> I'm not sure the pandemic is solely or even largely responsible.
The article is literally reporting a major change in mental health metrics in teens as of a year into the pandemic. You honestly think social media/4-chan/reddit is the culprit? I think I'm starting to see why a million Americans are in a box today. There is a disconnect here.
>Concerns about adolescent mental health were rising before the pandemic: Teens had been reporting poor mental health at higher rates. Between 2009 and 2019, the percentage of teens who reported having “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26 percent to 37 percent. In 2021, the figure rose to 44 percent.
I assume this is the line you're talking about. So in the span of a pandemic, it increased by 7% as opposed to the 11% between 2009 and 2019. While the premise "the pandemic didn't matter" might not be valid, it is a good question to ask which things that are now returning to normal had an effect, and whether the trend is still continuing up otherwise. It has been between 2009 and 2019. It's not difficult to find sources showing correlations between some mental health issues (in this case depression[0]) and internet usage. Several other aspects have not gotten any better either, and do not seem to be getting better anytime soon. Things these teens will inevitably have to deal with in the next 5 years unless things change drastically.
So the pandemic did matter, but I'd also be skeptical of what long term effects the pandemic caused which would not have happened otherwise, and which effects are caused by other trends which quietly continued or were amplified by the pandemic and will plateau or continue growing after.
Again, we are talking about an effect that has been showing a 1.1% increase year over year up to 2019. If we assume that 2019 was much like previous years, then the 7% rise reported from 2019 through the first six months of 2020 would result in approximately a 6% rise in those first 6 months alone. That is an astounding increase in the overall metric in a very short period of time coinciding with the beginning of pandemic lockdowns. I posit to you that this is due to the pandemic; that is, to social isolation, economic disruptions to households, fear of death to self and loved ones, actual deaths of loved ones, etc. I think that is a much better explanation for what has been observed than screen time or social media.
The article is literally reporting a major change in mental health metrics in teens as of a year into the pandemic. You honestly think social media/4-chan/reddit is the culprit? I think I'm starting to see why a million Americans are in a box today. There is a disconnect here.