A scathing review in Nature of Jonathan Haidt's latest book "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness" by UC Irvine's Candice Odgers (associate dean for research and professor of psychological science and informatics). Quote: "An analysis done in 72 countries shows no consistent or measurable associations between well-being and the roll-out of social media globally. Moreover, findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, the largest long-term study of adolescent brain development in the United States, has found no evidence of drastic changes associated with digital-technology use. Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University, is a gifted storyteller, but his tale is currently one searching for evidence." nature.com/articles/d4158…
@ylecun @ZaidJilani all this pushback is kind of an endorsement. I wonder who is pushing the pushback? You work for Facebook, right?
How about we take a step back and just consider how social media companies could help in disgnosing all kinds of mental health issues using their access to data that almost no one else has? Sure, you'd likely need government support and permission to get good results, but it'd be worth trying. Plus, social media also means thousands of interactions and thousands of opportunities for interventions that don't feel forced... Something that may be impossible in real life interactions with other people (who care about you). - Also, using that old example of Meta finding that some percentage of girls felt worse self-esteem from using Instagram... Didn't that same one show a higher percentage feeling that they have better self-esteem because of Instagram? The important thing here is to arrive at a more complete picture of what's happening, to reveal more opportunities for creating benefit. And Tech creates all kinds of possibilities that we've never even thought about before. (The relevant algorithms would 100% need transparency if someone decided to explore this direction)
Social media is designed to be addictive! Full stop. I hope there is no argument about this. It plays on the brains reward system similar to video games. It’s easy dopamine even compared to video games since no action is required other than scrolling further unlike video games where you need to device strategies to win. At the same time it amplifies any social trend in a time when children form their personality through socialization. Normalizes them for good or worse. Net it’s highly addictive and has an impact on personality development. That prompts some scrutiny at the very least. Do you have children (sorry if this is a cheap shot) but usage can go out of whack quickly and it’s at the very least we should acknowledge trade off. To insinuate a cleanish bill of health is irresponsible of the nature article!
@ylecun This isn't a review. It's a poorly-researched hit piece and Nature should retract it.
@ylecun I would be more interested more in seeing a study about indoctrination in schools as that's where children spend the majority of their waking hours. I'd say its correlation as opposed to causation. Children are rallied to arms per se' via teachers and school system.
@ylecun I guess it depends on what is meant by rewiring. It certainly is the case that social media, despite its vaunted claims of creating community through sharing, isolates people, deepens depression, encourages people to sit on their butts, and is designed to be addictive.
@ylecun Here is Jon’s response:
@ylecun Did you read the response? I think it has some merit.