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🤡Oh we're uploading charts about why teens are unhappy? And saying it's "the phones" or "the apps?"

Well, let me upload my charts!

Showing that:
* Black kids are online *much more* than white kids.
* Black kids have seen *much less* increase in depression since 2011.

🙂🙃

If you ask older conservative adjacent dudes what's making teens depressed, they'll confidently tell you "smartphones and apps!"

But if you ask teens what's making them depressed, they'll tell you "older conservative adjacent dudes."

The racist people that used to target Black teens online, in real life, at school, at the doctor's office...

...have now started targeting white teens, online, in real life, at school, and at the doctor's office.

Like we said they would. 🤷🏿‍♂️

Picture a white teenage girl posting the following on Instagram:

"Feeling blessed! I just voted for Katie Porter, because she supports reproductive rights and gun control and anti-racism! I personally don't plan to have kids. I can't afford it! And I care about the environment."

There's a good chance that she could wind up the target of several different F*x News segments or attacks by sitting politicians.

I count at least 6 issues she could be attacked for, and receive online threats of violence for.

Yeah, that might make her unhappy.

That's before we even get to the unhappiness from unhealthy comparison to others.

If your solution for increasing her happiness is "Just don't be online!" Then I don't know what to tell you. I can't even argue with that. We're too far apart to even have a meaningful conversation.

@mekkaokereke The "online" in this example pretty much means "social media" - aka, "Where people meet to communicate with others". It's like saying, "just don't participate in society!"

Which, to be fair... yeah, actually, participating in this particular society *is* a large part of what's making people unhappy. But it's also not useful or remotely reasonable advice.

"Don't be online" is like telling someone "go be a hermit in the woods", and shouldn't be taken seriously.

@kagan @mekkaokereke I'm torn on kids (tweens and teens) and screens. On one hand, it appears they spend too much time with screentime, and certain apps may be time sucks when you think they should be interacting with the physical environment. OTOH, due to peer pressure, likely the kid that gets 'othered' and 'outcasted' in the schoolyard is likely the one that doesn't carry a smartphone.

@chrismak @mekkaokereke I hear you on the worry about "but they're spending *so many hours* on social media!" Then I think back to my own high school years, and remember that I'd routinely spend so many hours on the phone (landline) with friends, my ear would routinely be hurting afterward from having the earpiece pressed up against it.

I think "HUGE amounts of time spent building social links" is probably a natural part of teen-hood.

@kagan @chrismak @mekkaokereke are kids really forming those same social links online though? It seems like a much shallower version of a human relationship. Am I wrong? I’m no longer in touch with these things….

@gindi @kagan @chrismak

It depends on which kids, and how they're interacting online.

For example, for adults that don't get it, Fortnite seems like a game where the objective is to shoot strangers. But if you look closer, you'll see that Fortnite is a big chat room where friends meet, and the contrived activity that brings them together is the game.

It's similar to an arcade in the '80s. Some kids went to beat the donkey Kong record, but most kids went there to hang out with their friends.

mekka okereke :verified:

@gindi @kagan @chrismak

For an adult looking at Instagram, it looks like a lot of teen girls posting vanity pictures of themselves to try and get likes from strangers.

But if you look closer, you'll see that a lot of the Instagram interaction was between friends. And a lot of accounts are private, because many kids have a second account that they do their real interacting with.

Those friend group interactions can enable *extremely* vicious bullying, but they can also be very positive.