This is a great piece. It’s almost like huge numbers of researchers forget how to evaluate evidence when the study in question makes a hated outgroup look bad.
> That reliance on self-reporting — the teens' own opinions — as a single indicator of harm is a problem, says Candice Odgers, a psychologist who studies adolescence at University of California, Irvine and Duke University. That's because teenagers are already primed by media coverage, and the disapproval of adults, to believe that social media is bad for them.<p>And since when do teens care about the disapproval of adults? When I was a kid, video games were the terrible thing. I didn't know any kids who bought into that narrative—we knew they were harmless fun and kept playing.
Trying to sort through what's real and what's being spun. Even here on HN, the thread[0] for a related article is being discussed much more. Maybe it's because of the ragebait headline that was used for the original post, I dunno.<p>My daughter is getting to the age where some of her friends are starting to get smartphones, so I'm trying to sort out what will actually be best for her long-term development. I don't want her to be socially stunted, but I also don't want her to expose her to something that could be detrimental to her mental well-being.<p>In an ideal world, these kinds of networks would be based on open, federated platforms a la Mastodon, Pixelfed, etc. As it stands I don't feel comfortable trusting the advertising industry to determine how these things should be run.<p>[0]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28812310" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28812310</a><p>Edit: As pointed out by another poster, FB pays NPR, even further muddling the waters. Aaaaaggggghhhhh
> Editor's note: Facebook is among NPR's financial supporters and since publishing her book, The Art of Screen Time, Kamenetz's husband took a job with Facebook. He works in an unrelated division.
The first research [0] mentioned in the article uses the following ways to measure "adolescents’ academic, psychological, and physical wellbeing":<p>> Academic achievement (n= 2,020) was obtained from administrative records providing the end-of-grade standardized test scores for reading and math for the 2014–2015 school year.<p>> School belonging (n= 2,104) was assessed with the six-item Psychological Sense of School Membership23 self-report scale of school membership (e.g., I feel like a real part of my school; People at my school are friendly to me; [0] Not at all true to [5] very true), α= 0.84.<p>> Conduct problems (n= 2,103) were assessed using the 26-item Problem Behavior Frequency Scale24 of behavioral aggression and violence in the last 30 days (e.g., In the last 30 days, how many times have you …skipped school; stolen something from another student; [0] Never, [1] 1–2 times, [2] 3–5 times, [3] 6–9 times, [4] 10–19 times, and [5] 20+ times). This scale was converted into a count of reported problems (binary for each item rated >1 then summed).<p>> Psychological distress (n=2,104) was assessed using the six-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale25 to measure the frequency of participants’ feelings of distress over the past month (e.g., During the past 30 days… about how often did you feel worthless; about how often did feel restless or fidgety? [0] None of the time to [4] all of the time), α= 0.66.<p>> General physical health (n= 2,097) was assessed with an item from the Add Health General Health and Diet survey26 (i.e., In general, how is your health? [0] Poor to [4] excellent).<p>I find it not surprising that having a social media account is not statistically related to the results of these measurements. And I suspect for example, being exposed to online sexual contents will also not affect as well. When talking about these things, I tend to be skeptical of behaviorism and feel like a more nuanced methodology should be taken.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7570431/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7570431/</a>
Tobacco companies also used to publish studies showing no links to cancer and smoking. Oil companies funded research that said climate change was limited and transitory. And OxyContin manufacture said is was not addictive.
"Editor's note: Facebook is among NPR's financial supporters and since publishing her book, The Art of Screen Time, Kamenetz's husband took a job with Facebook. He works in an unrelated division."
> Some ideas researchers are currently looking at: connecting young people with information about mental wellness or health; promoting accounts that have been shown to make people feel better about themselves; or prompting teens to check in with peers who are having a rough day.<p>I'm not a huge fan of Facebook (been off the platform since 2012), but these are great ideas, especially the last one. It's refreshing in the midst of all the doom.
How could you objectively measure the impact of social media, when pretty much everyone in that age group uses it. And those who don't, probably have factors not applicable to all. The very decision to abstain from social media may hint at a different neuronal setup/vulnerability.<p>If the research we got is the best we can realistically get, this author is making a dishonest and misleading argument.
I was talking to a vc friend of mine and he told me about this (conspiracy?) theory : Facebook is losing the teen/Gen z users on its platform to Tiktok and a regulation from congress would actually favor them, The leaks timed with FB subpoenas etc are to nudge the government to take action.
I appreciate the importance of sharing these articles, but beyond that, I'm really starting to feel Facebook-fatigue lately (as a non FB user).<p>At one point, escaping the negativity of it was enough, these days you're plastered with its toxicity even when not being a part it.<p>'no such thing as bad publicity' I guess.
To be honest, I don't really care about studies, let alone <i>Facebook's</i> own studies. I've seen enough.<p>Life immediately became less depressing after leaving social media for good. Because my family, especially my cousins, use Facebook and Instagram for communication I'm still forced to use them to a minimal extent. When I do use them, I don't see a lot of happy people. In fact I see a lot of signs of mental instability in the profiles that these two sites want me to see and friend/follow. Lots of narcissism.