Study of 500,000 Teens Suggests Association Between Excessive Screen Time and Depression (vice.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Depression and suicide rates in teenagers have jumped in the last decade -- doubling between 2007 and 2015 for girls -- and the trend suspiciously coincides with when smartphones became their constant companions. A recent study places their screen time around nine hours per day. Another study, published on Tuesday, suggests that suicide and depression could be connected to the rise of smartphones, and increased screen time. Around 58 percent more girls reported depression symptoms in 2015 than in 2009, and suicide rates rose 65 percent. Smack in the middle of that window of time, smartphones gained market saturation.

In Twenge's new study, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, the researchers looked at two samples: a nationally representative survey by ongoing study "Monitoring the Future" out of the University of Michigan, which is administered annually to 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, and the Centers for Disease Control's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a sample of high school students administered by the CDC every other year. (Both surveys began in 1991.) Altogether, over 500,000 young people were included. The study authors examined trends in how teens used social media, the internet, electronic devices (including gaming systems and tablets), and smartphones, as well as how much time they spent doing non-screen activities like homework, playing sports, or socializing. Comparing these to publicly available data on mental health and suicide for these ages between 2010 and 2017 showed "a clear pattern linking screen activities with higher levels of depressive symptoms/suicide-related outcomes and non-screen activities with lower levels," the researchers wrote in the study. All activities involving screens were associated with higher levels of depression or suicide and suicidal thinking, and activities done away from a screen were not.

Comments

That explains it

[eneville]

Well, I think that explains facebook users a bit! :)

Coincidence?

[Anonymous Coward]

The suicide rate also coincides with the great recession, the increase in opioid use, the popularity of the Kardashians, and the Obama administration. Take your pick.

Re:Coincidence?

[TWX]

The suicide rate also coincides with the great recession, the increase in opioid use, the popularity of the Kardashians, and the Obama administration. Take your pick.

Most likely answer highlighted. Makes one depressed to see how stupid people can get rich and famous without talent.

Re:Coincidence?

[mschwanke97402]

and the Obama administration.

I can imagine exactly the sort of person who was depressed by a black man being president.

Umm, Donald Trump? All the rest of the alt-right?

Discussion

[Anonymous Coward]

This was touched on in a discussion between Jonathan Haidt and Jordan Peterson: https://youtu.be/4IBegL_V6AA?t=4624

Re:Discussion

[Hal_Porter]

That Peterson/Haidt conversation has loads of interesting stuff in it.

That old saying about correlation and causation

[Anonymous Coward]

Ugly teenage kids also have less sex than attractive teenage kids. From this we can conclude that if you don't have enough sex, you become ugly.

Back in the day, before computers, the same news would've said there was a correlation between excessive TV-watching and depression, and before that, excessive radio-listening and depression. Can you figure it out?

Re:That old saying about correlation and causation

[DontBeAMoran]

Can you figure it out?

Yeah. Excessive people are depressing!

Re:That old saying about correlation and causation

[OrangeTide]

Ugly teenage kids also have less sex than attractive teenage kids.

The ugly ones have sex with each other. The attractive ones gets to have sex with Roy Moore.

No mention of causation, for once

[GuB-42]

I looks like editors learned their lesson.
If you read carefully, in the summary, no mention is made of any causal relationship so the following possibilities are still open :
1- excessive screen time causes depression
2- depression causes excessive screen time
3- what causes depression also causes excessive screen time

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[Calydor]

Very true, it's left entirely open to interpretation and further research.

Personally I suspect the issue is to be found with the stress of feeling like you have to be at your best 24/7 because all your friends (which at that age is more important than anything else) are constantly watching and silently judging. I could be wrong, of course, but it does sound plausible to me.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[Kohath]

Anything that involves a lack of physical activity is likely correlated with depression.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[gurps_npc]

It seems clear to me that some things that cause depression will obviously cause excessive screen time. For example, if you break both your legs you might be unhappy and unable to do much besides use electronics.

Similarly, depression could easily cause self-medicating behavior, including watching movies or playing games.

As for the idea that excessive screen time causes depression, that seems like a fairly common example of the 'new media is evil trope' that has existed since the printed word was invented - not just movies, comic books, videogames, D&D, but pretty much every new media gets this stupid trope from the conservatives that are not the intended target of the new media.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[swillden]

I looks like editors learned their lesson. If you read carefully, in the summary, no mention is made of any causal relationship so the following possibilities are still open :
1- excessive screen time causes depression
2- depression causes excessive screen time
3- what causes depression also causes excessive screen time

#2 doesn't explain the increase in depression.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[Anonymous Coward]

Parents are in a good position to assess the effects at least on Children. You get to talk to a lot of other parents obviously, as well as to experience the behaviour changes.

1 Affects sleep. They will generally be less able to want to sleep
2 Affects concentration. They can concentrate for hours on a phone. But I've seen it first hand that anything not as engaging makes them literally sleepy. They won't have the ability to do anything even mildly less "engaging".
3 Anxiety. Whatever it couases, it can be very strong. You see it with games mostly
4 Dependency and Withdrawal sympthoms. Removing a phone from a children of any age (1 to 10) triggers agressive behaviour, rage, tantrums, etc.
5. Confused reality. If the chilren are very young, they have a harder time separating the games from the real world. You see this when game-rules and reality colide. Remember, kids build a model of the world at early stages.
6. Addictive behaviours. If you know how new studios and app creators work, you'd know that there are psychologists designing the games, the rewards and punishment systems. They literally get to apply scientific research to make the users addicted, and purposefully implement pattners to createanxiety, frustration, pleasure, joy, envy, etc.
7. Immersion. Most often you see strong identification with game characters or the "online persona" they represent. Basically, it weakens their identification with the real self, and it's replaced by several virtual characters they represent.
8. Physical detachment of the Ego. We see this in adults too: the person in front of you pays moreattention to what's happeningat the phone than the person in front.
9. I could continue with other things which would be tied to particular aspects (like social media, etc). But I'll stop at 7.

All in all, I think the new technologies are awesome, but just like nuclear energy, it brings many dangers. From what I stated, it clearly strongly messes with their mood, anxiety level, attitude, model-building of the world, sleep cycle, social behavior, ability to concentrate, feelings, etc. and withdraws them from the real immediate world we can to live in for millions of years.

I'd say that they migrate to a virtual world, segmented in apps and fantasy realities of different kinds, made very demanding by the app creators (army of Psy Phd. designing rules based on huge telematics about usage vs unaware children) and making them voluntary slaves to these realities.

Our society is become more addicted to anything that produces rewards. They are retrating to realities that are more addictive and engaging than the real world around, realities that can dissapear overnight, and where anything can happen to their personas.

I still haven't figured out how to balance this, except for limiting apps to what I see is more educational and build less anxiety, and limiting the exposure time.

Back in my days, games where also addictive, and while the scale and sophistication has dramatically changed, and games and social apps have become permanent and "connected", in it's core, it's a similar nature. I remember my old days playing Starcraft for 6 straight hours. It was a nice retreat, and I can't say I noticed the effect other than say that now it has moved towards children starting at age 1 or 2, and has reached penetrated into every wanting children as phones penetration is over 100% now.

If you want to find out if there is causality between screen time and depression, just follow the breadcrumbs: has the virtual work become a more rewarding place for us than the real world?

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[CaptainDork]

It all started with the "twist," dance craze -- a direct spinoff of rock & roll.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[dfenstrate]

It seems clear to me that some things that cause depression will obviously cause excessive screen time. For example, if you break both your legs you might be unhappy and unable to do much besides use electronics.

Similarly, depression could easily cause self-medicating behavior, including watching movies or playing games.

As for the idea that excessive screen time causes depression, that seems like a fairly common example of the 'new media is evil trope' that has existed since the printed word was invented - not just movies, comic books, videogames, D&D, but pretty much every new media gets this stupid trope from the conservatives that are not the intended target of the new media.

As a parent it's been my experience that if I let my kids have too much screen time, or play too late, their behavior goes down the tubes. My (almost 7 year old) daughter frequently visits a friend's house where they quickly settle in front of a screen of some variety, and she comes back acting like a brat pretty much every time. I'll be talking things over with the other parents next time.

My son (8.5 years) less so, but there's certain games- like Roblox- that turn him into an insufferable little jerk if I allow any play time.

So yes, I limit screen time based on my observations of how they behave when I don't limit screen time- and it's not much of a stretch to think this will continue to be true for quite a while, until they learn to self regulate.

So you can blather on about tropes, and eeeevvvillll stupiiiidd conservatives, but the headline summary lines up with my personal experience, and other parents have similar experiences. Coloring, drawing, reading, playing- none of these activities have the same downsides as screen time.

Yes, I allow some screen time. As I write this, my daughter is playing minecraft, and my son is watching people on youtube play minecraft. But it's not going to go on all night.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[St.Creed]

I actually went to a meeting about this yesterday. The woman explaining things was a former addict. She used to be on cocaine. Her (now ex-)husband used to be on stronger drugs.

She had a really good presentation on what addiction to screens means, how it functions, how mobile phone time is related to, but not the same as, gaming time. She described a number of interactions between too much time spent on screens and depression. One of the things that struck me was the similarity between the dopamine release of a game on your phone, or likes on instagram, and the dopamine release of cocaine. It's milder, but similar.

She said that most addictions are caused by external things as being bullied, or being abused, parents divorcing or dying, or other bad life experiences. Normally, teenagers would have to deal with it. Not all of them did that well, but everyone was forced to cope one way or another. However, a lot of teenagers now have an escape in the screens they carry. So instead of dealing with issues, they avoid them. This leads to isolation, doing worse in school, etcetera, and can then become a vicious circle.

There are a lot more components to it, and some reinforce each other. In any case, I'm limiting the screen time for my teen at home. It's not bad that he has to actually converse with us in the evening. Or does something else besides homework and playing Overwatch.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[mapkinase]

3-what causes depression also causes excessive screen time

Absence of positive coherent fundamental ideology that covers self-consistently all important aspects of life.

I woke up this morning on a soft bed covered with a fabric in which I can't even see individual threads, I woke up under the roof that protected me from elements, between the walls that protected me from wind, wild animals, venomous insects, etc. I put my feet on the ground to the warm embrace of soft fibers of carpet. If at this point I haven't yet praised the Deity that granted me such a comfortable life, it's only because I am an ungrateful asshole.

That's who they are, these teenagers: ungrateful assholes.

They are like that only in the West. Only in the West we have teenage depression and teenage rebellion, phenomena created by Western idiotic upbringing system.

Just think about the article of constitution that implies that "happiness" must be such an important feature of human life that the state must guarantee the citizen the "right" (yep, they invented that bloody right) to "pursue" this nebulous state of "happiness".

They are like that because the whole system geared to create citizens that are needy and whiny, because, face it, we are moving to the system where humans are irrelevant.

The right to pursue happiness (read: become needy and dependent whiny asshole) was guaranteed by American constitution long before the first crisis of overproduction, when it become clear that humans soon will be not needed to produce anything.

What are they good for then? Of course, they are good for consumption of the production. If we bump up consumption of production, there will be no overproduction.

That's the real reason we are raising "free" and "happy" children, to be whiny and needy: perfect consumers of junk food, of games, psychoanalytical billable hours, of mindless entertainment, of all the stupid crap that nobody really needs, but everybody is under the impression of needing.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[Talla]

Pretty much all youths these days have excessive screen time already, depression can't increase it much more. Just like with smoking, there comes a time when most people understand that we can't rationalize away the evidence with the usual "correlation does not equal causation" any longer.

Re:No mention of causation, for once

[Tony Isaac]

Oh, but it's a stretch to say that

No mention of causation, for once

is caused by

editors learned their lesson

I'd guess that the correlation is more of a coincidence than a causation.

Re: That old saying about correlation and causatio

[Anonymous Coward]

Screen time to me is misleading because what if I have merely replaced newspaper time and book time with one device that happens to have a screen. My underlying behaviour has not changed.

Also, does an increase in teen suicide rates ever correlate with a decrease in adult suicide rates? I wonder if their is simply an ultimate biological cause for the depression and eventually those afflicted will find a way and a time. Maybe things like social media and online bullying just accelerate the process.

It's Facebook

[nospam007]

Teens see all their so-called friends' styled up, filtered and photoshopped pictures, so they think everybody has a better life than themselves, small wonder they get depressed.

Nobody posts pictures of themselves from Monday mornings, when the shadows around their eyes make them look like a Panda.

Re:It's Facebook

[Hognoxious]

You know, until I looked I was absolutely 100% certain that pandas have a dark face with light patches.

What was I thinking of?

Re:It's Facebook

[zifn4b]

Teens see all their so-called friends' styled up, filtered and photoshopped pictures, so they think everybody has a better life than themselves, small wonder they get depressed.

That only would happen if you're psychologically weak. Let's face it, while life has many awesome things, life is ultimately depressing. We don't appear to be here for any reason. There is no evidence of any objective purpose or even a creator of us or the universe. We are alone, on a tiny rock, floating through a gigantic vacuum of space. We have no evidence that there is anything beyond death and as far as we know, it is the ultimate end. Oblivion.

Now I think your idea has merit. We are projecting delusion at ourselves. But it's not just from Facebook. Yes, these perfect pictures with tricks and so forth gives a sense of "wow that person is having a magical time". But the problem is far more pervasive. We made up stories about gods, afterlives, we gave ourselves reasons to think we are the center of a universe made for us and shattering the illusion gives rise to a change that manifests initially in sadness.

What our culture ought to do instead of trying to give children a sense of illusion to evoke false joy is teach them how wonderful and amazing this universe is in a factual way and instill in them the idea that it's a miracle that any of us are here to experience it for the short time we are here. For that, we should be truly grateful

Re: It's Facebook

[Jzanu]

Probably a badger likethis one.

Re:It's Facebook

[Zontar The Mindless]

Teens see all their so-called friends' styled up, filtered and photoshopped pictures, so they think everybody has a better life than themselves, small wonder they get depressed.

That only would happen if you're psychologically weak.

It's so easy to blame those who suffer for being "weak".

We made up stories about gods, afterlives, we gave ourselves reasons to think we are the center of a universe made for us and shattering the illusion gives rise to a change that manifests initially in sadness.

Um, no. You're projecting the viewpoint of *one* religious tradition into the origins of *all* myths and legends, which sought to explain the order of things and our place in it. Many if not most of them have not necessarily assigned ultimate importance to humans.

Re:It's Facebook

[zifn4b]

Um, no. You're projecting the viewpoint of *one* religious tradition into the origins of *all* myths and legend

This is a tired old stupid argument from the stupidity and ignorance of folks like Ray Comfort and Ken Hamm. Investigating the universe and recording the findings aka science is not a fucking belief system. Science is also subject to change based on new information unlike most religions. Equating any religious belief of the supernatural based on faith alone with science demonstrates complete and utter ignorance and stupidity. And yes it is psychological weakness. People who turn to religion are afraid of death and want to believe in something afterwards and they also want their trials in this life to be meaningful. It's very egocentric. It's not about being a better person, it's about wanting benefits.

Re:It's Facebook

[Arzaboa]

There is a difference between people new to specific areas of thinking and overall psychological weakness. As people move into new areas of learning, they may need some help. Asking for help isn't a bad thing, and should never be discouraged. Many people look to religion for help on every subject. The problem isn't people trying to learn. One of the larger problems with religion is when one person or group uses it to control a large # of people, by being the ultimate judge(s) on what is right or wrong.

I'm not sure most religious people hold the belief that death is scary. How many times have I heard about 72 virgins, and how wonderful it is to be a martyr? I don't think these people are just saying that.

--
"It's a bird, It's a plane..." - Unknown resident

Re:It's Facebook

[zifn4b]

There is a difference between people new to specific areas of thinking and overall psychological weakness. As people move into new areas of learning, they may need some help. Asking for help isn't a bad thing, and should never be discouraged.

That's precisely my point. Teaching people things that DON'T help like religion makes things worse. It only further confuses the child who is already trying to understand the world they arrived into. We should be treating our children like a new recruit at a job. We introduce them to the place, we try educate them as best we can about what it is, what is going on and how to handle different things good, bad or indifferent they may encounter is a good thing. Teaching them to pray to some invisible thing in the sky to make their life better doesn't help. Teaching them that some invisible thing in the sky will shield them from harm if they devoutly follow it doesn't help.

Re:It's Facebook

[edittard]

Michael Jackson?

"Lying with Statistics" v2.0

[gweihir]

So while there does not seem to be a direct argument that there is a causal relationship where "screen time" causes depression, the lie is implicit. First, the "screen time" is called "excessive", i.e. "bad". Then the direly needed warning that correlation is not causation is noticeably absent. To make this worse, it is not called "correlation", but the far less well defined term "association" is used.

This is just another example manipulative writing. That is indeed bad, because it obscures reality and replaces it by the preconceptions of the author about what must be "bad" (and hence everything must be either proof the author is right or must be ignored).

Re:"Lying with Statistics" v2.0

[Baron_Yam]

If I was to say something on the subject... I'd most likely directly identify 'social media' as an amplifying agent of an underlying problem.

I see two possible scenarios - 1) kids are harassing the emotionally vulnerable on social media (whereas in the past you'd at least get a break when not actually in the physical presence of your tormentors), and 2) the Internet in general is providing access to a lot of material that depressed kids might seek out that reinforces their suicidal thoughts (whereas in the past there wasn't much beyond finding a sad book to read or playing a Smith's record over and over).

In both scenarios, people are the problem. The only possible blame I can put on 'screen time' directly I would think would be indistinguishable from the expected effect of television with a full cable package and a decent VHS library, and I'm pretty sure TV didn't kill all the kids 30 years ago.

Re:"Lying with Statistics" v2.0

[Zontar The Mindless]

The word "excessive" is not actually used in either of the linked studies.

Re:"Lying with Statistics" v2.0

[Arzaboa]

I think you're on the right path here.

The online world is an emotional and intellectual fishbowl. Emotions and intellect are best developed in the real world. When we don't have as many real world experiences to fall back on, the highly emotional and intellectual world of the internet can be overwhelming. When kids spend so much time online, they are not developing the same tools they would in the real world. Young people just don't have the tools to deal with every level of insanity and brilliance you can find on the internet.

I'd suspect there is a depressional feedback loop with people spending too much time online and not developing their emotions. Those same kids interact online and re-enforce that emotional immaturity among themselves. One needs being checked face to face to grow emotionally with empathy. Basically, the internet creates a place for these kids to troll themselves, and the level of maturity doesn't rise nearly as fast as it would on the playground. Feeling like there is something more to be emotionally learned, but never getting there can leave that uneasy feeling of depression, which we see. One can look at 1000 comic strips, and laugh, but there is just something about laughing with a friend that makes it different, and better.

--
"To infinity and beyond" - Buzz Lightyear

Re:"Lying with Statistics" v2.0

[fferreres]

So what's you point? If a person has certain level of exposure (call it "great extended fun" or "excessive"...it doesn't matter) their chances of being depressed or wanting to kill themselves would be much higher.

Causation must be explored seriously
People enjoying "great extended fun" should be warned

But more importantly, little has changed in the real world in the past 10 or 20 years. We drive cars, eat similar foods, go to same schools, have the same sports, etc. The thing that changed the most is ... digital. And if you don't have children, you will miss the obvious fact that apps, movies and games have become a strong addition. It's obvious that the world around isn't "causing" them to want phones with amazing games, addictive content and social apps. And ultimately, correlation and causation are mingled to the point where the interactions and effects are chaotic in the sense that the interplay between them blurs. Today, it's hard to have friends and not have to interact on Facebook or WhatsApp, or play games and not play the same addictive games your friends play, to name one such. It's not a screen, reality has changed and has blured the real world with the virtual, in ways that make it impossible to separate the interactions.

Re:"Lying with Statistics" v2.0

[Hognoxious]

playing a Smith's record

I imagine the sound of bellows wheezing and hammers clanging on anvils can get a bit monotonous.

Re:"Lying with Statistics" v2.0

[gweihir]

The thing I was calling "manipulative writing" was the slashdot article.

Re:"Lying with Statistics" v2.0

[gweihir]

I see you do not understand at all what is going on. But that is fine, most people are on your side in that. "Safety in numbers" and all that...

Re:I am not surprised

[lucasnate1]

Sure, and no repression is caused at all by religious authority figures. There are no places that in the united states that teach children that masturbating is a sin and abortion is murder.

Sometimes I think that SJWs are the new jews, getting blamed by right wingers for everything, including their miserable sex lives.

Huge gender differences in the study surprised me

[Gibgezr]

"The rise in depressive symptoms and suicide-related outcomes was exclusive to females. This suggests that screen time, perhaps especially social media, may have larger effects on adolescent girls’ mental health than on boys’ (and that is indeed what we found, with social media significantly correlated with depressive symptoms only among girls in some analyses and stronger correlations in others). The pattern for males, with increases in suicide deaths but not in depressive symptoms or suicide-related outcomes, suggests that boys’ suicide deaths may be driven by other disorders and risk factors not assessed here."
So what is really behind this is obsessive gossipping?
(Since I have 3 daughters, I suppose I could word that less flippantly. "chronicling the accounts of their peers and reporting to each other on social media". Nah, that failed to sound less flippant. I'd insert my anecdotal evidence now, but my n=3 (4 if you count my son) is not going to help much.)
Aside from that vital information, correlation != causation, but it does point out a possible area for more study in this case.
Their summation is pretty weak:
"In conclusion, adolescent mental health issues rose sharply since 2010, especially among females. New media screen time is both associated with mental health issues and increased over this time period. Thus, it seems likely that the concomitant rise of screen time and adolescent depression and suicide is not coincidental."
So ya, more work needed.

I need to get outside now and then.

[ruddk]

I figured it was just because I was an old fart that I appreciate being "offline" now and then. :D I know that when I have been working too much and spending too much time inside and/or "connected", I need put the phone in airplane mode, get out and get some fresh air and do something, otherwise my mood drops. It was just above freezing last night and I felt sort of down, but I went on a bicycle ride for 2 hours with the phone turned off. It is really doing wonders for my mood and lets not ignore the pleasure of getting back home to a hot shower and a comfy couch afterwards. :D I have opted out of a job where I needed to be available and on call. We did get paid for that and I recently had a weekend where I had to be on standby, and it reminded me that it was annoying and not worth the money. I was biking in my local forest and all the time had to remember to not go further away than I could be home and logged on at work within an hour. I deleted my Facebook account almost a year ago. After weighing the pros and cons of doing it, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't an worthwhile "investment" of my time and attention as it didn't really improve my life quality that much. There were a few benefits of staying connected to people and getting updates about things in the local community but all in all, it was mostly robbing my time. Also, Facebook's website, app and features(like notifications) have been constructed in such a way that they are "teaching" you that you have to check it all the time. If you don't do that, it will "ping" you that someone you know did something and you should check it out. If you decide you don't want that, they also won't tell you when someone is contacting you directly.

Re:I need to get outside now and then.

[Zontar The Mindless]

Someone who gets it. Please mod this up.

Re: That old saying about correlation and causatio

[Jzanu]

Wow the idiocy here is amazing. You should realuze research uses more sophisticated techniques than you learned in fresher statistics. Have you any understanding of structural equation modeling as a research method? They incorporate causality.

Because they spend too much time on a screen

[Anonymous Coward]

And not enough time living in the real world

Re:Huge gender differences in the study surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahh. Not surprising at all. "excessive screen time" for teenage girls exposes them to far, far too much third wave feminism for any of their egos, identities, or careers to remain intact unless they're prepared to toss the whole mess out the window, in which case they're suddenly "homophobic" and "transphobic" and at the center of an attack wing of Antifa wannabe's.

I'm watching it happen to my daughter and her circle of friends, and it's *nasty* once it sets in. I've been trying to introduce to my friends who actually *were* feminists in the 80's and even some of my oldest gay and transgender friends, to try and defuse the damage. It's nasty out there.

Re:Suicide rates ~4x higher for Males

[Zontar The Mindless]

What part of "The rise in depressive symptoms and suicide-related outcomes was exclusive to females" did you fail to understand?

Re:I am not surprised

[fox171171]

You don't have to be religious to understand that abortion is murder.

I get depressed...

[GerryGilmore]

... just watching people walk around with the damned things glued to their face. Crikey - you can't even have a normal conversation anymore with anyone!

Re:I get depressed...

[GerryGilmore]

Actually, the way you phone addicts regularly walk into traffic staring at your screens, you'll likely be dead before me. :-) But that's OK - you're off my lawn either way.

Re:I get depressed...

[fferreres]

I think the "real world" has become one of many threads or streams of "reality" that the digitally socially responsible person has to manage minute by minute. Once reality flows vastly more over digital streams, the old ways die. I think that in the Matrix, the Wachosky brothers got it wrong. It's not the machines forced us to the digital coffins. People volntarily chose the blue pill, as the virtual world became "reality". Also explains what there's growing lack of care by people of politics and improving the real world. It's one of many (you play the same Pockemon Go or post the same content to Slashdot regardless of how ugly the place around you is).

Re:I get depressed...

[Kohath]

Get off my lawn!

Re: That old saying about correlation and causatio

[sheramil]

Also, does an increase in teen suicide rates ever correlate with a decrease in adult suicide rates?

Yes. Teens who commit suicide rarely go on to become adults who commit suicide.

Re:The teenage years are depressing

[Zontar The Mindless]

Good for all the teenagers that committed the bravery of suicide, this world is a system fucked over by parental aliens and parental adults that can't handle the physical and neuro physiological freshness of the teenage animal.

You're the one who's fucked up, if you can write misanthropic crap like that with a straight face.

Get yourself some help, please.

What about the inverse?

[boudie2]

Does anyone here think there could be an equal or greater number of teens who became happy from excessive screen time? And that ultimately, computers and the internet are a force for good and the key to understanding ourselves and all things? Could happen ... ;^)

If you're not into your local scene...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're not into your local scene...
Then you may invest time in being online to surround yourself with people you enjoy participating with.

Just going off my experience as a year shy of being a millenial:
The options at my time for being social were: Vampire LARPs/Warhammer (neither of which I could afford/wanted to get into), Religious activities, social activities with the popular kids (usually involving drinking, drugs, theft, etc to prove you're 'cool'), Community service (overlaps with Religion, but also local Trek community, and unaffiliated groups), sports. Basically everything required money, or a vouch from a member of the clique, or knowledge/enjoyment of the community, or all of the above.

None of those worked for me. As a result the internet was the only place I could find people I enjoyed interacting with, as my former friends split off into cliques based off the groups above and we had less and less things in common.

The modern social media craze is similiar. Gone are the days where people were just friends from hanging out in the same abandoned lot, or cruising, or loitering around the same part of town. All of those activities have either been corrupted by the fallout of the drug war, or stupid kids getting injured/damaging property, or properties being fenced because it was cheaper than the (lack of) liability risk in the past. As a result there are less opportunities to meet people IRL, fewer people will trust/interact with strangers, and most people won't get along even if they do.

The depression isn't caused by the screen time, it is caused by people being unhappy with their lives, spiraling further when they become unhappy with their online lives, and then affecting their biology in their real lives. The problem is everybody is trying to make it out as an internet epidemic, rather than realizing it is a global sociological epidemic resulting from a combination of factors among the poor, middle, and upper class, as well as the policies and choices made in managing various countries for the past 40 or so years. What has made this MORE devastating is the effecient worldwide transportation network, which has made the world seem far bigger than most people can fathom, and the loss of personal interaction as the trees are lost amongst the forest.

Re:If you're not into your local scene...

[tlhIngan]

The depression isn't caused by the screen time, it is caused by people being unhappy with their lives, spiraling further when they become unhappy with their online lives, and then affecting their biology in their real lives. The problem is everybody is trying to make it out as an internet epidemic, rather than realizing it is a global sociological epidemic resulting from a combination of factors among the poor, middle, and upper class, as well as the policies and choices made in managing various countries for the past 40 or so years. What has made this MORE devastating is the effecient worldwide transportation network, which has made the world seem far bigger than most people can fathom, and the loss of personal interaction as the trees are lost amongst the forest.

Well, the biggest problem really is social media. Tell me any kid who reads about their friends going on fantastic vacations or having fun doing all sorts of things on Facebook daily or doing some other fun stuff, tell me they won't have any problems if all they see is their friends going out and having fun, while they're stuck at home.

The problem is social media encourages posting of this kind of crap - and generally discourages people from posting "oh well, just going to school again, teacher XXX is so boring", preferring the style of "Check out my new shoes! I'm going to school right now in these!".

In just the same way beauty magazines caused girls to have serious problems because the models they saw were photoshopped and fake and they trying to emulate them, social media does the same. No one's posting about humdrum life, but instead, everyone's comparing their humdrum life to an unrealistic expectation that their friends and everyone else are doing all sorts of "hip" and "happening" things.

Screen time is unfortunate, since for most teens, they're not playing games, they're surfing facebook, instagram, twitter, etc.

People are getting depressed because they're being exposed to an unrealistic lifestyle, one that they will never hope to match

Re:I am not surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

And since if a fetus isn't human, and has no rights, and there is no rational scientific point of biological transition from "organism doesn't have rights" to "organism has rights"...

By their own stance, logically, pro-abortion advocates never acquired any rights, and killing them now as adults doesn't qualify as "murder" either, or have any rational prohibition to it at all.

From their stance: Kill a fetus, fine. Kill an adult pro-abortion advocate, equally fine. Whenever you feel like it or get around to it, really.

Confuse The Cause and the Effect

[JimSadler]

Could it simply be that as a person gets more and more depressed the4y spend more time on their phones etc.? Think about it. A person starts to get depressed and does not groom themselves as well and therefore decides to socialize on the net rather than in person. It can also be economic stress. A day spent with a phone, a laptop or a tablet can cost next to nothing whereas leaving the home always costs money one way or another. Further, our nation is showing the effects of an economic catastrophe kicked off by the Bush administration. Young people usually do not have the money it takes to get an apartment, a car, clothing, medical care and food. Young women in particular must either stay at home with the parents or find a sugar daddy or some young guy who has enough money and marry them. Young people who are not addicted to their phones probably are using illegal drugs these days. Looking at 20 year olds my bet would be that at least half use dope these days. People who avoid alcohol and drugs and live a more sane life may well be severely rejected by their peers.

Can confirm

[Anonymous Coward]

When I stay inside for a couple of weeks without doing something outside I get depressed too.
I don't think this is all that surprising.
Our bodies are not built for sitting around doing nothing all day.

Reality is Depressing

[Joviex]

They are depressed not because of technology itself, but because that technology is used to bring you REALTIME NEWS. And surprise! The world is a cesspool of depression -- HUMAN ON HUMAN hate!

Do we really need more beyond the fucking obvious fact that realtime news is fucking depressing, thus, it depresses people?

Re:Huge gender differences in the study surprised

[Hognoxious]

... suggests that boysâ(TM) suicide deaths may be driven by other disorders and risk factors not assessed here

Maybe they'd cheer up if they could get girlfriends.

Unfortunately that's not possible because the girls spend all their time on TwitBook, or they're dead.

Re: I am not surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

yes. there are two ways. there's your opinion, and there's law. while you're entitled to your opinion, I respect law. DONT PUSH YOUR MORALITY ON ME.

Re: That old saying about correlation and causat

[Anonymous Coward]

what if you don't have sex *and* you spend all day reading slashdot? what happens then??

Re:I am not surprised

[William Baric]

Murder is defined as the unlawful killing of a human being. If abortion is not unlawful, then, by definition, it is not murder.

And of course, there is the question if an embryo or a fetus (particularly in the early stages) can be considered as a human being. Personally, I don't consider a bunch of cells as a human being.

Why We Sleep - Read this book or die young

[ssclift]

Professor Matthew Walker, Director of UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab, published "Why We Sleep" last month. http://www.simonandschuster.co... I devoured the book; it's good science and remarkably well written. It covers a lot of the current work, and that work would go a long way to explaining this effect. There is so much going on when we sleep that is key to mental and physical health, it's not just "downtime", and to a degree I had not imagined. Sadly, I now realize I must consume less of my beloved coffee. Gladly, my sleep habits were already pretty good and the kids in my house have an early bedtime, no tech in the bedroom rule.

Correlation vs Causation

[LeftCoastThinker]

This is likely a case of correlation instead of causation. 40 years ago, the same correlation was probably between TV viewing time and depression. If you are isolated and have no friends, you consume more content in an effort to distract or otherwise fill your time. In the era of TV, people watched a lot of TV to fill the time and distract themselves. In the era of the internet, people are online a lot more, and at least online, if you get into a hobbiest chat room or an MMO and join a good guild, you can still have some real meaningful human interaction.

Both are still a lot better than the centuries old method of alcoholism and drug addiction, that will definitely destroy you...

Causation or effect?

[arthurh3535]

Because it could be either way.

I see the correlation ...

[CaptainDork]

... and even the association, like someone who associates with a guy in a blue shirt was drinking beer.

What I don't see is causation.

Lots of things change over time, either in the same or opposite direction as depression.

Look at opiod abuse.

Re: That old saying about correlation and causatio

[Jzanu]

That isn't research, it is blind assumption. Look here and try to understand something. Direct address http://www.statsoft.com/Textbo... . This is as simple an explanation as exists, but it still requires you have some background in experimental design or equivalent field. Make sure you work out what the words and phrases mean in this context before moving forward. You will probably have to go backward a lot first.

So glad I grew up in the 1960s . . .

[lfp98]

. . . before all this stuff started. I mean, I always knew I wasn't very popular, but at least I wasn't confronted with a real-time numerical readout of my unpopularity every minute of every day.

Association....

[mapkinase]

Correlation....

Re:I am not surprised

[St.Creed]

How is a fetus an organism instead of a parasite? It's just a blob of cells without separate existence. Remove it from the woman and it's a decomposing blob. And how do you move from "random organism has no rights" to "let's kill humans"?

By their own stance, logically,

Oh, the irony...

I'm reminded of this John Oliver bit

[rsilvergun]

right here.