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Yes, Social Media Really Is a Cause of the Epidemic of Teenage Mental Illness
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What are some of those assumptions? Maybe it is reductionist, but I haven't seen you or the Nature article present a more nuanced approach (or an approach at all). And personally this isn't a topic that I find myself emotionally very invested in, and I'm far from an expert on sociology, so I really would be interested in learning about better approaches. Do your and the Nature article make fewer assumptions for your framing to work?
Haidt articulated his points and methods very clearly and you shifted away from them without any explanation, as far as I can see. This isn't just disagreement within the conversation, but a disagreement on what the discussion is supposed to be about. Only now have you actually addressed what is an essental part of Haidt's argumentation, but still very vaguely.
From another comment:
He is downplaying other social and economic factors putting incredible strain on American families in service of his explanation being the final, complete day on the matter, and his flippant remark about the Obama years is kind of ignorant.
Yes, the economy was steadily improving. But it was still terrible. Millions of people had just lost their homes, millions more lost their jobs as unemployment skyrocketed from 5% to over 10%, millions lost their life’s savings with some seeing as much as 30 or 40% of their entire nest egg wiped out in a matter of months. A few years of economic growth did not suddenly make all that go away, it just meant it was getting better. That doesn’t even begin to cover the two wars in the Middle East that were going terribly and drawing more and more concern from the American public as we sent countless young people to fight for a vague notion of democracy no one believed anymore in two counties that didn’t want us around.
Either he is being so reductionist as to be dishonest, or he is unaware of the financial and social realities of the Great Recession. Neither is a great look. His tone is also incredibly defensive and whiny.