on to show how the child is a victim of poor parenting and divorce.

Maybe the child’s depression, anxiety, and longing for acceptance comes straight out of the broken home and not social media.

[pknomad]

Why do you find it troubling? The article doesn't claim that poor parenting and divorce doesn't have negative effects on a child. It claims that social media, amplified by technology, has had negative effects on his/her child. Technology is a double edged sword and good parenting is supposed to shield predatory action by social media companies.

I think this quotation captures the sentiment the best: "She assessed her worth within a system where she was simultaneously attention-addicted and attention-starved. She’d internalized an algorithm where provocative content wins"

[williamtrask]

Note: netik’s bio indicates they used to work at Twitter.

[yedava]

The kid's mental health improved when she gave up her phone. So there is that and also some research that justifies the causation [1].

[1] https://jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/social-media-mental-ill...

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

It is a valid question to ask. Natural response would be to test whether rates of depression, anxiety and lack of belonging were reported lower or higher for previous cohorts.

My take is less nuanced, because I already see some addiction in my kid to screens ( I would blame my wife, but I am to blame as well ), which prompted me to crack down on it. I think there is a lot of blame to share, but I don't think parents are more to blame than a corporation with nation-state level of resources to overcome objections, force trends and so on.

[owisd]

Unlike social media/smartphone usage, divorce rates don't suddenly spike in 2010 to match the spike in childhood mental health problems. Despite social media companies best efforts, there is no reasonable alternative hypothesis for what happened globally in 2010 to cause the problem.

[bryan_w]

There are lies, damned lies, and statistics: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/07/21/blaming-social-media-for...

[sarchertech]

Maybe. But according to the author, she’s doing better without the phone.

From what I remember of middle school, having constant 24/7 contact with my classmates would have been detrimental, so I buy it.

[louwrentius]

That was exactly my impression