I think most of us can make a general and unscientifically supported conclusion that social media has made both positive and negative affects on society but, to what extent?
While on my day off I decided to tune in to a podcast featuring social psychologist Jonathan Haidt who recently released a new book called, "The Coddling of the American Mind".
The world is safer and safer in terms of the physical environment but is increasingly exposed to a virtual world that is unsafe.
In his discussion about his book he brings up some mind blowing stats I'd like to share here because the data is drawn from North America - including Canada.
Middle school kids bullying is more destructive than that in high school. So, in line with this, social media has an increased negative effect the earlier it is introduced. These effects would include; increased self-harm risk of cutting, increased risk of suicide, depression and anxiety.
Girls born in 1995 or later have quite a different experience than those born and experiencing university prior aka. the millenials.
Feel free to start listening @1:18:25 with the link provided to hear the full discussion.
The vertical column is % and horizontal is year.
When college students were mostly millenials the rates were relatively low however; by 2016 colleges are almost all generation Z and the rates increase dramatically.
But is this all due to children being more open about mental health? Let's look at behaviour changes over time.
Males are basically stable across time however, males are also less likely to involve themselves in self-harm (not including suicide). This chart shows 280 in 100,000 boys at most.
Then for girls, the rates shoot up. There is a 62% increase since 2009 but a 189% increase for those 10-14. Preteens have never had high rates of self-harm but we can see here that trend is changing.
The leading candidate for these changes have been electronic access and social media although more evidence should be conducted. In 2006 FB opened up to all ages but not many people had their own phones because iphone were only just new and expensive and not many precollege students owned one. However only 5 years later many teens acquired handheld tech. You can see here that the age group that had more access to this technology in their university/college years were less adversely affected in relation to self-harm than those who were exposed in their preteen and middle school years.
From my personal experience, I can absolutely agree that I've seen more young girls coming into ER from major depressive episodes and self-harm in the last 3 years than I did when I started at the same hospital 6 years ago.
So, you can see how social media has a greater affect on girls than boys.
Why? Again, likely due to boys characteristically tending to be physically dominating with aggression while girls are equally aggressive but by express it by damaging social relationships, not physical harm. Therefore, girls have a new way to express aggression that is hyper charged and worse, by anonymity and deniability.
Lastly, it's interesting to note that many creators of this tech (iphone, FB, instagram...) do not let their own children use it. They created it to be addictive and are protecting their own offspring from the negative mental health outcomes we are now seeing. These things are made so attractive that they have also pushed out other healthy alternatives like playing outside with others.
Jonathan lays out a few rules for children: - no devices in the bedroom (devices impact quality of sleep, and really, what is the need?)
- have an old fashion alarm clock
- all devices turned off at least 30 minutes before bed
- no social media until high school but texting is ok (don't worry, they'll learn quickly once they get it!)
So make some boundaries and build relationships with other parents to stand together and agree that social media and tech has a place in the world but what is healthy for adults may be adversely helpful for our youth. Definitely fight to keep social media out of primary schools.
When times get tough and you want to give in and give them that screen time and social connection, remind yourself of the rates of self-harm that could be in their future. Do you want to increase your child's chance of depression, anxiety and self-harm (ex. cutting)?
Stand together to save the mental health of our children.
This is a call to action.
Some interesting stuff and certainly just the tip of the iceberg but hopefully this got you thinking!
xoxo
Joe Roegan and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.
Images taken from youtube link provided below.
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