Good Morning Adam, I'm drinking my morning coffee and thinking about the issues in your post. At 73, I am a far different generation than many of you. Additionally, I worked as a psychiatric nurse from the 80s until I retired. Working on adolescent inpatient units, most problems stemmed from poor family systems. Often children acted out to gain the attention of parents too busy to give them much time. This can lead to depression and sometimes suicidal ideation. I recall children who were literally dumped onto a psych unit because parents were going on vacation. That type of thing isn't happening now due to insurance scrutiny (sometimes that's a good thing). Self image was and is a big factor. The eating disorder units can be awful with young women hiding severe weight loss under baggie clothes. This is a control issue. When they are unable to control anything else in their lives, they may become anorexic or bulimic. Social media can feed into this with photos and discussions about how people should look. Fortunately there is some progress as larger (traditional built) girls and women are being featured which helps to decrease body shaming. There is also much more diversity of all kinds promoted by social media. Perhaps for young people living in rural areas that are majority white and republican, social media gives them a glimpse of alternatives both in the US and around the world. Personally, I find Facebook to be a good tool for keeping in touch with friends around the country and events in my community, but I limit how much time I spend on that. The bots and scammers are all over the place. These can be difficult to identify. At least once a week I get a "friend" request from some guy who has posted very attractive pictures and frequently says he is military. DELETE!!! Do teenagers recognize the danger with these? Free speech is a foundation of our democracy so we must continue to teach others the dangers of believing what they see on social media without checking. Snopes is a good source. Thanks for the thought provoking post.
Thanks for this thoughtful and informative post! I appreciate what everyone contributed especially Linda's frontline experience with children's mental health!
The thing I have noticed that bothers me, is how you don't see children out playing, riding bikes or neighborhood sporting games on beautiful days!
Also, teachers have reported that most children with cell phones are on them during recesses and lunch time. Shouldn't they be socializing with each other in real time. How isolating to just have your social life online!
True I'm of a much older generation but the truth is children's brains still continue to develop into young adulthood. Let's encourage them to get vitamin D, be with friends and get away from constant use of electronics!
I rarely use social media. In truth, I am at that age that a phone call or "in person" visit announcing a life changing occurance (ie birth, birthdays, graduations ect.) is the way it should be done and not finding out on the social network that it happened. It is the new way of life.
Like everything new in society, there is a learning curve. We are in that learning curve. Hopefully these young days of social media will mature in a good and positive way in which society can move forward. It is more frightening to me about AI and the capabilities of it to be manipulated for good or evil. Mixed into social media, it can have terrifying consequences. Although I find it fascinating, the capabilities of it can have far reaching affects on the world: good and bad.
We haven't yet learned to protect ourselves from hackers be it financially , medically or life affecting. Throwing AI and social media into the fray leads to a plethora of possibilities. We are going way to fast...
Forget the warning. Make social media criminally responsible for their safety. If they want to make money from the information they collect, they need to do it in a way that does not abuse minors. If the monetization of the platform leads to the abuse of minors, then they should stop or go to prison. Forget fines. For billionaires fines are a cheap way to avoid jail.
Warning labels or not, I think social media is one of the main reasons our society is in the state that it's in. My wife, who is 67 years old, is a FB zombie. Everyone is in everyone else's business. Give me the days when it took three weeks to find out who one an election.
Personally, I feel the Federal Government is responsible in large part for the overall decline of our society. I say this for two reasons. (1) When I was young any news organization that reported incorrect or false information was immediately required by the FCC to publicly admit their mistake and retract the incorrect or false reporting. Somewhere along the way Federal Law was changed and now anyone can say or televise anything, even if it is completely false, and totally get away with it. Today heavily biased "news" sources routinely report outright lies and heavily edited video without Federal oversight or accountability. (2) Social Media has never been regulated by the Federal Government. The result is a cesspool of falsehoods and misinformation that not only threatens the mental health and well-being of our children but also many, many adults. Don't get me wrong, there are many potential benefits of Social Media. The problem again is a complete lack of Federal Government oversight and accountability. Now we have AI coming down the pike. If the Congress doesn't establish laws to regulate and provide oversight of the News Media, Social Media and AI then I strongly believe that our society will self-destruct. Free Speech is one of the cornerstones of our democracy and I fully support it. That does NOT mean that our citizens, regardless of their age, should be subjected to outright lies and bull***t. Most of this garbage is peddled by organizations that have the financial means to overcome any legal challenges individual citizens could possibly afford to bring in an effort to correct the record. And Class Action Lawsuits are becoming more difficult to utilize. This is why the Federal Government must establish laws governing Truth-in-Reporting for the News Media, Social Media and AI. The "snake oil" peddlers of the late 19th and early 20th century were, in large part, what resulted in the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA's purpose is to protect American citizens by ensuring that our food and medicinal drugs are safe. "Snake Oil" peddlers are still allowed, and indeed are prolificly selling their products to unsuspecting customers. The Federal Government in this example has met its obligations of Regulation and Oversight by requiring sellers of drugs that are not FDA Approved to include the sentence "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease". Businesses that fail to include that sentence in their advertising for products that are not FDA Approved are routinely subject to FDA enforcement actions. To my way of thinking the exact same Federal Government Oversight and Enforcement regulations must be applied to News Media, Social Media and AI with authority given to the FCC (as it once was for the News Media).
I agree with Adam, a Surgeon General Warning is inadequate and will not get the job done. Sorry to be so long winded but this is a sensitive subject matter for me.😒
very thoughtful post, which I agree with. It's evident to me that (impressionable) kids spend way too much time glued to their digital devices, but warning labels seem over the top and impossible to execute.
Very interesting post. And I wonder whether there is a connection between the decline in behaviors such as drinking and smoking, and an increase in mental health problems. Were the behaviors used in the past to offset anxiety and depression?
That's not to say that social media is innocent. Far from it. But it would be interesting to find out how prevalent mental health issues were for kids in years past--and how they were dealt with. I remember my mother, who suffered from severe anxiety since childhood in the '50s, said that kids were told it was their fault and to just "get over themselves." She started drinking as a teen.
Thank you for today’s post Adam! I agree with you that just putting a warning on Social Media would not help the situation.The younger generation definitely needs education and their parents explaining to them the dangers behind the internet!
I remember in the 6th grade in Atlanta, GA kids passing around “Slam Books”-where people would write comments about you and pass around for others to view and sign -the teachers did nothing about it or looked the other way-some of the comments were very hurtful. Now the internet is the same except it never goes away. I hate that kids have to go through this. Parents and teachers need to understand how difficult it is.
I think everyone is aware of the dangers of too much screen time and it’s a bigger problem for kids when their parents are glued to the screen as well. It’s not easy to pull away but we will definitely be better for it. Parents need to accept their responsibility towards their children. Enroll them in sports, the arts, anything. Just hanging out or going to movie with friends is good. Limit if we can their screen time. Family Friday night pizza and game night. Am I wishing and hoping with my rose tinted glasses again? Adam is right in sayng we must try. The warning on cigarette packs never meant anything to me when I smoked. I’ve stopped but it wasn’t that warning that finally got to me.
I just saw a headline on my news feed reporting on an internet challenge that was taken up by two teenagers. The challenge was to see how many doors they could kick in. Holy moly!!!!!!!! A young woman was shot and killed last year for taking a wrong street and turning around in a driveway. Those two idiots are lucky to be alive!!!!!!!! Jeezuz.
It's a tough call. I use the internet all the time for information about a whole bunch of things, from recipes, to what are the best plants to attract hummers, bees and butterflies, does hot weather affect and worsen COPD (it does along with higher ozone count), to obviously what's going on in the political world. I have a few YouTube little buddies, (dogs) and can watch clips from American Bandstand when in Philly. It's a real mixed bag and some of that bag is is great, informative and fun, and the bottom of that bag is filled with rot.
So called, influencers can be very negative, especially to teens and preteens who are working on finding who they are, and hopefully getting an education and building their self esteem and sense of self worth. I was bullied but I DID have good friends and had a great support system from my parents and at the end of the day I could leave school at at least get a break for awhile. Kids today? It never ends.
There is a reason that some tech executives don't allow their kids to have much tech and send them to a private school that has NONE. They do math the old fashioned like we used to, counting on our fingers and toes and when those ran out, well pay attention in class, learn your addition and multiplication and figure it out.
My friend's grand kids have phones but before dinner the parents get the phones and the girls don't get them back until the next morning. I realize that if you try to keep them off the computer they can go to their friend's house, but I'd still keep them off the computer. My friends grand daughters just showed a lamb (was auctioned....tears shed) and a goat in 4H this last weekend. They had a swim meet yesterday, they also play on a volleyball team, they take music lessons, and the oldest has a 4 point grade average. They are busy. I think some parents use tech as a baby sitter. Some simply don't care, others are over worked and stressed and find it a relief not to have to deal with the kids.
I DO know that my dad would have had a lot of control over our use of the internet if we had that in "the day", again recognizing he could not control everything. We have, in some ways, created a monster and it truly is hurting kids and damaging families. We need to find an answer somehow, our future depends on it.
Thanks for another thoughtful post Adam. So many of these issues need to be brought to our attention and discussed. That's the only way we will find the answers.
I find it interesting that the recent numbers of depression and suicide are missing from 2021 to 23/24. Health care workers I have known for decades all say the same thing. It’s profoundly higher than what is reported. Additionally, the standards of new mental health workers has been lowered significantly. Peeps tend to blame it on covid but all studies that began years previous show the increased rate of both depression and suicide increase dramatically and parallel to media use. Something else I found really interesting is the divorce rate for fox cult minded idiots is higher. But as it is, they nor other corporate news medias refuse to report this fact. Go figure. Cheers 🥂
I saw the announcement of this proposal by Murthy. At the time I thought about how the warning labels could possibly be implemented. I’m glad Adam is bringing this issue for us to discuss. I agree that warning labels on social media is a nonstarter. It’s up to parents to moderate what and how much information is being fed to their children. I’m much more concerned with the disinformation and the speed at which adults consume on social media. I used to think that fact checking by the owners of the sites is the way to go, but now know that’s not feasible. I agree that AI is a whole new ballgame and it gets better every day. I like Adam’s idea of making the site owners to post warnings frequently, but even that will have little effect. There are warnings on Threads when a statement is questionable regarding accuracy. This is a complicated issue. I’m so glad that I grew up in the era when kids dreaded having to come inside when the streetlights came on. In person socialization is so important in human development.
Good Morning Adam, I'm drinking my morning coffee and thinking about the issues in your post. At 73, I am a far different generation than many of you. Additionally, I worked as a psychiatric nurse from the 80s until I retired. Working on adolescent inpatient units, most problems stemmed from poor family systems. Often children acted out to gain the attention of parents too busy to give them much time. This can lead to depression and sometimes suicidal ideation. I recall children who were literally dumped onto a psych unit because parents were going on vacation. That type of thing isn't happening now due to insurance scrutiny (sometimes that's a good thing). Self image was and is a big factor. The eating disorder units can be awful with young women hiding severe weight loss under baggie clothes. This is a control issue. When they are unable to control anything else in their lives, they may become anorexic or bulimic. Social media can feed into this with photos and discussions about how people should look. Fortunately there is some progress as larger (traditional built) girls and women are being featured which helps to decrease body shaming. There is also much more diversity of all kinds promoted by social media. Perhaps for young people living in rural areas that are majority white and republican, social media gives them a glimpse of alternatives both in the US and around the world. Personally, I find Facebook to be a good tool for keeping in touch with friends around the country and events in my community, but I limit how much time I spend on that. The bots and scammers are all over the place. These can be difficult to identify. At least once a week I get a "friend" request from some guy who has posted very attractive pictures and frequently says he is military. DELETE!!! Do teenagers recognize the danger with these? Free speech is a foundation of our democracy so we must continue to teach others the dangers of believing what they see on social media without checking. Snopes is a good source. Thanks for the thought provoking post.
Thank you for sharing your experience and perspective, Linda. I appreciate hearing from someone who worked closely with the kids we’re talking about.
Ditto!
Thanks for this thoughtful and informative post! I appreciate what everyone contributed especially Linda's frontline experience with children's mental health!
The thing I have noticed that bothers me, is how you don't see children out playing, riding bikes or neighborhood sporting games on beautiful days!
Also, teachers have reported that most children with cell phones are on them during recesses and lunch time. Shouldn't they be socializing with each other in real time. How isolating to just have your social life online!
True I'm of a much older generation but the truth is children's brains still continue to develop into young adulthood. Let's encourage them to get vitamin D, be with friends and get away from constant use of electronics!
I rarely use social media. In truth, I am at that age that a phone call or "in person" visit announcing a life changing occurance (ie birth, birthdays, graduations ect.) is the way it should be done and not finding out on the social network that it happened. It is the new way of life.
Like everything new in society, there is a learning curve. We are in that learning curve. Hopefully these young days of social media will mature in a good and positive way in which society can move forward. It is more frightening to me about AI and the capabilities of it to be manipulated for good or evil. Mixed into social media, it can have terrifying consequences. Although I find it fascinating, the capabilities of it can have far reaching affects on the world: good and bad.
We haven't yet learned to protect ourselves from hackers be it financially , medically or life affecting. Throwing AI and social media into the fray leads to a plethora of possibilities. We are going way to fast...
Forget the warning. Make social media criminally responsible for their safety. If they want to make money from the information they collect, they need to do it in a way that does not abuse minors. If the monetization of the platform leads to the abuse of minors, then they should stop or go to prison. Forget fines. For billionaires fines are a cheap way to avoid jail.
Warning labels or not, I think social media is one of the main reasons our society is in the state that it's in. My wife, who is 67 years old, is a FB zombie. Everyone is in everyone else's business. Give me the days when it took three weeks to find out who one an election.
I mean who won an election.
Personally, I feel the Federal Government is responsible in large part for the overall decline of our society. I say this for two reasons. (1) When I was young any news organization that reported incorrect or false information was immediately required by the FCC to publicly admit their mistake and retract the incorrect or false reporting. Somewhere along the way Federal Law was changed and now anyone can say or televise anything, even if it is completely false, and totally get away with it. Today heavily biased "news" sources routinely report outright lies and heavily edited video without Federal oversight or accountability. (2) Social Media has never been regulated by the Federal Government. The result is a cesspool of falsehoods and misinformation that not only threatens the mental health and well-being of our children but also many, many adults. Don't get me wrong, there are many potential benefits of Social Media. The problem again is a complete lack of Federal Government oversight and accountability. Now we have AI coming down the pike. If the Congress doesn't establish laws to regulate and provide oversight of the News Media, Social Media and AI then I strongly believe that our society will self-destruct. Free Speech is one of the cornerstones of our democracy and I fully support it. That does NOT mean that our citizens, regardless of their age, should be subjected to outright lies and bull***t. Most of this garbage is peddled by organizations that have the financial means to overcome any legal challenges individual citizens could possibly afford to bring in an effort to correct the record. And Class Action Lawsuits are becoming more difficult to utilize. This is why the Federal Government must establish laws governing Truth-in-Reporting for the News Media, Social Media and AI. The "snake oil" peddlers of the late 19th and early 20th century were, in large part, what resulted in the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA's purpose is to protect American citizens by ensuring that our food and medicinal drugs are safe. "Snake Oil" peddlers are still allowed, and indeed are prolificly selling their products to unsuspecting customers. The Federal Government in this example has met its obligations of Regulation and Oversight by requiring sellers of drugs that are not FDA Approved to include the sentence "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease". Businesses that fail to include that sentence in their advertising for products that are not FDA Approved are routinely subject to FDA enforcement actions. To my way of thinking the exact same Federal Government Oversight and Enforcement regulations must be applied to News Media, Social Media and AI with authority given to the FCC (as it once was for the News Media).
I agree with Adam, a Surgeon General Warning is inadequate and will not get the job done. Sorry to be so long winded but this is a sensitive subject matter for me.😒
Bravo, Richard!
very thoughtful post, which I agree with. It's evident to me that (impressionable) kids spend way too much time glued to their digital devices, but warning labels seem over the top and impossible to execute.
Very interesting post. And I wonder whether there is a connection between the decline in behaviors such as drinking and smoking, and an increase in mental health problems. Were the behaviors used in the past to offset anxiety and depression?
That's not to say that social media is innocent. Far from it. But it would be interesting to find out how prevalent mental health issues were for kids in years past--and how they were dealt with. I remember my mother, who suffered from severe anxiety since childhood in the '50s, said that kids were told it was their fault and to just "get over themselves." She started drinking as a teen.
Thank you for today’s post Adam! I agree with you that just putting a warning on Social Media would not help the situation.The younger generation definitely needs education and their parents explaining to them the dangers behind the internet!
I remember in the 6th grade in Atlanta, GA kids passing around “Slam Books”-where people would write comments about you and pass around for others to view and sign -the teachers did nothing about it or looked the other way-some of the comments were very hurtful. Now the internet is the same except it never goes away. I hate that kids have to go through this. Parents and teachers need to understand how difficult it is.
OMG yes, those terrible “slam books”!
I think everyone is aware of the dangers of too much screen time and it’s a bigger problem for kids when their parents are glued to the screen as well. It’s not easy to pull away but we will definitely be better for it. Parents need to accept their responsibility towards their children. Enroll them in sports, the arts, anything. Just hanging out or going to movie with friends is good. Limit if we can their screen time. Family Friday night pizza and game night. Am I wishing and hoping with my rose tinted glasses again? Adam is right in sayng we must try. The warning on cigarette packs never meant anything to me when I smoked. I’ve stopped but it wasn’t that warning that finally got to me.
Well said. Thank you for a thoughtful consideration of mental illness. We spend far too much time seeking simple solutions to complex problems.
I just saw a headline on my news feed reporting on an internet challenge that was taken up by two teenagers. The challenge was to see how many doors they could kick in. Holy moly!!!!!!!! A young woman was shot and killed last year for taking a wrong street and turning around in a driveway. Those two idiots are lucky to be alive!!!!!!!! Jeezuz.
It's a tough call. I use the internet all the time for information about a whole bunch of things, from recipes, to what are the best plants to attract hummers, bees and butterflies, does hot weather affect and worsen COPD (it does along with higher ozone count), to obviously what's going on in the political world. I have a few YouTube little buddies, (dogs) and can watch clips from American Bandstand when in Philly. It's a real mixed bag and some of that bag is is great, informative and fun, and the bottom of that bag is filled with rot.
So called, influencers can be very negative, especially to teens and preteens who are working on finding who they are, and hopefully getting an education and building their self esteem and sense of self worth. I was bullied but I DID have good friends and had a great support system from my parents and at the end of the day I could leave school at at least get a break for awhile. Kids today? It never ends.
There is a reason that some tech executives don't allow their kids to have much tech and send them to a private school that has NONE. They do math the old fashioned like we used to, counting on our fingers and toes and when those ran out, well pay attention in class, learn your addition and multiplication and figure it out.
My friend's grand kids have phones but before dinner the parents get the phones and the girls don't get them back until the next morning. I realize that if you try to keep them off the computer they can go to their friend's house, but I'd still keep them off the computer. My friends grand daughters just showed a lamb (was auctioned....tears shed) and a goat in 4H this last weekend. They had a swim meet yesterday, they also play on a volleyball team, they take music lessons, and the oldest has a 4 point grade average. They are busy. I think some parents use tech as a baby sitter. Some simply don't care, others are over worked and stressed and find it a relief not to have to deal with the kids.
I DO know that my dad would have had a lot of control over our use of the internet if we had that in "the day", again recognizing he could not control everything. We have, in some ways, created a monster and it truly is hurting kids and damaging families. We need to find an answer somehow, our future depends on it.
Thanks for another thoughtful post Adam. So many of these issues need to be brought to our attention and discussed. That's the only way we will find the answers.
Great piece, Pamela! Thanks!
I find it interesting that the recent numbers of depression and suicide are missing from 2021 to 23/24. Health care workers I have known for decades all say the same thing. It’s profoundly higher than what is reported. Additionally, the standards of new mental health workers has been lowered significantly. Peeps tend to blame it on covid but all studies that began years previous show the increased rate of both depression and suicide increase dramatically and parallel to media use. Something else I found really interesting is the divorce rate for fox cult minded idiots is higher. But as it is, they nor other corporate news medias refuse to report this fact. Go figure. Cheers 🥂
Thanks, Adam. When I first heard this idea, I didn't think it would have much impact, if any.
I especially like that you offer an alternate means of addressing the problem. Too often, people point out problems, but offer no solutions.
I saw the announcement of this proposal by Murthy. At the time I thought about how the warning labels could possibly be implemented. I’m glad Adam is bringing this issue for us to discuss. I agree that warning labels on social media is a nonstarter. It’s up to parents to moderate what and how much information is being fed to their children. I’m much more concerned with the disinformation and the speed at which adults consume on social media. I used to think that fact checking by the owners of the sites is the way to go, but now know that’s not feasible. I agree that AI is a whole new ballgame and it gets better every day. I like Adam’s idea of making the site owners to post warnings frequently, but even that will have little effect. There are warnings on Threads when a statement is questionable regarding accuracy. This is a complicated issue. I’m so glad that I grew up in the era when kids dreaded having to come inside when the streetlights came on. In person socialization is so important in human development.