Earlier this year people started using “moral panic” to

August 1, 2021, 6:05 pm
Earlier this year people started using “moral panic” to
Earlier this year people started using moral panic to just mean I disagree but this kind of thing new technology is rotting the youth! is what the phrase was originally developed to mean.

It`s wrong to make that comparison because unlike those examples, smartphones *have* totally changed social networks & means of communication. They are far far more transformative than those examples (which at the end of the day are all just new entertainment media)

My issue with it is that they act like nobody could tune out from conversations prior to smartphones. Like they never meet anyone who escapes into their own head when a social situation either bores them or makes them anxious.

Maybe MTV DID destroy our generation

As usual, its not the Kids, its the P-A-R-E-N-T-S!

There`s a case that social media is destroying everyone, the elderly most of all.

Dont forget novels.

Dont forget the novel. Corrupting the weak minds of young women everywhere!

Cyberspace is one of the only places where kids today can get together without adult supervision and control. Kids don`t have the freedom they used to have in Beverly Cleary books.

Im also skeptical. Our recently published research suggests that the screentime measures used in studies that are used to argue that smartphones are destroying our youth are typically flawed Forget the teenagers! Im 43 and I need someone to pull ME out of the smartphone trap!

Dont forget writing and books!

As a therapist, Ive seen much more harm in my teen clients from social media than I did from earlier video games. As a 53 year old, Im so grateful that the gaming that exists now didnt when I was a teenager. I would have spent all my time gaming.

Correlation obv isn`t causation, but there`s something that happens right as the smart phone comes out that wrecks kids mental health worldwide. The higher quality studies on this point toward this as an answer. Not sure it`s social. Most likely omnipresent availability of social

TV and Radio absolutely destroyed the old world - it`s just that we think what replaced it was better. I think the two-way nature of social media is a similar leap, and who knows what kind of world will replace this one?

Theres an underlying dopemine-hacking with devices that is occurring which drives a lot of the same downstream effects as substance abuse on a cognitive level. Abnormal lvls dysregulate which keep normal life from satisfying you.

Porn, likewise, is absolutely not a problem. People used to have erotic sketch work back in the 1700s, for crying out loud.

There seems to have been a massive uptick in liberal twitter interest in the Satanic panic that has subsequently led to overly expansive use of the term moral panic. I don`t know why this happened, though I`m sure there`s a logical explanation.

This is quite something to appear on the 40th Anniversary of the beginning of MTV.

Especially when half the people going "those kids and their smartphones!" learned on Facebook that Barack Obama is a lizard alien.

Society has always worried about this

I dont think screens and chat/ picture sharing are harmful. I do think the rage boosted engagement Skinner box is harmful.

Wait til your kid is a teen. Smartphones are evil incarnate for that age group. Not big on anti-tech hysteria but social media enhances every bad teen dynamic.

Its not the device. Its the cesspool under it. We dont blame theaters, or Atari, or the Fillmore. Its the content and its frequent inherent intent to harm, injure, incite. And most disturbingly we are the creators.

What makes you skeptical? I`m really curious. I was skeptical until I myself for pulled into an online cult. I think we`re seeing a lot of that but not even knowing it... And the extremity & ubiquity of porn I think has obviously had a very negative impact.

Or at least we shouldnt assume youth are specially vulnerable Its not technology, its capitalism thats destroying the younger generation. Change is coming neolib, whether you like it or not

Seems like smartphones have minimal impact using same data underlying study.

Gonna whine about screen time while staring at my phone, Matt.

I am not skeptical..my kid is literally different after just an hour on her phone..we have taken her off all electronics for the last 2 weeks and it`s been bliss. And social media is just poison for young girls who are just not mature enough to understand it yet

My prior is always "the kids are alright." So you are right to be skeptical. I keep thinking all the parent energy spent on freaking out about screen time is wasted energy.

All signs point to yes, this is a valid social problem that is at minimum correlated with social media and smartphone usage When I start to worry about screen time, I think about the hours of MTV I used to watch at my daughters age. The kids will be okay!

Completely agree with your skepticism, Matt. Their use of phones allow our kids to develop a constantly-on support group which we never had, and to their benefit. Friend, either you`re closing your eyes To a situation you do not wish to acknowledge Or you are not aware of the caliber of disaster indicated By the presence of a pool table in your community

Social media is destroying humanity, not just younger generations. The pandemic has made that ever more clear. Would Tr*mp have been a thing without social media, without the Russian propaganda attack in 2016?

Or maybe we just don`t understand how kids are tablet/phone first for everything, and they`ve integrated social media into their lives and outlooks in ways we can`t?

I`m skeptical of their extrapolations, but at least both try to grapple with data. I know has a very different take than they do.

And maybe its true this time that smartphones & social media really are destroying the younger generation in a way that people only feared video games & MTV & television & comic books & talkies & the radio would. But Im somewhat skeptical.

 
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