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Yuri Bezmenov's avatar

Sad to see the spikes across the board in 2020. That was the year lockdowns (not COVID) destroyed children's mental health and caused learning loss, which many have not recovered from. Never forget that Fauci, Weingarten, and Democrat teachers' unions kept schools closed in poor urban districts the longest, over a year after Sweden and Florida demonstrated schools could be opened safely.

Don't let them gaslight you. It would be interesting to see this adolescent depression data across length of school closures. Given the opening statements that liberals have worse mental health, it may be strongly correlated with areas that kept kids out of school the longest. DEI/ESG/HR commissars make education and healthcare cost more with worse results: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/fire-dei-esg-hr-commissar-administrative-bloat

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Puzzle Therapy's avatar

I always feel like there's a huge piece variable that is ignored in the focus on social media and smart phones and the effects on teen mental health: What kind of content is being consumed, how does that content vary across different teen demographics, and are there any correlations with difference in mental health among these groups. For example, what do conservative or religious teens look at on Instagram and TikTok vs non-religious and liberal kids? Are the conservative boys following their favorite baseball or basketball players and using social media to keep up with scores, trades, and recruiting? How does this compare to girls who follow accounts constantly talking about the failings and injustices of the world and Instagram therapists telling them everything is a symptom of trauma and adhd? Or an LGBT youth following accounts that are telling them just the opposite of all the improvements being made for them, because good news gets fewer clicks and less revenue than fear and anger. For an in-depth look at what trans youth are consuming online in their communities and the negative mental health effects it could have, read Eliza Mondegreen's substack.

Another piece of this is porn consumption. LGBT youth have higher rates of porn consumption (I think the highest of all groups of teens measured if I'm reading the article below correctly) yet somehow, just like with social media, high rates of porn consumption for this demographic is somehow supposed to have a positive effect despite the mental health numbers not reflecting that and the negative effects it has on every other teen demographic.

https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/mental-health/3806794-most-teenagers-exposed-to-online-pornography-by-age-13-survey/mlite/?nxs-test=mlite

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