Is social media contributing to male depression?

noubliezjamais

I know we have a suicide thread but this is more relating to depression involving young teen boys/children. Saw an article on Reddit and a few YouTube videos that teen suicides are the highest in many Western countries and experts aren't sure why.

One reason was that a bad economy combined with social media makes people disillusioned with life. Kids only see happy moments of someone on Facebook, Instagram, etc..and feel worse off that they're not rich, smart, no girlfriend/friends etc.

Another was that the show "13 Reasons Why" has actually caused an increase in suicides ever since its premier 2 years ago.

What's your take on it?

NIMAN

I think social media is contributing to depression full stop. Male and female.

The Black Oil

noubliezjamais wrote: »

Another was that the show "13 Reasons Why" has actually caused an increase in suicides ever since its premier 2 years ago.

It very much depends on how people watched the show, so be wary of how the media has framed it.

https://psychcentral.com/blog/does-13-reasons-why-increase-suicide-rates/

NIMAN wrote: »

I think social media is contributing to depression full stop. Male and female.

This isn't really supported by the data, though. Most of the public debates media narratives on youth mental health and social media are complete hysteria. Even the WHO get sucked into this lately.

https://twitter.com/ShuhBillSkee/status/1106536673347846144
https://twitter.com/candice_odgers/status/1123576132475822080
https://twitter.com/OrbenAmy/status/1107912823701733376

NIMAN

Both men and women in large numbers are staring at their phones all day.
And it seems to be getting worse.

For me, that can't end well in the long term.

H3llR4iser

Could write an essay about this, but trying to be brief: the big issue might not be with people looking at "rich and famous Youtubers and their Lambo", the issue might start with the flow of unverified and unchecked information coming around with an "officiality" aura due to being posted on Facebook, Twitter or whatnot.

I'll explain it better: since the beginning, Internet discussion centers - be them forums, BBS or chat rooms - have been mostly populated by people with either questions or complaints. The classic example is researching info to buy a car, a laptop or a TV: the overwhelming majority of the information you'll find will be about issues, problems and drawbacks; That's because somebody whit a brand new car or laptop which works fine will have no reason to go post somewhere "oh my new Dell works fine!", while the guy whose screen only displays pink will generate a lot of "content", in the form of questions and complaints.

Basically, the same happens with Social Media: you get an absolutely overwhelming majority of people posting "doom and gloom" stuff, a true "negativity machine". Even around boards, you get constant threads about how the "economy is ****", this is wrong, the [insert racist definition here] are invading the country, "drugs everywhere" and whatnot.

The difference is that back then, it was some shoite a neckbeard living in his parents' garage posted on an obscure Usenet corner, today..."it must be true, I read it on Facebook/Twatter/Whatever!".

NIMAN

The anti-vaxxer movement shows how the world could go, when thick people believe anything they read online.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Worshiping oneself is never a good idea.