Why some researchers think I’m wrong about social media and mental illness
As a parent. It&#x27;s a hard topic. And not black and white.<p>For the 10+ crowd, the days of kids roaming the streets, finding their friends and playing are gone. I think the causes for this are complicated, and social media (and screens) are just one part of the puzzle.<p>Consider a few things:<p>1. The percentage of households with kids has gradually declined over time, while the percentage of retirees has gone up. So you just generally have an older population. Not everyone lives in a neighborhood where kids can roam and likely some other, known, parent will keep an eye on them.<p>2. Tolerance for children (esp teenagers) IMO has declined. Understandably, they... can be obnoxious :). There used to be more IRL activities for teens. I&#x27;ve seen, however, even movie theaters don&#x27;t want ANY minors there without a parent. There&#x27;s not a shopping mall to drop them off at. And the pandemic has REALLY hurt this.<p>3. The pressure for teenagers to fill their time with activities is very high. The parents feel to perform &#x2F; get into whatever good college &#x2F; do well in life, they need to have their time spoken for by a large number of activities. Helicopter parenting has really taken new heights in the last decade.<p>Combining these, society, for a myriad of reasons, doesn&#x27;t have a lot of opportunities for teenagers to truly be independent. And that too has been cited as a cause of mental health issues (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sciencedaily.com&#x2F;releases&#x2F;2023&#x2F;03&#x2F;230309101330.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sciencedaily.com&#x2F;releases&#x2F;2023&#x2F;03&#x2F;230309101330.h...</a>).<p>It&#x27;s a doom spiral too, the fewer kids that are free roaming, the less likely your own kid, when kicked out of the house, will find friends to play with. The less likely other parents will be conducive to your kid knocking on their door, etc etc.<p>So without kids roaming the streets, how do they connect with their friends? They use some kind of screen &#x2F; video games &#x2F; social media &#x2F; etc. And depriving them of this can mean limiting an outlet of some degree of independence.<p>Case in point, my son and his friends have a small discord server. And they play minecraft on a shared server. This not the same as scrolling TikTok &#x2F; Instagram. But it&#x27;s a degree of independence somewhat away from parental eyes.<p>Should I ban them from screens, and send them to ride bikes out in a world with few other kids? Or let them have this niche of a social &#x2F; independence outlet?